To me “Racism”
involves norms of inferiority about a racial group, or even assumptions of intrinsic
qualities of individuals based on racial inheritance. In “An Image of Africa,”
Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad for his racist stereotypical mentality towards
the people of Africa as a whole. Africans were portrayed in Conrad’s novel as
savages with no language other than grunts. I believe, to Conrad, the Africans
were not characters in his story, but literally props. In Achebe’s essay
Westerners think of Africans as the inferior race. This form of mentality
portrays as having no linguistic and therefore they are portrayed as barbarians
because they are no way near like the Westerners. The Westerners continuously
thought of the Africans as no way near the human race. They wanted to leave
Africa with their uncivilized civilizations as a matter of past. This is where “Apocalypse Now” comes into the
picture as Vietnam can be put in the same place with the condition of the
Africans in Achebe’s essay because in Apocalypse Now the Vietnamese are
portrayed as humanity’s most lowest level and also inferior race. But on the
other hand, Achebe did not criticized Conrad’s works, but in fact wrote an developing
postcolonial story that counters many f the degrading stereotypes that has been
placed on the continent of Africa. In his essay, Achebe portrays the ways that
Conrad degrades the Africans by diminishing their religious practices to
superstitions, and that also taking their capability of speaking languages and
calling their continent a field of jungle. But in contrast, Achebe portrays the
Africans and their land full of intelligence and a place where everyone is a
normal human being like all other races.
I love how you compared the way westerners think of Africans to "props" in a story. It's really crazy how people can be so brainwashed as to think a certain group of people are basically nothing because of a color or because of a religion. Someone once told me, we all bleed the same blood and we all either turn into ashes or Skelton bones when it is our time and you cannot tell the difference between western bones and African bones or Cambodian bones. Like we talked about a bit in class, I think people sometimes get confused with differences in people so they automatically think that people who look different from them are bad because if those people who look different are good, then they would be the bad ones (in their minds) But the challenge would be to change the brain to realize that we are all human regardless of color difference or religious beliefs. And I think that is what is hard for some people for whatever reason. For some reason, people do not like to think that it is "okay" to be different, but just because we have a different religion or skin tone does not mean we are not human. We are all humans and the only thing our differences do is make us unique so we can bring different stories and experiences to the table and help each other through tough times, instead of blaming each other.
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