Decentering Whiteness: Writing from the Wisdom of the Global Majority

In a world still largely shaped by colonial histories and Western cultural dominance, the act of storytelling becomes more than just self-expression—it becomes resistance, healing, reclamation. At We Are Urban Haiku, we are reimagining what literature can do when it is rooted in truth, ancestry, complexity, and liberation. This is our call to decenter whiteness in creative writing, and to write out from the wisdom, wounds, and wonder of the global majority.

What Does It Mean to Decenter Whiteness?

To decenter whiteness is not to erase white people or white experiences, but to question why whiteness has long been the default lens through which most literature, media, and education is told and consumed. It asks: Whose stories have been amplified? Whose voices have been edited out, mistranslated, or silenced altogether?

Whiteness, as a cultural and ideological framework, often operates invisibly. It presents itself as “neutral” or “universal” while subtly (or overtly) framing other cultures as “ethnic,” “exotic,” or “other.” Decentering it means actively making space for a multiplicity of perspectives, aesthetics, traditions, and values that do not stem from the Western canon.

At Urban Haiku, this is our ethos: we center the narratives of Black, Indigenous, Brown, Asian, mixed-race, disabled, neurodivergent, queer, and trans voices. These are not niche stories—they are global truths.

The Power of the Global Majority

The term global majority is a radical linguistic shift that moves away from terms like “minority,” “people of color,” or “non-white”—labels that define us in opposition to whiteness. Instead, it recognizes that globally, people of color make up the majority of the human population. Our stories are vast, our languages layered, our memories long.

Writing from the global majority means honoring the ancestral, the local, the multilingual, and the lived. It’s writing that doesn’t need to translate its culture for a white gaze. It’s writing that doesn’t apologize for its slang, its ritual, its political fury, or its inherited sorrow. It refuses the performance of assimilation and instead demands reverence for complexity.

This is why our classes, such as Where We Come From: Writing Your Ethnoautobiography and Embodied Narratives, exist—not to fit our work into dominant literary norms, but to carve out space where those norms are no longer the standard.

Story as Decolonial Practice

Decolonization isn’t a metaphor—it’s an active, ongoing practice. And for many of us, writing is one of the sharpest tools we have. Every sentence can disrupt. Every paragraph can rebuild.

When we write from the global majority, we begin to:

• Disrupt dominant historical narratives

• Challenge literary hierarchies that prioritize white, cis-male, able-bodied perspectives

• Center spiritual and communal knowledge alongside intellectual thought

• Reclaim storytelling as a cultural and ancestral inheritance

In Documentary Poetics, we teach writers how to use historical archives, oral testimonies, and community memory as poetic sources. This isn't academic—it’s survival. It’s soul-work. It’s how we name our histories and insist that our versions of reality exist, matter, and endure.

Letting Go of the White Gaze

Many writers raised under Western literary systems internalize the white gaze. We write to be palatable, understandable, "relatable." We unconsciously translate our cultural references, strip away our dialects, and flatten our metaphors.

But the work of decolonizing storytelling demands that we write toward ourselves and our communities—not for whiteness or market validation.

It asks us:

• What if your grandmother is your ideal reader?

• What if your poetry doesn’t need to be decoded by a gatekeeper?

• What if your story centers joy and grief in ways that resist tropes and trauma porn?

In our workshops like To Exist is to Flare or Poet Spirit, we give writers permission to stop asking for permission. We write in the vernacular of our bodies, of our landscapes, of our inner lives—without apology, without translation, and without compromise.

Language as Resistance and Return

Language has been a colonial battleground for centuries. From the suppression of Indigenous tongues to the anglicization of names, colonialism weaponized language to erase identity. But the flip side is this: writing can also be a way back home.

Whether it's code-switching, writing in multiple languages, resurrecting ancestral names, or infusing text with untranslatable concepts, the way we use language becomes a form of reclamation.

At Urban Haiku, we encourage multilingual expression and stylistic experimentation. We believe that when language bends toward the shape of your truth, it becomes poetry—whether it’s fragmented, hybrid, rhythmic, or raw.

Creating Brave Spaces for Brave Work

Mainstream publishing and MFA programs often uphold white literary norms. But our community was born to subvert that. We are a space where “nontraditional” stories are sacred, where identity is not an obstacle but an offering.

We do this by:

• Facilitating peer feedback rooted in care, not competition

• Affirming the writer’s cultural, spiritual, and emotional truth

• Valuing process as much as product

• Building cross-cultural and intergenerational dialogue

In courses like Embodied Narratives – Seedlings, our workshop spaces aren’t just about craft—they’re about kinship, safety, and collective creation. These are the conditions under which real stories flourish.

The Future of Storytelling Is Ours to Write

We are not waiting for permission. We are not asking to be “included.” We are reimagining the center.

The future of literature will not be a colorblind continuation of the past. It will be brown, Black, queer, disabled, fluid, spiritual, irreverent, multilayered, and deeply rooted in the multiplicities of lived experience.

It will be ours.

And it begins with you—writing from your truth, writing through your lineage, writing toward liberation.

Conclusion

At We Are Urban Haiku, we believe writing is sacred. It is protest and prayer, mirror and map. Decentering whiteness is not a rejection of anyone—but a return to everyone. It is the healing salve, the untold truth, the wild vision that refuses to be quieted.

We invite you to step into this journey with us. Write your story—not the one whiteness taught you to write—but the one your ancestors dreamed you would.

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FAQs

1. What is the “global majority”?
The global majority refers to people of color who make up the majority of the world's population. It reframes the narrative by rejecting labels like “minority” and centers collective cultural richness, complexity, and history.

2. How is decentering whiteness different from excluding white people?
Decentering whiteness challenges the idea that white perspectives are universal. It’s about creating space for other ways of knowing, being, and storytelling—not erasure, but balance and justice.

3. Why is storytelling seen as a decolonial tool?
Storytelling helps reclaim suppressed histories, assert cultural identity, and resist dominant narratives. It is a powerful tool for healing, remembering, and reimagining liberated futures.

4. Do I need to write about trauma to be included in this space?
No. While trauma is part of many narratives, we also center joy, pleasure, resistance, humor, and everything in between. You’re welcome to tell your full truth, not just the pain.

5. How can I join a workshop or class?
Head over to WeAreUrbanHaiku.com and explore our current classes. We offer writing workshops year-round that prioritize accessibility, community care, and creative freedom.