Our topic of Thursday’s
confluence meeting was the impressions of slavery through literature. We read
works by slave holders Thomas Jefferson and Rudyard Kipling. They made
assumptions about their slaves and Africans that stuck with them their whole
life. Both felt they were superior as white males. They assumed that Africans
are grateful to be working for white men. Jefferson could not understand why
they were a different color. He felt that they themselves were repulsed by their
color. In his logic, black people preferred white people since white were more
beautiful. He compared this to an orangutan (organotin) chasing after black
females. This was probably based on some rumor since orangutans are not located
in Africa. Kipling expressed a more European Christian approach. In his poem
the white man’s burden he explained that Africans were people made up of
half-child and half-devil. Europeans should civilize these people and teach
them religion. His view was based on the churches justification of slavery. They
were just educating the wild men and bringing them out of the deserts. But with
any disobedient child they must be beaten to “help” them. Jefferson had only
the chance to see Africans born into slavery. His perception was very narrow
and the least informed. From observing his slaves he began to classify traits
to the whole African culture. He could see in the winter that they were more
tolerant to heat then cold. Anyone would be so also if they were given as much
clothes as the slaves had the wear. He would see his slaves stay up after
midnight and he saw this as instinctual. When he noticed that their anger
response was calmer then a white person would be he thought it came natural. It
seems to me this was because they were oppressed. Lastly he explained why they
were inferior because a sign of an imagination was not the be seen. This was
the ignorance shown by observing broken slavery born peoples.
In 1963, Malcolm X became a well-known black
rights activist. His mission was to get compensation for all black Americans
for over 400 years of slavery. Unfortunately, it was an extremist
2
That never saw hard
labor in his life. His take on life was, if you are not a Black Muslim then you
are the inferior peoples. He was promoting that all African Americans
should go back to Africa and completely segregate themselves from whites.
There were conditions though. America must provide land, supplies, and
money to live comfortably. If that could not happen, African Americans should
be given their own part of the country here. Integration of public places and
school would not be near enough for the suffering. His opinions were not widely
shared through the black community. Many felt that it was unrealistic.
Colonialism was a time in which Europeans
would go to Africa in hopes of civilizing the natives and promote Christianity.
It could be said that there are still versions of this today. Though maybe this
time, Africans weren't brought back as slaves. For some reason Christians
believe they must educate them about their religion. There are even fights of
religion by trying to convert as many they can before the Catholics come or
something else. This somewhat proves that they are telling these people that
they are primitive. Anything that they do not understand about a culture they
must change to fit their views. I do not think this is justifiable since I
believe in adversity in the world. If they get their way, what evidence would
there be of any individualized culture in the future?
No comments:
Post a Comment