Claudio Hidalgo

Paulina Prieto
Pablo Morales
Ivonne Esparza
Read the poem "The White Man's Burden" by Rudyard Kipling. Prepare to duscuss with
the class.
Look for difficult words, or analogies within the poem.
Do the following activities:
1. Paraphrase your stanza
2. What stereotypes does this Kipling have about white people? What stereotypes does
he have about groups colonized by Europeans? Please support your answers with
quotations from the poem.
3. Think back to our discussion of stereotypes. We noted that some stereotypes are
positive ( for example, the stereotype that Mexicans are fun to be around or the
sterotype that Asians are intelligent). Based on this poem, why might positive
stereotypes be dangerous?
4. Some people call this form of racism "the missionary mentality." Why do you think
that phrase is used? Do you think it is an apt title?
5. As you read Things Fall Apart, keep this poem in mind. How does the African
perspective of European colonialism differ from Kipling's European perspective?
Embrace the Caucasians duty.
In composure to endure.
To mask the possibility chaos.
And hinder the display of vanity.
Stereotypes:
Several white man stereotypes are mentioned during the poem:
White men want to take everything.
White men want to invade territories.
White men are really into war.
White men consider of themselves as superior. Send forth the best ye breed
White men take another people gains and profit. To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain
Colonized people are half devil half man.
Colonized people are starving and sick
Colonized people are savages..
Colonized people are weak.
Colonized people are I need.

Fil Half-devil and half-child.

l full the mouth of Famine
To serve your captives' need;

Positive stereotypes can be as bad a negative ones in the sense that they
imply something of a person because of some traits they posses nor related

to what the prejudice is about, but even then a positive stereotype wont hurt
as much as a negative one.
Because the missionaries thought they were saving the colonized people and
helping them not noticing that they already had a culture that the
missionaries were taking away and they were all the same as humans.
The phrase is used because that mentality still exists thinking that you are
helping someone when you see the as inferior and try to convert them into
what you consider better
The Africans see the Europeans as invaders who came to rip their culture
and religion away, Europeans see themselves as saviors who came to save
the Africans from their ways of living and helping them become better.