The White Man's Burden

From Freepedia

The White Man's Burden represents a Eurocentric view of the world, and has been used to encourage powerful nations to adopt an imperial role. The term is the name of an 1899 poem by Rudyard Kipling, the sentiments of which give insight into this/his world view.

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The first stanza of the Kipling poem reads:

Take up the White Man's burden —

Send forth the best ye breed —

Go, bind your sons to exile

To serve your captives' need;

To wait, in heavy harness,

On fluttered folk and wild —

Your new-caught sullen peoples,

Half devil and half child.

In this view, non-European cultures are seen as child-like, as well as demonic, with people of European, or more specifically West European (as East Europeans were also seen as lesser beings), descent having an obligation to rule them; and encourage their development, until they can take their place in the world, by fully adopting Western ways.

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The poem was originally published in the popular magazine McClure's, in the United States. It was written specifically because, after the Spanish-American War, feeling in the U.S. was more isolationist than not. It was believed that had the U.S. not taken over Spain's position in the Philippines, another foreign power would have moved into the vacuum. Kipling wrote this poem specifically to help sway popular opinion in the U.S., so that a "friendly" Western power would hold the strategically-important Philippines.

The view and the term itself are often regarded in modern times as racist, and condescending, cultivating a sense of European ascendancy over other people, or of quantifying and evaluating the value of culture. (See also cultural imperialism). However, some groups today still have sympathy for the idea of a White Man's Burden, although most explicitly remove the idea of race from the concept. They argue that it is a responsibility of richer countries to help less-developed countries. They point out that law and order are vital to the economic and cultural growth of a nation, and are sometimes difficult to achieve, without foreign intervention. Nation-building could be seen as an example of a modern-day White Man's Burden. These views are in keeping with the "Secret Society" views of Kipling's friend, Cecil Rhodes, the founder and benefactor of the Rhodes Scholarship, designed to choose and influence future world leadership. Note-worthy recipients of this scholarship have included Bill Clinton, Dean Rusk, Stansfield Turner, J. William Fulbright, Strobe Talbot, William Bradley, Wesley Clark, Kris Kristofferson, Richard Lugar, Paul Sarbanes, and Heather Wilson, as well as Kipling himself; and have usually been drawn from Yale, Harvard, West Point and Princeton universities, in the U.S., and from Oxford University in England. Rhodes' "Secret Society" currently has ties to other "secret societies", such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group (both of the latter founded by Henry Kissinger). Most of the presidents and presidential candidates for the last fifty or sixty years (both Democrats and Republicans) have been members of at least one of these groups, and provide a living testimony to the power of Cecil Rhodes' vision.

The term "white guilt" is sometimes used as a modern parallel to the historic white man's burden. It is used by some modern whites to validate discrimination or double-standards towards their own ethnic group, because of their own perceived responsibility or culpability for historical wrongs.

Within a historical context, the concept makes clear the prevalent attitudes that allowed colonialism to proceed. Although a belief in the "virtues of empire" was wide-spread at the time, there were also many dissenters; and the publication of the poem caused a flurry of arguments from both sides, most notably from Mark Twain and Henry James. Much of Kipling's other writing does suggest that he genuinely believed in the "beneficent role" which the introduction of Western ideas could play in lifting non-Western peoples out of "poverty and ignorance". Lines 3-5, and other parts of the poem suggest that it is not just the native people who are enslaved; but also the "functionaries of empire", who are caught in colonial service. This theme may also be contrasted with the Christian missionary movement, which was also quite active at the time; in Africa, India, and other English and European colonies (e.g. the Christian and Missionary Alliance).

Kipling himself was not simply a worshiper of the power of empire" He wrote many poems celebrating the working classes, particularly the common soldier. Also, six months after White Man's Burden was published, he wrote The Old Issue, a stinging criticism of the Boer War, and attack on the unlimited and despotic, power of kings (the monarchies).

The final stanza of the poem seems to refer to events in the poet's own life:

Take up the White Man's burden —

Have done with childish days —

The lightly proffered laurel,

The easy, ungrudged praise.

Comes now, to search your manhood

Through all the thankless years,

Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,

The judgment of your peers!

In 1892, the long-standing poet laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson died. Many important poets of the day were considered for the post, and it was offered to Kipling, but he refused it. Whether this was because he felt he did not deserve it, or he thought it would damage his career is not certain; but in this poem, he seems to be re-considering the offer, and contemplating the unwelcome responsibility and duty that would come with it.

The poem shows that, to a large extent, colonial powers relied upon the argument that they were "civilizing" the indigenous peoples that they were colonizing. A similar idea is the Hamitic Myth. The Hamitic Myth was a biblical rationalization for European exploitation in Africa, based on the postulated biblical lineage of certain African peoples.

See also: White Man's Burden, a 1996 film dealing with race.