Is Conrad a racist or not?

After reading the excerpt on “Heart of Darkness” I could see why Achebe would perceive Conrad as a racist. Conrad describes the natives in Africa as ugly and grotesque. He states in the novel “I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men -- men, I tell you.” This statement I believe is referring to the natives, and it is definitely a racist comment. Conrad is basically saying that they are evil, more specifically he refers to them as the devil. Although many of the statements in the book were racist, I believe that Conrad was not a racist; I think that he wrote what was true during that time period. Europeans thought of themselves as great and one could say that they were the dominant group at this time , the idea of hegemony is apparent throughout this novel.

Ahcebe‘s quotes in his essay a sentence from Conrad’s novel “Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough, but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you -- you so remote from the night of first ages -- could comprehend.” Achebe suggests that the word ugly was referring to the Westerner’s humanity. In this one sentence Conrad is comparing the Westerners to the Natives and how they are not so different. Achebe does bring up a good point, and this one sentence made me believe that Conrad was not such a racist as Achebe claims.

I don’t really think it matters whether or not Conrad was a racist. I read both the excerpt from “Heart of Darkness” and Achebe’s “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”, I think that Conrad’s novel is filled with a lot racist remarks if someone were to read it in today’s world, but back in those days it was natural for people or to be more specific westerners to feel that way about Africans. I mean our history proves that we were prejudice against anyone or anything different. I believe that Conrad wrote this novel with truth, the truth being that Europeans were a racist group during post- colonialism.