White Man's Burden, 21st Century Edition

[Nephew Twiddleton]

So, I read this one thing tonight, since I was going and getting lost in links as sometimes happen, and it was about movies that you thought were awesome when you saw them but on further reflection were shitty.

A recurring theme in it was White Man saves the day. Well, all of the lead actors are white so that makes a little bit of sense, and we all feel a bit guilty about all the horrible things that white people did throughout history (which ignores the larger problem that humans do shitty things throughout history).

I guess one of the things that stuck out in my mind was criticism of Avatar, and White Man saves the day. Again.

But it goes a little beyond that. What you see now is White Man saves the day after a process of cultural appropriation and leading the natives into glorious battle against the bad white people. Also, after White Man saved the day, he was stuck as a blue cat thing because his White Man body died, and you know, maybe this is some sort of deep metaphor about how he could never go back to White Man culture after seeing what he saw.

So, let's go over this again. White Man walks around a planet inhabited by Blue Cats, and has to put on Blue Face to understand the Blue Cats and then because he's a White Man Blue Cat leads the Blue Cats to a victory that they never could have achieved on their own.

Well, that's a little fucked up isn't it? What about that Tom Cruise samurai flick? Those samurai didn't stand a chance without a Scientologist leading them. But it's ok, because he became one of them. He had his Japanese card along with his deep understanding of Bushido.

I mean, I get it, it's supposed to portray other cultures as equally valuable. But the thing is, it has the dual hidden meaning that those cultures are still seen as inferior, because White Man still needs to save the day, but because there is no White Man without The Man, White Man has to bring his Big White Brains to the other side and become that other side as a means of redeeming himself. You know, instead of actually fixing the problem.

Ok, great. White Man put on Blue Face and saved all of the otherwise helpless and naive noble savages.

But when was the last time the culture that created White Man ever stopped? I suppose if one White Man only lead the Iroquois Confederacy to victory, that Europeans would have called it a day and stayed in Europe.

Seems to me that it would have been better if White Man didn't pretend to be Blue Cat and started being a loud about what he saw was being done wrong by his own people.

What the movie doesn't show you is the headlines. "Human With PTSD Backs the Wrong People, Starts Insurgent Group"

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Funny thing is, with Kipling, the brown dude often saves the day (Gunga Din, The Widow's Party).

And the original White Man's Burden was a biting satire.

So that adds a little extra deliciousness to your excellent post.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Funny thing is, with Kipling, the brown dude often saves the day (Gunga Din, The Widow's Party).

And the original White Man's Burden was a biting satire.

So that adds a little extra deliciousness to your excellent post.

I remember too that it was lost on some people that it was satire, and led to satires of the satire. Which, I guess is a good thing, because it made people stop and think for a minute.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Funny thing is, with Kipling, the brown dude often saves the day (Gunga Din, The Widow's Party).

And the original White Man's Burden was a biting satire.

So that adds a little extra deliciousness to your excellent post.

I remember too that it was lost on some people that it was satire, and led to satires of the satire. Which, I guess is a good thing, because it made people stop and think for a minute.

Thing is, Kipling used the language soldiers of his day used, as an accuracy thing, same as Mark Twain.

For which they are still called bigots.  People can't see past that.

Gunga Din was the hero of Gunga Din, not the soldier/narrator, for example.  And not by being a smarmy little stereotype, but by assisting the wounded under fire until he himself is shot and killed.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Funny thing is, with Kipling, the brown dude often saves the day (Gunga Din, The Widow's Party).

And the original White Man's Burden was a biting satire.

So that adds a little extra deliciousness to your excellent post.

I remember too that it was lost on some people that it was satire, and led to satires of the satire. Which, I guess is a good thing, because it made people stop and think for a minute.

Thing is, Kipling used the language soldiers of his day used, as an accuracy thing, same as Mark Twain.

For which they are still called bigots.  People can't see past that.

