The white man’s burden (1899) means the moral duty of whites to uplift the other races of mankind. The idea allowed whites to view their rule of Africa and Asia as right and good. The phrase has fallen out of fashion – even white people now see how racist it is – but the ideas behind it live on, as shown by the American war in Iraq and Mighty Whitey films.
The phrase comes from a poem by Rudyard Kipling: “The White Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands.” It appeared in February 1899 in McClure’s Magazine. It urged White Americans to take over and rule the Philippines for its own good. It starts out like this:
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.
At least some white people, like Mark Twain, saw through this self-serving lie. A few weeks later “The Brown Man’s Burden” by Henry Labouchere appeared. It starts:
Pile on the brown man’s burden
To gratify your greed;
Go, clear away the “niggers”
Who progress would impede;
Be very stern, for truly
‘Tis useless to be mild
With new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.Pile on the brown man’s burden;
And, if ye rouse his hate,
Meet his old-fashioned reasons
With Maxims up to date.
With shells and dumdum bullets
A hundred times made plain
The brown man’s loss must ever
Imply the white man’s gain.Pile on the brown man’s burden,
Compel him to be free;
Let all your manifestoes
Reek with philanthropy.
And if with heathen folly
He dares your will dispute,
Then, in the name of freedom,
Don’t hesitate to shoot.
This was the truth that the idea of the white man’s burden hid from view. In particular:
- Whites destroyed the civilizations of the Aztecs, Incas and West Africans.
- They robbed Africa of its riches and made its people into slaves.
- They wiped out the people of North America and Australia and took their land.
- By 1900 they ruled most of the world, robbing it of its wealth and freedom.
- They turned on each other in two world wars, killing tens of millions.
- They undermine democracies in other countries and keep bad men in power when it suits them.
- They underpay blacks and Latinos in America – and then see them as a drain on society.
- They spent $2.3 trillion (400 billion crowns) on Africa over the past 50 years and yet over a million die of malaria every year as if it were some strange, incurable disease.
Despite all that they still think they are better than everyone else, that they are a force for good, that they are well-meaning.
Power corrupts. The West is powerful enough that it can believe whatever it wants about its motives – with no one to tell them otherwise who will widely be believed.
See also:
its interesting the arrogance of some people…
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Cool! I didn’t know that Twain wrote a response poem.
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Damn, Abagond! Bomb post!
I never knew about the response poem; damn…way to represent!
Merci, mon cher! *nods*
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mmmmm! Preach it!
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“Your ‘new-caught’ sullen peoples”…..
Wow! Why, pray tell, were they sullen.
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Niiiiiice. I was just watching Race: The Power of an Illusion and that part JUST came up. LMAO.
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by eccentric yoruba, Ankhesen Mié. Ankhesen Mié said: Labouchere pwns Kipling. http://fb.me/HR2hgpgd […]
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Like I said in a previous bit: looking from the longer historical perspective, the west was not that attractive for the rest of the world untill the western guys appeared to to their shores and plains, and then it was too late for too many.
It was also late enough for the west that they could no longer use the acient viking argument on why they steal, rob and murder others: “Because we can.” Instead they came up with this idea that the west is actually saving everybody else from something the others were not aware untill the west told them so.
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Sam…keep talking.
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When I read the title my first thought was that it’s about the burden mainly the white man puts onto our planet by depleting it of its resources as if there’s no tomorrow.
Energy consumption per capita in kg of oil per year (2003):
Bangladesh 160
Sénégal 240
Morocco 360
India 520
Angola 610
Indonesia 770
China 1200
Portugal 2500
Italy 3200
UK 4000
USA 8000
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This post made me think of the Guerlain controversy.
Quote:”Pour une fois, je me suis mis à travailler comme un nègre. Je ne sais pas si les nègres ont toujours tellement travaillé, mais enfin…”
Trans. “And for once I started working like a nigger. I don’t know if niggers ever worked that hard, oh well”
This sums up perfectly the (very wealthy)white man arrogance, Guerlain is a man who never really did anything remotely approaching hard labour, unlike the quasi-slaves of color who are toiling all day in bad weather to gather the plants and flowers used for his fragrances, and are paid a pittance.
The white man’s burden indeed.
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The “white man’s burden” meme was used to try to justify imperialism and colonial rule over distant Asian and African lands to the European masses, most of whom were not huge beneficiaries of colonialism.
