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geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche
@geraldroche.bsky.social
4.3K followers 3.3K following 800 posts

AuDHD & PhD. anthropology, language, power. he/him
New book: The Politics of Language Oppression in Tibet https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501777783/the-politics-of-language-oppression-in-tibet/

ORCiD: 0000-0002-2410-351X .. more

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geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Nov 15
It's publication day! The Politics of Language Oppression sheds light on a global crisis of linguistic diversity that will see at least half of the world's languages disappear this century.

Use 09BCARD for a 30% discount from @cornellupress.bsky.social www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
A book cover. The top half of the cover is sky blue, with black text on bright yellow high-lighting. The text reads "The Politics of Language Oppression in Tibet". The lower half shows a photograph of a tiled public square with a brightly lit building at the back of the square. People are walking on the square, and a child is sitting in a large model car. In the bottom right hand corner is the author's name, Gerald Roche, in bright yellow.

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 1d
"Despite the grim realities of language oppression... this book is hopeful—hopeful of better language policies, better anthropology & ultimately, a better world." Many thanks to Charisma K Lepcha from Sikkim University for this review of my book.
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology | AAA Journal | Wiley Online Library
Click on the article title to read more.
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 1d
yes, that includes my employer: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 1d
We will eventually get rid of all the Australian university names that celebrate colonizers and racists - it's really just a matter of which university gets the public recognition by acting first.
www.jcu.edu.au/news/release...
JCU statement on institutional name
Recent media reporting has mischaracterised the status and nature of James Cook University’s governance arrangements in relation to its institutional name.
www.jcu.edu.au

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 2d
"The fact that every other social media post by a leftist supporting the protests is met by the usual brain-dead comments painting absolutely everything as part of a global conspiracy is in itself a profound failure of internationalism."

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 2d
‘Anti-imperialism’ is today rarely anything more than an excuse for authoritarians with left-wing aesthetics to reaffirm their demand that Iranians shut the fuck up about their own dreams and aspirations.

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 4d
After publishing my book in 2024, I was dreading the possibility that someone might write something even vaguely negative about it. Now that a critical review has been published, I find that I kind of appreciate their thoughtful engagement with the work?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Between Recursive Monolingualism and a Thousand Multilingual Plateaus: Thinking With Tibetan Sociolinguistics
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Gerald Roche, David Murakami Wood, Mary McAuliffe , and 1 more

ayoub.bsky.social
elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 6d
My latest: Without anti-authoritarianism, 'anti-imperialism' is just conservatism with left-wing aesthetics

www.hauntologies.net/p/iranian-pr...
Iranian protesters don't owe us an explanation
Without anti-authoritarianism, 'anti-imperialism' is just conservatism with left-wing aesthetics
www.hauntologies.net

Reposted by Gerald Roche

chenchenzhang.net
Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 9d
solidarity means not mistaking geopolitical opposition for decolonization

inspired by the works of @linsantu.bsky.social @shadimokhtari.bsky.social and others

read the full interview here on China and the global politics of the far right www.tni.org/en/article/m...
think it’s essential to build global alliances that better integrate Chinese perspectives. The starting point would be listening to and building alliances with grassroots organisations from within China and in the diaspora. As I have said, there are many creative forms of resistance to authoritarian and conservative nationalism within China and among the diaspora. The Western left space is not particularly used to hearing voices that are critical of both Western imperialism and non-Western authoritarianism, as well as drawing linkages between them. Sometimes, the concern about racism and not wanting to encourage imperialist foreign policies leads to an unwillingness to engage with criticisms of the Chinese state, including those from Chinese nationals and from minoritised groups in China. Yao Lin conceptualises this as what he calls ‘interregimatic missolidarisation’. By this he means an ostensibly supportive relationship that does not really correspond to struggles against injustice or oppression within a different regime. This is not only due to cultural or linguistic distance, but also because of the ways in which different structures give rise to different forms of injustice, creating both experiential and discursive barriers to transnational solidarity.38 Our conversations with diaspora Chinese organisers engaged in anti-racist, queer, feminist, and decolonial work reflect this. Their lived experiences are often exoticised or dismissed by ‘mainstream’ civil society, and they find it easier to connect with or be understood by other immigrant groups. This also brings to mind Shadi Mokhatari’s critique of the ‘uncritical anti-imperialist solidarities’ and the victimhood politics of the ‘anti-imperialist-branding states’. Here again, allegedly anti-imperialist actors mis-solidarise with the oppressor, conflate the state with citizens at large, as well as essentialist notions of culture, and disregard the agency of the oppressed.39 This vision of the so-called ‘multipolar civilizational order’ bears a disturbing resemblance to that of the European far right, where racial-civilisational categories are defined in terms of ontological and epistemological difference and ‘indigenous’ civilisational identity is placed in opposition to the ‘globalist’ order.41 For me, then, solidarity requires calling out this misplaced equation of geopolitical opposition with decolonisation or emancipation. It requires listening to and understanding the lived experiences of activists from across the Global South who are organising against authoritarianism and imperialism. Historically speaking, and in the aftermath of 1989, overseas Chinese pro-democracy politics tended to be aligned with the right in Europe and the US. But this is changing. Younger diaspora groups are now looking for new languages and imaginaries, creating decentralised spaces of resistance and solidarity. They are already building transnational alliances against the far right in many ways. What remains is for established left-wing movements to recognise, engage with, and support these emergent transnational practices.

