White Man’s Burden
Where Lies Their History, Lies Their Fault
by Alexandre Vachon
Opinions Editor
Take up the White Man’s burden/Send forth the best ye breed/Go send 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/Take up the White Man’s burden” -Rudyard Kipling
Dear white men, and white men only, this is a reminder of the burden your ancestors boldly took responsibility of. There was a pan-European realization that occurred one-hundred-sixty-six years ago, the white man realized that the world outside of Europe was not “civilized”.
The White Man, being the great epitome of civilization, deemed it his job to go around the world and enforce his pseudo freedom/liberating ideals to the non-white “savages”. The grace of the White Man eradicated lesser cultures, lesser religions, lesser philosophies, lesser languages, and most importantly tried to eradicate lesser people. This awakening resulted in the righteous occupations of continents for centuries. Indeed, the White Man spread its glory around the world and raised the flag of freedom in the “savage” countries.
Yes, my dear White Man, remember your history, remember the blood shed of the aboriginals of the lands you conquered. Oh how beautiful the red blood mixed rivers were, how the amazon was filled with black bodies pilled in mines. Oh how passionate were the screams of the wild Congolese under the hard machete of Leopold II. White Man! Do you not remember the beautiful spectacle of the Filipino-American War? Or the beautiful nightlight of burning Tokyo!
Alas, white men, have you forgotten your burden? How can one forget, your history was built upon it! Indeed, mine was too, yet half devil and half sanctified I am, I do remember. Is your oblivion so great that you forgot your burden? Well, dear White Man, I must then remind you, for your burden is not gone.
What complaints can the White Man have? You have chosen the burden have you not? Dear White Man, the colonization that you so avidly committed yourself to has backfired. Can the European White Man curse the migrants for seeking refuge in their liberating kingdoms? Was it not the great West who taught the Middle East terrorism? Why does the North-American White Man loathe Middle-Easterners? Was it not your burden to teach them democracy? How can Congolese refugees not run to Europe? Was the Raping of Congo not for liberation? Yet their saviors are denying them, burning down their houses, and expelling them from their Zion?
My friend, no, my superior, the reason I still stick bombs to my body, the reason I explode while shouting a foreign tongue is because you have not yet fully purified me. Master, the reason I am selling myself in the slum of my Ebola/HIV infested neighborhood is because the dirty black blood that you have cursed for four-hundred years still pumps through my veins.
Alas, my White Wise man, how can you refuse me from entering your country. Don’t you see that I finally understand that you were right! The savagery of my country is still present; I need you to baptize me in your classism and racism! Oh my, White Man, what burden you bear! You hold the responsibility of colonization, and yet you are oblivious to its consequence. Dear White Man, you must not and cannot complain; Take up the White Man’s Burden!