Colonization

The Colonial Model: Colonizer and Colonized  The empire is central, and the colonizers are superior in power/force, knowledge, and morality.  The colonizers have more power—more soldiers and employees (or “employees”).  The colonizers takes most or all materials that the colonized had and tasks the colonized with producing more materials, some necessary and some not, for the empire.  The colonized are working for the greater good of the empire.  The colonized are considered inferior—even savage—and are benefited by being colonized. It is the colonizers’ duty to better the colonized. This duty is the “white man’s burden”/colonizer’s burden.

Identity and Othering  Othering identifies individuals as different from and therefore not a part of the main group. Othering results in disenfranchisement (political exclusion, e.g. not being allowed to vote) and possibly overt racism. *The extreme end is, of course, genocide.  With othering, identity is based on external factors. External factors are those related to the/a larger group and are thereby those factors deemed important by the group.  Identifying markers (external) include gender, race, religion, and economic status.  Then, based upon these external identifying markers, a link is made between the othered individual’s external identifying markers and his/her internal being. This is called essentializing. Essentializing is the assumption that internally a person is a certain way—greedy or uneducated, for example.

Important terms  Prejudice/ racism /discrimination  Tolerance vs. acceptance  Othering  Disenfranchisement  Genocide  Assimilation  Revolution  subversion  Colonization  Essentialized