ArchivedArticles: The 21st Century White Man’s Burden

The 21st Century White Man's Burden
By Pete Rottier

www.OpEdNews.com

As a historian I often use current events to give my students insight into the past. Last week in my Western Civilization II course at Cleveland State University, the lecture topic was the 'New Imperialism' that engulfed Europe at the end of the 19th century. We had a discussion on the prevailing view of the time period, the White Man's Burden, which basically stated that it was better for these undeveloped or underdeveloped territories to become the colonial possessions of the enlightened European states because they could help organize these new lands, make the regions more productive, and bring civilization to the half-wild native masses. My students sat in wonder as I went through the ideas of Social Darwinism that pervaded the period and were shocked that people could think in these terms of white superiority. Then I asked the fateful question that brought gasps and indignation. I asked, "In what way was the United States led coalition invasion of Iraq similar to the mindset of the white man's burden at the turn of the twentieth century?"

One student shook his head and asked, "What were we suppose to do? We were attacked," assuming, as many Americans still do, that somehow Saddam Hussein and Iraq were behind the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01. When I pointed out that even the Bush administration does not contend that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, the student looked at me distrustfully. Another student stated that it didn't matter whether Saddam and Al-Qaida were connected; the freeing of the Iraqi people from his brutal reign was justification in itself. To this I again asked if there wasn't some connection between the claim of bringing enlightenment and civilization in the 19th century, and bringing liberty and democracy to Iraq in the twenty-first century.

The White Man's Burden was an ideology that was used to justify European Imperialism at the turn of the 20th century. The ideas of survival of the fittest and natural selection helped solidify the notion of social and racial hierarchies in the world. Yet the rational, liberal ideals of the enlightenment still carried considerable weight throughout Europe. Therefore the idea of colonization was then packaged as a humanitarian mission with the Europeans benevolently helping bring civilization to the savage natives. The White Man's Burden moved colonialism from a venture of profit and selfishness to one of duty and responsibility to ones' fellow humans. There was also the feeling that enlightening the savages would bring security for the European nations. The newly civilized societies would be forever grateful and become the happy little brothers of their European or American benefactors.

The coalition governments would never say that they were civilizing the Iraqis, because in the post-colonial world of the 21st century, this would be insensitive and arrogant. Instead, these governments use a new vocabulary of defeating tyranny and supporting liberty. The Bush administration appears to have a naïve belief that if they can create a stable and prosperous democracy in the heart of the Islamic world then the other countries of the region will eventually follow this path towards democracy. The theory comes from the cold war where the US spent billions of dollars rebuilding Western Germany and the rest of Europe and made West Berlin a showcase of consumer goods and prosperity. In the end, the Soviet Union could not keep up; needing to spend much more of their GNP for defense the USSR therefore neglected consumer goods resulting in a grossly lower standard of living in the East than in the West. In the end communism collapsed and the eastern European nations emerged from the cold war looking west, to capitalism and democracy to rebuild their societies. The hope today is that this same situation will emerge in the Middle East.

The United States is pumping billions of dollars into Iraq in an effort to create a showcase of prosperity and liberty. The hope is that there will be a democratization domino effect that will transform the whole region into stable democracies that will be prosperous and therefore remove the conditions that presently breed resentment, anti-Americanism, and ultimately, terrorism. Unfortunately, this plan was about as well thought out as Vice-president Cheney's declaration prior to the war that the Iraqi people would greet the American troops as liberators. This arrogance is reminiscent of the White Man's Burden. Unfortunately, the White Man's Burden does not have a positive connotation in history and neither will this new incarnation of it.

While most Iraqis are probably relieved to be rid of Hussein, the majority clearly want the occupation to end as quickly as possible. One of the key issues that Operation Iraqi Liberty overlooked is that the Islamic radicals detest Western culture most of all, and believe that the spread of it into the Islamic lands corrupts their societies. Forced westernization will not alleviate radicalism, but conversely, will actually spread it. One needs only look at the history of imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century to predict the outcome of the Iraqi occupation. Instead of securing the Middle East, the policy will breed even more discontent and distrust.

Pete Rottier p.rottier@csuohio.edu teaches at Cleveland State University