White Man's Burden: Difference between revisions
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* The [[Trope Namer]] is the 1899 poem [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kipling.html "The White Man's Burden"] by [[Rudyard Kipling]], the gist of which is that it's the responsibility of white Western nations to colonize the rest of the world and rule over it until it fully "develops", i.e. assimilates. The poem actually anticipates the colonized cultures' lack of gratitude for this "service", but portrays it as the cost of doing the right thing. He also states that white cultures have become more advanced by luck, rather than racial superiority. Some critics interpet it as a [[Stealth Parody]], but overall it's a highly controversial poem. |
* The [[Trope Namer]] is the 1899 poem [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kipling.html "The White Man's Burden"] by [[Rudyard Kipling]], the gist of which is that it's the responsibility of white Western nations to colonize the rest of the world and rule over it until it fully "develops", i.e. assimilates. The poem actually anticipates the colonized cultures' lack of gratitude for this "service", but portrays it as the cost of doing the right thing. He also states that white cultures have become more advanced by luck, rather than racial superiority. Some critics interpet it as a [[Stealth Parody]], but overall it's a highly controversial poem. |
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** Kipling was quite explicitly telling Americans, "It's your turn now, and this is what you're letting yourselves in for. And ''we too'' will be watching and criticizing you!" |
** Kipling was quite explicitly telling Americans, "It's your turn now, and this is what you're letting yourselves in for. And ''we too'' will be watching and criticizing you!" |
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**While the term "White" is unfortunate (it could on any given occasion be a brown or black man's burden), the concept is less pernicious then it sounds. One possible interpretation of the poem is "You break it you bought it". Britain and the United States had already made the conquests that gave them the new territory they ruled over whatever moral questions one might have about the process. They had now to deal with running the government as justly and wisely as possibly once they got there. |
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* ''[[The Soloist]]'' is about a white journalist who finds and befriends a black homeless man, who turns out to be a former musical prodigy before developing schizophrenia. |
* ''[[The Soloist]]'' is about a white journalist who finds and befriends a black homeless man, who turns out to be a former musical prodigy before developing schizophrenia. |
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* [[Robert Sheckley]]'s short story "Human Man's Burden" is a parody of this trope, using robots instead of some non-white ethnicity. |
* [[Robert Sheckley]]'s short story "Human Man's Burden" is a parody of this trope, using robots instead of some non-white ethnicity. |
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