Illustration by the artist Brandon O. Lake. Image by the artist and from Brandon O. Lake: Too Tired to Sleep
This guide was created with the help of the students and faculty of the MICA Animation Department in order to decolonize their knowledge of animation and center BIPOC animators and films. It is not intended to encompass the whole of the BIPOC experience in Animation but to highlight, compile, and share the knowledge of MICA Animation students and faculty with each other as they conduct research. It will include a list of BIPOC animators and books, articles, films, resources and websites and podcasts by and BIPOC animators
This guide was created because MICA students and faculty wished to decolonize their knowledge, education, syllabi, etc. Yet, it is important to understand what it means to “decolonize” because it is a word that cannot be divorced from a historical struggle and as researchers we must consider that context.
To decolonize is to, in essence, upend an established order, in the words of Frantz Fanon “in decolonization, there is therefore the need of a complete calling in question of the colonial situation.” This definition is by no means set and I implore you to explore different definitions of what it means decolonize.
I will include a short list of books and resources that may help you to explore by the many BIPOC philosophers and thinkers who have explored this topic with nuance and historical context:
The Wretched of the Earth by 
Critical Race Theory (Third Edition) by 
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by 
The Post-Colonial Studies Reader by 
Dying Colonialism by 
Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English by 
