While that line of thinking is seductive, because it suggests an easy solution for complex problems, like racism; West believes that the real solutions will require people to question their own fundamental assumptions about power and its relationship to racism. Specifically, West talks about how racism is inherently linked to classification, and, in fact, that "the genealogy of racism in the modern West is inseparable from the appearance of the classificatory category of race in natural history," and then traces the history of race as a classification.
While West cautions others against oversimplification, he appears to engage in oversimplification himself. He discusses race from a purely Western perspective, as if racial distinction was merely the result of Western race classification. However, by the time that Francois Bernier first formally used race as a classification in 1684, there was already a thriving and well-established slave-trade practice, which was at least partially based upon ideas of white supremacy. This notion is reinforced by the other early writers cited by West, and actually leads one to the same conclusions as Snowden, which West dismisses in his article.
Homi Bhahba's article discussing colonialism and its interrelationship with racism was the most enlightening article read. One of the stated goals of colonialism was to bring a certain type of government and social system to a conquered land; improving the lives of those who had been colonized. However, Bhahba points out that this goal was a mimicked one, because the colonized would not be content to be so if they had the ability for self-governing independence....
As a result, the goal of colonization was for the colonies to mimic European life, but to never quite be able to attain it.
This is an interesting insight into the history of modern racism, most notably slavery, which one must find helpful. Bhahba uses historical documents discussing the goals of colonization to demonstrate that the imperialistic countries could never truly fulfill those goals. For example, the missionary spread of Christianity sought to enlighten people about Christ, but also to spread the missionary language (usually English) and teach European social norms as elements of the religion. However, because Christianity contained implicit promises of liberty, there was an acknowledgment that Indians were only being taught parts of Christianity, because of concerns that more in-depth teachings would spur them to seek greater personal freedoms. That same pattern was repeated in different colonies with different non-white groups of people, and truly was mimicry of a civil and civilizing society.
Works Cited
Barker, Martin. "The Problems with Racism." Race Critical Theories: Text and Context. Eds.
Philomena Essed and David Goldberg. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2001. 80-89.
Bhabha, Homi. "Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse." Race Critical
Theories: Text and Context. Eds. Philomena Essed and David Goldberg. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2001. 113-122.
West, Cornel. "A Genealogy of Modern Racism." Race Critical Theories: Text and Context.
Eds. Philomena Essed and David Goldberg. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2001. 90-112.
