Burden of the White Man

This is a brief analysis of a poem by Rudyard Kipling. I found this and was intrigued by what it actually was supposed to mean.

In the poem The White Man's Burden, written by Rudyard Kipling, a critique is offered about what responsibilities a wealthier or "better" society has in regards to a poorer or more "inferior" society. According to Kipling, The burden of the white man is to essentially civilize cultures that were different from the predominant European culture. It was the responsibility of white people to show other people how to advance and become more like what the Europeans considered to be civilized. This poem epitomizes the Euro centric viewpoint that was so popular at the time.

The perspective that the European Countries were superior to nearly all other countries was not unique to Kipling. In fact, the belief that other cultures should be ruled by whites for their own benefit allowed many white people to feel justified in the conquering and enslaving of other peoples.

This idea of white people leading the world is not as old fashioned as it sounds. The U.S. is a predominantly white country and is often compelled to meddle in foreign affairs purely for its own benefit while justifying itself by believing it is for the good of the other country. Even when white people in the United States become a minority group, there will still be the eerily familiar drive to influence other cultures with our own, thus perpetuating the cycle of imperialism, or the idea that one's own culture is better than that of another culture.