a white man's burden
...civilize the captured people, often feeling that it was their duty to provide them with a better life. Kipling’s poem supports the belief that the white man is far superior to other races. The poem seems to say that it is the duty of the white man to ensure that the “inferior” races be brought up to a higher level of civilization. Essentially, once a territory is taken over, the white race is responsible for civilizing the “inferior” people living there. An example of this is seen in the first few lines of the poem: Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives’ needs; To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child. (Kipling, 214) By “serving the captives needs” Kipling is stating that it is necessary for the white man to take on the burden of civilizing the inferior races. Calling inferior races “half-devil and half-child,” the author seems to see the white race as superior to all others. The whites are humans and the other races are “half-devil.” This imperialism was influenced by the belief that different people in the world were not only culturally, but also biologically distinct. Furthermore, the superior race must recognize that and take on its burden. In a poor application of Darwinian Theory, racialists believed each nation and people were involved in a never-ending competition in which only the fittest would survive. This permitted successful imperial powers to point to their conquests as proof of “fitness” and to rationalize their empires as selfless efforts to bring the benefits of their “superior” civilization to others. Clearly, Kipling was not the only one that felt the white man was superior to others. This was a common belief throughout the world as many white men took in other races as slaves. Kipling’s po...