Gunga Din was the hero of Gunga Din, not the soldier/narrator, for example.  And not by being a smarmy little stereotype, but by assisting the wounded under fire until he himself is shot and killed.

Funny thing about Twain there too, since a careful reading clearly shows him to be anti-slavery and anti-racist.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Funny thing is, with Kipling, the brown dude often saves the day (Gunga Din, The Widow's Party).

And the original White Man's Burden was a biting satire.

So that adds a little extra deliciousness to your excellent post.

I remember too that it was lost on some people that it was satire, and led to satires of the satire. Which, I guess is a good thing, because it made people stop and think for a minute.

Thing is, Kipling used the language soldiers of his day used, as an accuracy thing, same as Mark Twain.

For which they are still called bigots.  People can't see past that.

Gunga Din was the hero of Gunga Din, not the soldier/narrator, for example.  And not by being a smarmy little stereotype, but by assisting the wounded under fire until he himself is shot and killed.

Funny thing about Twain there too, since a careful reading clearly shows him to be anti-slavery and anti-racist.

A skim shows that.  But again, he used the language of the time.  He didn't approve of the word "nigger", nor did he approve of the way Blacks were treated (as evidenced by his essays and newspaper articles), but you could hardly write Huck Finn with the whites being polite (although the Duke and his companion were).

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Funny thing is, with Kipling, the brown dude often saves the day (Gunga Din, The Widow's Party).

And the original White Man's Burden was a biting satire.

So that adds a little extra deliciousness to your excellent post.

I remember too that it was lost on some people that it was satire, and led to satires of the satire. Which, I guess is a good thing, because it made people stop and think for a minute.

Thing is, Kipling used the language soldiers of his day used, as an accuracy thing, same as Mark Twain.

For which they are still called bigots.  People can't see past that.

Gunga Din was the hero of Gunga Din, not the soldier/narrator, for example.  And not by being a smarmy little stereotype, but by assisting the wounded under fire until he himself is shot and killed.

Funny thing about Twain there too, since a careful reading clearly shows him to be anti-slavery and anti-racist.

A skim shows that.  But again, he used the language of the time.  He didn't approve of the word "nigger", nor did he approve of the way Blacks were treated (as evidenced by his essays and newspaper articles), but you could hardly write Huck Finn with the whites being polite (although the Duke and his companion were).

True. I had Puddinghead Wilson in mind. Huck Finn is a more obvious and well known one.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Funny thing is, with Kipling, the brown dude often saves the day (Gunga Din, The Widow's Party).

And the original White Man's Burden was a biting satire.

So that adds a little extra deliciousness to your excellent post.

I remember too that it was lost on some people that it was satire, and led to satires of the satire. Which, I guess is a good thing, because it made people stop and think for a minute.

Thing is, Kipling used the language soldiers of his day used, as an accuracy thing, same as Mark Twain.

For which they are still called bigots.  People can't see past that.

Gunga Din was the hero of Gunga Din, not the soldier/narrator, for example.  And not by being a smarmy little stereotype, but by assisting the wounded under fire until he himself is shot and killed.

Funny thing about Twain there too, since a careful reading clearly shows him to be anti-slavery and anti-racist.

A skim shows that.  But again, he used the language of the time.  He didn't approve of the word "nigger", nor did he approve of the way Blacks were treated (as evidenced by his essays and newspaper articles), but you could hardly write Huck Finn with the whites being polite (although the Duke and his companion were).

True. I had Puddinghead Wilson in mind. Huck Finn is a more obvious and well known one.

Never could get through that one.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Funny thing is, with Kipling, the brown dude often saves the day (Gunga Din, The Widow's Party).

And the original White Man's Burden was a biting satire.

So that adds a little extra deliciousness to your excellent post.

I remember too that it was lost on some people that it was satire, and led to satires of the satire. Which, I guess is a good thing, because it made people stop and think for a minute.

Thing is, Kipling used the language soldiers of his day used, as an accuracy thing, same as Mark Twain.

For which they are still called bigots.  People can't see past that.