It wasn’t hard to depict black Africans as spear-chucking savages who would benefit from the civilizing influence of white colonial rulers who could bring forth order and abundance out of the chaos of the dark continent.
For a while it even seemed to work. Rhodesia, thanks to skilled white farmers and ready black labor, became the bread basket of southern Africa. Black Africans seeking work immigrated in large numbers to flourishing colonial states where they could be exposed to advanced European languages, culture and technology.
But it wasn’t destined to last. Blacks rejected foreign white rule and, one by one, European countries granted independence to the colonial states. Usually, the newly independent states went downhill after colonial white rulers was replaced by kleptocratic and incompetent black rulers. Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, the productive white farmers’ were expelled and their farms went to ruin. Now, ruined Zimbabwe and other failed black African states depend on the west for food and other necessities. Alas, the “white man’s burden” continues, but in a more pathetic form.
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As a empirical rule, it could be safely be said, that having white people settling on your land is nothing but bad news and given enough time, the probability of waking up one day as a second or third class citizen in your own freakin’ country becomes just a certainty.
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The white man’s burden theme is such a “get away with murder” They come into your house, kill, steal and convert your beliefs and claim that they are trying to civilize you.
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Aiyo:
Thanks for the video. I saw it on Tumblr. It is an excellent summary.
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Boycott Guerlain products!! Vieux connard raciste!
There was a national outcry on this one. SOS racisme is on the case.
By the way, the translation for nègre is negro.
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Here’s another one on the “burden”, version 2010.
The new term for slavery in the 21st century is a four letter word: debt.
The world bank has given out astronomical credits to African countries for building up their infrastructures for the sole purpose of insuring the interests of the multinationals and their Western resource junkies. The resource rich African countries are held hostage by the West through debt. The payback is done to a large part as “rebate in kind” by even more resources at ridiculously low prices. The higher the debt the tougher the negotiation basis and the least favourable for the producing country. Those countries are drawn into handcuff contracts of globally or regionally exclusive authorisations to exploit certain local resources.
The USA alone (5% of the world population) consume 30% of produced African natural resources which they purchase at bargain prices or for virtually nothing as debt payback.
In contrast, local infrastructures are crumbling, social programmes and local developments are cut because of the paybacks of interests and the debt itself. Corruption does the rest.
The African countries are not only left alone with their debt but also with their directly resulting set of related problems – see the extreme social disparities and sometimes resulting tensions like in the Niger delta for instance.
The so-called debt relief by Western powers is demonstrative and self-indulgent. Those ‘alleviations’ always come with a price. The resource producing countries have to sell everything for a special discount price which opens the doors to all sorts of speculations from foreign investors demanding high returns. Another byproduct the West is expecting from their ‘generous gestures’ is to get some more positive votes at the next UN assembly. Then there are the investors who move offshore the astronomical profits they have made at the end of the chain in their Western economies, not least in order to let them disappear off the grip of their own tax authorities, expecting fairly certain high returns overseas. In case of non-compliance to their conditions, they threaten the local authorities to pull their funds out or threaten them to initiate another ‘government turnover’. Democratically of course…
It’s looting, plain and simple.
The milder exceptions as stated by trade officials of for instance the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) are China, India, France and a few smaller countries who help at least in building and maintaining local infrastructure and medical support in favour of the public. On the other hand, in order to gain a competitive advantage over one or another country, certain companies and even entire countries resort to corruption. The masters in this field are reportedly the USA.
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ahhh, i always thought there was something dodgy about kipling!
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@ Aiyo, That was one of the best videos I have ever seen on this subject. Thank you soo much for posting it.
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@ Patrick
I hope you’re just being sarcastic here.
It “seemed to work” only for the white people gullible enough to believe the colonial propaganda which was then thriving.
Here is a scoop for you, Patrick: poverty, violence, slavery, incompetence, kleptocracy and whatnot did not suddenly pop up in Africa the day the European left. Actually Europeans left Africa in such a critical situation that we are still recovering, 5 decades later.
South Africa is an exception (as well as, maybe, Zimbabwe which you mentioned, though you might want to research this one further. “The bread basket of southern Africa”, eh? What was its main production already?)
Most African countries accessed to independence in the same situation as mine: dirt poor countries bound by the colonial pact, with no infrastructures, no industry, no economy and a starving population. Heck! We even inherited the debts the former governors contracted!!
No offense, Patrick, but I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.