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 14d
See also research from the Monash Deakin Filicide Research Hub, including this helpful discussion of key facts about filicide.
addressingfilicide.org/key-facts/
Key Facts
Visit the post for more.
addressingfilicide.org

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 14d
Here's a thread from last year about filicide in Australia, including more on sympathetic media portrayals of people who murder their disabled children.
bsky.app/profile/gera...
geraldroche.bsky.social Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Feb 28
🧵 content warning: murder, violence against disabled people

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 14d
From the Anti-Filicide Toolkit:
What is filicide? In the past five years, over 548 people with disabilities have been murdered by their parents, relatives or caregivers. T hese acts are horrific enough on their own. But they exist in the context of a larger pattern: 1. A parent kills their disabled child. 2. The media portrays these murders as justifiable and inevitable due to the “burden” of having a disabled person in the family.7 3. If the parent stands trial, they are given sympathy and comparatively lighter sentences, if they are sentenced at all. 4. The victim is disregarded, blamed for their own murder at the hands of the person they should have been able to trust the most, and ultimately forgotten. 5. The media sends a message that if you kill your disabled child, you will receive attention and sympathy. The legal system sends a message that if you kill your disabled child, your punishment will likely be minimal. 6. Parents of kids with disabilities see these messages. 7. A parent kills their disabled child.

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 14d
Sympathetic portrayals of parents who murder their children "sends a message that homicide is a normal, understandable response to any discomfort one might experience while parenting a disabled child, and we can’t pretend that other parents of disabled kids aren’t hearing that message."

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 14d
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network has recently published an "Anti-Filicde Toolkit" which contains warnings and advice about media reporting on filicide of autistic children.
autisticadvocacy.org/anti-filicide/
2026 Anti-Filicide Toolkit - Autistic Self Advocacy Network
In the past five years, over 548 people with disabilities have been murdered by their parents, relatives or caregivers. On Sunday, March 1st, the disability community will gather across the nation to ...
autisticadvocacy.org

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 14d
After I learned (somewhat late in life) that I am autistic, one of the terms I was introduced to in my learning about autism was 'fillicide' - "the killing of one's own child".
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Preventing Filicide in Families With Autistic Children - Mark T. Palermo, 2003
Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that affects social behaviors and parent-child interaction. It has been associated with an increased risk of soc...
journals.sagepub.com

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 14d
Yesterday in Australia two autistic children were murdered by their parents. @australia.theguardian.com felt compelled to report that "The family were described on social media as a lovely couple and a good family." Lovely couples don't murder children.

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 15
amazing - I just learnt who Louis Real is, like, a week ago

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 15
excellent, thank you

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 15
Please send recommendations for historical/ political graphic novels that you have enjoyed, if you have them.

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 14
there's a definite link that I'm too lazy to think about between the goofy, absurd, silly quality of British humor and their historical role as violent empire builders and the birthplace of capitalism

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 14
My article 'Five Key Concepts for Autistic Linguistic Justice' is currently the most-read article in the journal Autism in Adulthood. Thanks to everyone who has shown interest in this work - I hope you're finding it helpful.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Five Key Concepts for Autistic Linguistic Justice: Securitization, Revitalization, Rights, Planning, and Ethics - Gerald Roche, 2025
This perspective article draws on my own lived experience as an autistic person, combined with my academic research at the intersection of languages and politic...
journals.sagepub.com

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 12
an excellent turn of phrase

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 12
And finally, if you want to learn more about actual anti-imperialism that takes a consistent approach to state violence, a good resourc is the website 'People Not States.'
peoplenotstates.wordpress.com
Solidarity with People, Not States.
Normalize calling out genocide denialism.
peoplenotstates.wordpress.com

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 12
So my last reading recommendation on pseudo-anti-imperialism is something I wrote back in 2021 that explores how this philosophy actually contributes to empire-building and oppression.

www.thenation.com/article/worl...
Xinjiang Denialists Are Only Aiding Imperialism
Denying China’s oppression of Uighurs helps empire—both China’s and the US’s.
www.thenation.com

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 12
As I outline in the articles above, my own thinking about this goes back to my time living in China and observing reactions to the 2008 Tibetan uprising. Support for China, and denunciations of Tibetans and Uyghurs, is an important facet of pseudo-anti-imperialism today.

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 12
While my 2025 article helps identify the methods used by pseudo-anti-imperalist propagandists, the 2024 article helps identify individuals who subscribe to this idea, by looking at the tells in their discourse and their history of selective commentary.

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 12
"...the solidarity that [pseudo-anti-imperialists] build now by defending the Palestinian people will be extracted and later used as a weapon against other victims engaged in struggle with oppression elsewhere."

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 12
Back in 2024, I argued that pseudo-anti-imperialists were exploiting the Gaza genocide to build their support base, which in turn would be mobilized later to enable atrocities elsewhere.

positionspolitics.org/gerald-roche...
Gerald Roche, Rogue Journalists Are Denouncing The Gaza Genocide Because They Want You To Deny The Next One  - positions politics
As thousands of bodies are blown apart in Gaza and children starve to death in the city’s rubble-strewn streets, numerous groups are exploiting this suffering in order to advance oppressive agendas su...
positionspolitics.org

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 12
We are indeed seeing another surge in passivity propaganda as pseudo-anti-imperialists react to the Iran protests.

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 12
"Far away, a protest breaks out. Crowds amass in the streets, calling for freedom. Protestors take to social media, calling for support. As your thumb hovers above a post to share it, a passivity propagandist appears, saying: ‘This is fake news!’"

geraldroche.bsky.social
Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · Jan 12
"Passivity propaganda is the lowest hanging fruit on the propaganda tree. To succeed, it just needs to convince you to do nothing. Passivity propaganda asks you to not help people you will never meet, in a place on the other side of the world, where you will almost certainly never set foot."