because I am "British Empire-identified" and "elitist"

[fa_ikaika]

I'm just going to throw a little poem out there for context on some of the RaceFail that's been going on:

See if you can identify who is who. Actually you could even make it into a spin-off of White Privilege Bingo. It would be like the CHiPs version of Chutes and Ladders.

Comments

[faraway66]

this one never gets old!

[fa_ikaika]

hey you! Glad you stopped by. No, the sun never sets on imperialism with a smile.

BTW did you ever see the Masterpeice Theater play/episode about Kipling and his son (played by Harry Potter). 'Twas very good indeed.

[faraway66]

Oh yeah --traumatized my kids to see Potter get shot to hamburger at the end.

[fa_ikaika]

Poor Daniel, How is he going to escape from the curse of typecasting? Elijah Wood did it by taking all sorts of creepy "anti-Frodo" roles. Like Kevin in Sin City and the wierd tech guy in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I hear however that he (Daniel) is doing very well in the New York production of Equus that is running right now.

[linaerys]

It's funny, when I first read this poem, I didn't see it as an endorsement of amanifest destiny, I saw it as a bitterly sarcastic indictment of those who believe that they should take up the white man's burden.

These lines: "To seek another's profit,/And work another's gain." seemed to me underlining the incredible injustice of colonization.

And "Take up the White Man's burden--/The savage wars of peace--" seemed terribly Orwellian to me, and another indictment.

I was wrong about that--it is not a criticism--but I still like to read it that way, to hear it as bitter sarcasm, that if "the best ye breed" are subjugating other people, then perhaps they are the worst, and not the best.

Here from rydra_wong's links . . .

[fa_ikaika]

Greetings,

Kipling is quite an interesting character. He clearly saw the ugly side of colonialism but I think in the end, came down on the side of "the greater good" - kind of like the Adrian Veidt character in "Watchmen". It's an interesting case of someone who desperately wanted to believe in the propoganda he himself espoused even though he knew that the truth was far messier.

I quite agree about the importance of counter/mis-readings.

[rahkan]

Although the White Man's Burden is horribly racist, I love the complexity of it. And it is so apt for these current discussions.

The White Man has to slog forward, educating the masses, despite the fact that they will hate him for it. There's no rose-tinted glasses here. There's no idea that the natives will be happy with the colonial yoke. No, those "silent, sullen peoples" will hate him for it. But he's just got to ignore them and forge ahead.

[fa_ikaika]

because in the end he gets ... *drum roll and cymbal clash* "the judgement of your peers"

oh missionary zeal, how you amaze me with your refusal to die even when stabbed with multiple stakes and prolonged exposure to sunlight.

[fa_ikaika]

well you know, the classics are timeless after all.

[brown_betty]

God its disturbing how directly that applies. Having brought it up, it's inescapable.

[fa_ikaika]

i kno right?