Arbitrary Hierarchy

Ideas of post-colonialism and how they have effected literature have been an interesting field of study. However, it certainly raises the question of whether or not Europeans were right in what they did. Ideas of hegemony and dominant discourse also run rampant through these novels because it may spark the idea of where they got the right to enter a world and set up the idea that what they knew was better. This whole genre reminds me so much of the Disney movie "Pocahantas" where the English deemed the Native Americans as savages.

Similarly, this is what Conrad is doing to the natives of Africa. They are different and strange and their customs do not make sense. For they are the group that dances freely and seems not to know at all what to do with the land they possess. A group who is uninterested in owning land or people and who live simply. By first glance at this reading, it is easy to assume that Conrad is just a "bloody racist" and that he sees these people as nothing more than a lower form of the human race. What struck me most about this passage and where I have to agree with Achebe is the fear of the natives that Conrad seems to have. "No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it -- this suspicion of their not being inhuman. " (Conrad) This to me, seems to point directly to racism and the thought that this different race is somehow less than human. It's as though he is looking at these people and the realization that this horrid display of "a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clap- ping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling, under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage" (Conrad) and the fact that they too are among humans and that human form could lessen itself to the point of this behavior, is most terrifying to him. He seems not to be able to identify with them, as he is so much higher then they.

Reading this passage today, is filled with racism. Through the constant reference to these people using the n-word ( a highly degrading term) and the ideal white man only seems to point to racism and the inability to see someone of another race as equal. However, any group that had colonized Africa (or any part of the world) could not see past race. They saw these people as animalistic and criminals; but this does raise a question of what justice did they have to do that? Is it solely because they had the right skin color and a white cloth would not contrast so with their skin? (Conrad) It is hard to believe that one group of people could own another and make up this dominant discourse that placed themselves so much higher. Although it may seem like the question is not worth asking but really, is it fair to say that that is just how they see things? It is not their fault they see another race as lower than they? This passage and idea of post colonialism raises so many questions about how we see ourselves, how we see each other and how we use one another as a lens for perception.

The idea Conrad presents of native Africans seems more to go against what he is trying to say and rather than promote his way of thinking, he seems to guide the reader away from it. Maybe the human mind is not as strong as he believes it is. "The mind of man is capable of anything -- because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future". (Conrad) If we cannot see beyond color and race, how much could we possibly know? Are we really capable of anything if we fear the difference in each other? The very thing that makes us unique and beautiful can fall to nothing and mean nothing because the idea of hegemony and colonization does not allow for it.

These questions can sadly not be answered, but they all point to how someone can read Conrad as a racist. An argument maybe can be said that he is only sticking to what he has been taught and what his own culture has imprinted on him. However, if no one can stand up and say what they believe to be wrong; if no one can go against what they have been taught, how can we grow as a people and how can we expect things like war and genocide to stop? If we give Conrad the benefit of the doubt and say that he is just recording what he sees and it's only perception, where do we draw the line of racism, because isn't that where it all begins? Simple perception?