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Regarding Zimbabwe’s land reform, here is an article which offers some perspective:
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Abagond im surprised u mentioned the incas, almost no one ever mentions how whites have made us so much harm
Im peruvian and we are slowly recovering our culture, quechua is our original language that is endangered but at the same time more people are feeling proud of it.
Whites here are a minority but of the worst kind, they dont feel white guilt at all(lol, white guilt is useful to us) , they still have colonial mentality and practically control the government but still most peruvians that are native american are moving up in politic,culture,economy.
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Pretty impressive stuff the Europeans [Whites] did. Sure you can try and give them guilt but it does not change the fact that they conquered the world, and your ancestors were simply defeated. They are the builders of the world, you are the slaves – the defeated and angry ones.
And you claim White people simply took and did not give ?
How about Modern Medicine. White people you can thank for that.
Electricity ? Running water ? Cars, Airplanes, Highways, High speed naval ships, Internet, Computers, Space flight etc etc etc.
White people you can thank for that.
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“South Africa is an exception (as well as, maybe, Zimbabwe which you mentioned, though you might want to research this one further. “The bread basket of southern Africa”, eh? What was its main production already?)”
Of course South Africa is an exception. It has a sizable population of Europeans there – the very people who founded the cities of South Africa. And no one expects Africans to run a nation aswell as the people who invented the concept of a nation [Whites]. So the “fully” Black African nations get a free pass when compared to a heavily White influenced nation like SA [in short black Africans have no hope of competing with White people outside of breeding like rabbits].
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White people you can thank for that.
Don’t forget; fish and chips, bangers and mash, haggis(yuck), hard liquor, quarter pounders with cheese and other colon clogging treats! It’s a good thing they invented ex-lax, maalox and preparation H to combat the ill effects of such food.
They are the builders of the world, you are the slaves – the defeated and angry ones.
That sounds like the plot of a crappily written S&M novel.
Sure you can try and give them guilt but it does not change the fact that they conquered the world, and your ancestors were simply defeated.
Lack of proper hygienic products is what felled the conquered races. Try fighting with a bunch of stinky, halitosis breath inflicted enemies. Remember many of the europeans were hygienically challenged(soap was a four letter word). Bad breath and BO is what caused these people’s defeat! Try combatting legions of foul smelling fools!
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Egert said:
“And you claim White people simply took and did not give ?
How about Modern Medicine. White people you can thank for that.
Electricity ? Running water ? Cars, Airplanes, Highways, High speed naval ships, Internet, Computers, Space flight etc etc etc.
White people you can thank for that.”
So colour television excuses slavery?
The Chinese communists made the same sort of argument when they took over Tibet and outlawed the free practice of their religion: they were HELPING Tibet because they brought electricity!!!
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@egert: Bolsheviks conquered also and brought electricity and heavy industry to the mass of russians, roads and railroads, over compassing school system and universal healthcare, but at the same time they killed something like 14 up to 20 million people in couple of decades.
PS. Bolsheviks were white europeans as were most of their victims.:-D
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“no one expects Africans to run a nation aswell as the people who invented the concept of a nation [Whites].”
Yes… I see. And here are a few of the Nations which were, no doubt, invented by White people.
Unfortunately, too many White people, such as yourself, believe that their forefathers invented civilization. However, when most of the Nations shown above were founded, White people were living here.
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Unlike Egypt, the Middle East, India, China, Mexico and Peru, white people never came up with a civilization of their own – they got theirs from Egypt and the Middle East. If they were naturally so much better than everyone else, they would have come up with it first.
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If you really care about Slavery so much then why dont you start crying about the slavery that is still going on in Africa today. But you really dont care do you, instead you cry about slavery in the West that has ended 160+ years ago. That just shows that you dont care about slavery, you just want to cry about “the white man” and all the evils that Europeans are [in your mind]. 🙂
And as far as civilizations go. Who really cares ? Its not about who started what, its about who DID what. Who conquered the world – Europeans. Who built the modern world ? Europeans. And who are the main group of people feeding much of Africa today by sending millions of tons of food there each year ? 🙂 Oh its the evil White man. 🙂
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“If you really care about Slavery so much then why dont you start crying about the slavery that is still going on in Africa today.”
Who says we don’t? You have no idea what causes people are supporting, do you?
http://www.freetheslaves.net/
But that’s just a derailment to assume that we should ONLY focus on modern slavery and not focus on the Historic American Slave trade that has left us with a legacy of ongoing problems to deal with in this country. And that’s the reason: – After slavery there was continued oppression under Jim Crow laws for another 101 years, then stereotype prejudice, which has been a problem ever since. It didn’t stop 160 years ago. Is that what you thought?
