Class Discussion (11/18/08)

Today in class, we focused upon Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden."

Kipling's poem seems to indicate that he strongly believes that we have an obligation to help "civilize" less-advanced cultures. Despite the fact that your subjects may be "sullen" and both hate and blame you, Kipling urges us to take on the "white man's burden", or the responsibility to enlighten those below us.

We questioned whether this attitude was actually beneficial to the native peoples. Simply assuming that the "uncivilized" people need the help of the white man is often condescending and implies that their culture is inferior. However, accomplishments have been done through colonization, such as the British's abolishment of suttee, in which a widow was burned along with her husband's body.
Still, does a "burden" or responsibility to stroll into others' lives and interfere with them to "improve" them actually exist? Every time we see something in another culture that we perceive as barbaric, should we attempt to correct it? Although the definition of a "civilized culture" differs depending upon the perspective, Kipling seems to imply that we must "search our manhood" and take on this burden to both prove ourselves and help others.

However, although Kipling may have reflected what some people genuinely believed in his time, today we see this "white man's burden" as nothing more than a justification for imperialism. As the parody poem written on the next page pointed, often the native peoples are exploited, regardless of the "burden" and responsibilities.

In addition, we wondered whether our invasion of Iraq was a fulfillment of the white man's burden. After all, some people (by no means all) believed that we were entering Iraq to free the oppressed people and plant democracy. Whether the invasion was legitimate or not, we wondered if the invasion was almost a rebirth of the white man's burden.

And of course, Sam's disclaimer applies here.

(Eric Wei)