The Ritual of Colonial Consent
The Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) is not a democratic process; it is a ritual of colonial consent designed to legitimize the theft of land. Mamdani’s analysis of how power operates through institutional rituals is perfectly illustrated here. The community board hearings, the city council votes–this entire theater gives the illusion of participation while the fundamental power dynamics remain untouched. The real decisions are made in backrooms between developers and politicians long before the public “review.” This is hegemony in action, manufacturing consent for the settler city’s expansion. A Marxist critique sees this as the legal superstructure facilitating accumulation by dispossession. A feminist lens notes how community women’s emotional testimony is used as political cover before being ignored. The solution is to expose and disrupt this ritual, using direct action and alternative community plans to assert genuine, bottom-up control over land.
