White Man's World

Throughout time in my opinion it was known to be that the world we live in today is a white man's world. The meaning of this phrase to me has a very racist and bias message because it glorifies only the moral teachings and behaviors of white people, while undermining that of other cultures and ethnic groups. Examples aside from racism in America that acknowledge this quote is demonstrated in the piece of literature "From Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims" by Sarah Winnemucca and the Scramble for Africa by the European powers.


From the Native American story, the character Sarah gives the background of her Indian tribe's culture and how it is being threatened by the white European government. When she makes the statement "it is always the whites that begin the wars, for their own selfish purposes" (Winnmenucca 69) shows that there is constant warfare between the Indians and whites. Also when she says "I never in my life saw our children as rude as I have seen white children and grown people in the streets" (Winnemucca 69) she's explaining that her Indian culture has transcended by adopting the white man's ways. Finally due to the oppression of the government, she describes how there is a loss of hope in her tribal area since the mothers are afraid to have more children, especially daughters because of the value of how the children are taught to be the future of the world and living with positive ethics and morals are being threatened and tainted by the white Europeans' influence of immoralities such as greed.

http://www.heritage-history.com/books/howard/chiefs/zpage213.gifmany wars

Another example of how the world is so called to be a white man's world was due to the Scramble for Africa in the eighteen eighties to the nineteen hundreds. This time period was also known as Imperialism because many European powers such as Great Britain, France, Italy, Portugal and Germany all were in a competition to see which European power would control which territories or lands of Africa. This event was primarily due to the economic, social and military evolution that Europe was going through. Also during this time period there were  occurring between the European powers and African tribes. One major war that broke out was the Boer war, which was a conflict that arose between the British Empire and the Dutch settlers who were also known as the Boers. During the war, the British captured and imprisoned thousands of Boer women and children in concentration camps, where over twenty six thousand Boer women and children died, thus destroying the Boer's army spirit and forcing them to surrender.

http://www.saburchill.com/history/chapters/empires/images/0090.jpg

http://faceintheblue.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/boer-

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From my knowledge it is very clear of how the view of a White Man's World has shaped the nation's perception on the acceptability that the whites have more power than any other ethnic groups such as Native Americans and African Americans. It is because of this negative and belittling phrase that certain minorities in society simply feel inferior, conquered and hopeless on overcoming any barriers in life. Also because of these feelings they feel as if they are slaves in the mind. I believe that in the near future people of all races should work together to change their actions in order to put an end to the hateful and prejudicial  phrase that runs our society's mindset.

Winnemucca, Sarah. "From Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims." The Literary West: An Anthology of Western American Literature. Ed. Thomas J. Lyon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 65-69. Print

Taylor, Jeff. "The New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa 1880-1914." African History. 05 May 2003. The Metropolitan State College of Denver. 17 Feb. 2012
<http://www.clem.mscd.edu/~tayljeff/lectures/NewImp.html