Race and Culture Albert Camus, Essay

Certainly this is a key theme in books by diverse authors (Malamud, Tan, etc.). It is the very institutionalization of race that causes it to continue and perpetuate when, quite easily we see that figures such as James Baldwin and others, working in the 1920s and 1930s in Harlem, could begin the long road to overcoming White supremacy.

What does the "impact of modernity" mean to traditional cultures of the Afro-Asian-Indian world? What was the general reaction of the native populations? Why was the West so successful imposing its will on these areas of the world? Do we see examples of this in contemporary times? Construct a 250-300-word post answering these questions.

Time and time again we note that traditional cultures that are forced to interact with European-based systems often lose what one might call their "humanity." This paradigm began whenever European decided to move into an area and uspurp authority, but became quite prevelant during the Age of Discovery after Columbus' fateful voyage of 1492. Here indigenous cultures were judged, used, malaigned, and decimated through disease, slavery, and ignorance. One contemporary African author summed this creeping White disease as, "The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart" (Achebe, Chapter 20). This theme is also echoed in scholarly literature that shows how countries like Africa are "reimagined" by Whites, usually in a colonial or imperialistic notion, which often upsets the balance