As for civilizations go it’s easy to say “who really cares” when you have been so easily proven to be 100% wrong, isn’t it? After all, you’re of European descent, and look how stupid you are? You’re dense enough to think that White people came up with the idea of nations.
I mean for a guy named Egbert, you sure aren’t very smart, are you?
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***Attention all stormfronters and overtly racist whites trolling this site***
We get it. You think white people are genetically superior to all other races. Hooray for you! Now f**k off already.
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Has anyone else noticed how desperate these Stormfront dummies have become in recent years? It’s hilarious how much TIME they spend leaving comments on other people’s websites in hopes of… What? Saying the same thing over and over again? Hahaha! Wow, how effective!! this is even better than making little crosses and then lighting them on fire!! Lolz!
I think the newest White Supremacist plan is clearly to TALK everybody to death! Now that their numbers are so low, and they’re all corned into half a dozen fringe websites. Lol!
Imagine how much it makes you feel like a looser when almost NOBODY believes the crap you believe in. And then, nobody will even take your insults seriously, because there’s nothing behind them!! I mean when is the last time that Stormfront actually achieved anything more than getting a bunch of fat, white, hicks and pimple-faced misfits into a waffle house to TALK about how much they hate Black people…
It’s like… Trailer Park Therapy!!! Where you confess to the group that all of your life screw ups are not important because hey, you hate Black people!! (and the Black people don’t care)
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“I think the newest White Supremacist plan is clearly to TALK everybody to death! Now that their numbers are so low, and they’re all corned into half a dozen fringe websites. ”
Oh, if only it were so! The white supremacists who make me want to weep are the nice middle-aged white men I work with who say “We give them [the non-white world] schools and hospitals and aid. Why do they hate us/blow up discos in Bali?” Those men would be appalled if you called them racists or white supremacists but white supremacist thinking forms their attitudes.
I try to explain the several-hundred-year process whereby France, England and later the US set up a one-way flow of wealth from the rest of the world. But their eyes quickly glaze over.
It’s partly my fault for trying to cram in the opium wars, Haiti’s forfeit, the East India Company, textile import tariffs, Cold War loans to dictators and the outcome of the Bretton Woods talks before they stop listening.
It doesn’t help that I’m female, and younger, and therefore couldn’t possibly have a more sophisticated analysis of the situation than their “but-we-give-them-aid!”
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Edward Said in “Orientalism” (1978) said:
“Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilise, bring order and democracy and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires, as if one shouldn’t trust the evidence of one’s eyes watching the destruction and the misery and death brought by the latest ‘mission civilisatrice.’”
(h/t Nezua)
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I am glad that the white race is slowly dying out. I am excited for the future, it makes me wish I could like an extra 200 years to see the end of that bunch of devils.
Ever read Death of the West? A nightmare for conservative whites, but it’s my dream.
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and where do these devils get off with the “so what millions upon millions of non-white people died, you all now have ipods, movies, fast food and medical treatments such as, oh I dunno, CHEMOTHERAPY in order to combat the diseases caused by the carcinogenic chemicals that we actually invented and put in your products.” Just to name a few things. But then again it doesn’t seem unusual for them to value a material object over a human life, especially a non-white one. Souls in exchange for science, that’s their mantra. Oh wait, maybe they didn’t even consider non-whites human anyway. Maybe whites didn’t even realize they had souls
This world would have been better if white people never existed. People have yet to realize the truth about the disease that is western civilization and the devil race that is the white race. whites are a cancer to humanity and they are mutants. They’re genetically defective anyway as they are descendants of albino mutants (black albino Africans who migrated north out of Africa and to less sunny areas of europe due to the fact that they could not live comfortably with their inability to produce melanin and withstand intense sunlight) and neanderthals, who they bred with, as genome tests of white european populations have shown. They are mistakes, God is overdue to correct his error before I do.
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[…] In de tijd van Kipling waren daar al twijfels over. Henry Labouchere reageerde met The brown man's burden: […]
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—abagond
Unlike Egypt, the Middle East, India, China, Mexico and Peru, white people never came up with a civilization of their own – they got theirs from Egypt and the Middle East. If they were naturally so much better than everyone else, they would have come up with it first.—
Europe was first
Look up Cucuteni-Trypillian was a civilization most advanced than any in the world at the time.
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Why do you measure things in crowns…
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