Gunga Din was the hero of Gunga Din, not the soldier/narrator, for example.  And not by being a smarmy little stereotype, but by assisting the wounded under fire until he himself is shot and killed.

Funny thing about Twain there too, since a careful reading clearly shows him to be anti-slavery and anti-racist.

A skim shows that.  But again, he used the language of the time.  He didn't approve of the word "nigger", nor did he approve of the way Blacks were treated (as evidenced by his essays and newspaper articles), but you could hardly write Huck Finn with the whites being polite (although the Duke and his companion were).

True. I had Puddinghead Wilson in mind. Huck Finn is a more obvious and well known one.

Never could get through that one.

I thought that one was great, especially the fact that they included the drop of blood thing in there. The kid born into slavery was switched with the white kid. The white kid ends up being raised a slave and the kid born into slavery ends up being a racist, abusive slave master.

[Auscultare of the Fatigue]

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Funny thing is, with Kipling, the brown dude often saves the day (Gunga Din, The Widow's Party).

And the original White Man's Burden was a biting satire.

So that adds a little extra deliciousness to your excellent post.

I remember too that it was lost on some people that it was satire, and led to satires of the satire. Which, I guess is a good thing, because it made people stop and think for a minute.

Thing is, Kipling used the language soldiers of his day used, as an accuracy thing, same as Mark Twain.

For which they are still called bigots.  People can't see past that.

Gunga Din was the hero of Gunga Din, not the soldier/narrator, for example.  And not by being a smarmy little stereotype, but by assisting the wounded under fire until he himself is shot and killed.

Funny thing about Twain there too, since a careful reading clearly shows him to be anti-slavery and anti-racist.

A skim shows that.  But again, he used the language of the time.  He didn't approve of the word "nigger", nor did he approve of the way Blacks were treated (as evidenced by his essays and newspaper articles), but you could hardly write Huck Finn with the whites being polite (although the Duke and his companion were).

True. I had Puddinghead Wilson in mind. Huck Finn is a more obvious and well known one.

Never could get through that one.

I thought that one was great, especially the fact that they included the drop of blood thing in there. The kid born into slavery was switched with the white kid. The white kid ends up being raised a slave and the kid born into slavery ends up being a racist, abusive slave master.

Haha, you know, I could never remember what that book was called. I read it when I was little and thought it was pretty damn good, but completely forgot author and title.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Funny thing is, with Kipling, the brown dude often saves the day (Gunga Din, The Widow's Party).

And the original White Man's Burden was a biting satire.

So that adds a little extra deliciousness to your excellent post.

I remember too that it was lost on some people that it was satire, and led to satires of the satire. Which, I guess is a good thing, because it made people stop and think for a minute.

Thing is, Kipling used the language soldiers of his day used, as an accuracy thing, same as Mark Twain.

For which they are still called bigots.  People can't see past that.

Gunga Din was the hero of Gunga Din, not the soldier/narrator, for example.  And not by being a smarmy little stereotype, but by assisting the wounded under fire until he himself is shot and killed.

Funny thing about Twain there too, since a careful reading clearly shows him to be anti-slavery and anti-racist.

A skim shows that.  But again, he used the language of the time.  He didn't approve of the word "nigger", nor did he approve of the way Blacks were treated (as evidenced by his essays and newspaper articles), but you could hardly write Huck Finn with the whites being polite (although the Duke and his companion were).

True. I had Puddinghead Wilson in mind. Huck Finn is a more obvious and well known one.

Never could get through that one.

I thought that one was great, especially the fact that they included the drop of blood thing in there. The kid born into slavery was switched with the white kid. The white kid ends up being raised a slave and the kid born into slavery ends up being a racist, abusive slave master.

Haha, you know, I could never remember what that book was called. I read it when I was little and thought it was pretty damn good, but completely forgot author and title.

We read it in American Lit II, which I took the semester just before I dropped out the second time. I might have to give it a reread. Though a reread of Twain is always a good thing.