Racism as a tool of Christian agenda
March 30, 2023
  • Circulation
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
Organiser
  • ‌
  • Bharat
  • World
  • G20
  • Editorial
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • More
    • Defence
    • RSS in News
    • Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav
    • My States
    • Vocal4Local
    • Business
    • Special Report
    • Culture
    • Sci & Tech
    • Entertainment
    • Education
    • Books
    • Interviews
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Obituary
SUBSCRIBE
No Result
View All Result
  • ‌
  • Bharat
  • World
  • G20
  • Editorial
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • More
    • Defence
    • RSS in News
    • Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav
    • My States
    • Vocal4Local
    • Business
    • Special Report
    • Culture
    • Sci & Tech
    • Entertainment
    • Education
    • Books
    • Interviews
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Obituary
No Result
View All Result
Organiser
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Bharat
  • World
  • G20
  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Culture
  • Defence
  • RSS in News
  • My States
  • Vocal4Local
  • Subscribe
Home General

Racism as a tool of Christian agenda

Archive Manager by WEB DESK
Jun 19, 2011, 12:00 am IST
in General
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterTelegramEmail

‘YELLOW yellow dirty fellow’ kids in kindergarten are taught this to convey rhyme and colour. But it is possible it is transmitting subconsciously much more. The colour yellow is associated by the West with the Mongols, under which category they put the Japanese and the Chinese. The West when it first came into contact with the East, especially China and Japan, described them as white or pale. But over the centuries, the descriptions changed, in keeping with the changing politico-social, religious and economic equations between the two.

In a well-researched book Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking, Michael Keevak a linguist, traces the origin of the racial colouring of the people of the East and its social consequences. The colour of the skin of the people changed according to their ‘ability’ to convert to Christianity. “White, like all colour terms, was evaluative rather than descriptive. Perhaps East Asian pigmentation was seen to differ from that of the African or Indians or Malaysians, but this was not why they were called “White.” Before long it was also a function of their perceived capacity to become truly “civilised,” which is to say converted to European Christianity. It is partly for this reason that the Japanese started out much whiter than their Chinese neighbours, since by the end of the sixteenth century, hundreds of thousands of people had already been converted.”

Colour of the natives dominated the descriptions by the western travellers and missionaries. They sought to “distance everyone else from the whiteness (which is to say beauty, culture, intelligence, and level of civilisation) that was reserved for the Europeans only.” By the middle of nineteenth century the number of Chinese working in Europe had swelled. They were doing the jobs of the whites, better and for lesser pay. The Japanese winning against Russia spawned fears of a Japanese takeover of the world.

When the term Mongolian was invented, it caught on. Mongolian eye, Mongolian spots. Doctors working in the East talked about the children being born with spots on their body. The Down syndrome, for long was described as the Mongolian disease. It was not until the end of 1950s that the nature of the syndrome was linked to chromosomal abnormalities. Pleas to change the name from Mongolian to Down syndrome were published in journals. The government of Mongolia lodged a similar protect with the World Health organisation. The response was not encouraging. Someone helpfully noted that “Down Syndrome children do, after all, look Mongolian.”

The paranoid West also predicted a “yellow peril” when the world would be taken over by the Far East Asians. “With the intervention of “the yellow peril” in 1895, the notion that East Asians were yellow and perilous had become ubiquitous, not only because this phrase appeared in every imaginable category of both scholarly and popular writing, but also because for the first time it was able to cross European linguistic boundaries” says Keevak. What has in a way fuelled these is the association of Satan with the colour yellow in Dante’s poem Inferno and later by John Milton in Paradise Lost.

Interestingly, this colour categorisation was not just accepted but welcomed by the Chinese, because for them, yellow had been the colour of power, regal and royalty. It was the official colour of the emperor and muddy Yellow River is considered the cradle of their civilisation. “Yellow between the brows” was deigned as sign of happiness. The Japanese on the other hand loathed being clubbed with the “inferior” yellow people of China. They would rather be identified with the ‘superior white.’

Remarking that “In sum, both China and Japan lightened and darkened depending on thoroughly Western prejudices and Western preconceptions…” Keevak notes that these colour based or racial remarks were made not by fringe or reactionary groups or persons but by the authorities then on subjects such as anthropology, medicine, taxonomy, anatomy and physicians, whose words and works were accepted as truth by the academic circles and the public. It is not the colour description but the values or the connotation attached to these colours that are conjecturing stereotypes and complexes.

Becoming Yellow is a brilliant academic work that brings out the deep-rooted racial feelings nurtured by the West for all those who “are not like them.” They have associated non-Whites with inferiority and the centuries old well ingrained biases refuse to go. Keevak is a professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at National Taiwan University.

(Princeton University Press, 4, Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, Ox20 1TW)

ShareTweetSendShareSend
Previous News

Binayak Sen: Convicted of sedition, advising the plan panel

Next News

Kids’ Org Kali and Nala

Related News

King Prithu’s victory over Bakhtiyar Khalji commemorated: The day when North East was saved from Islamic invasion

King Prithu’s victory over Bakhtiyar Khalji commemorated: The day when North East was saved from Islamic invasion

AFSPA extended for 6 months in Assam, will remain valid in 8 districts; Insurgency reduced 76% in NE in last 8 years

AFSPA extended for 6 months in Assam, will remain valid in 8 districts; Insurgency reduced 76% in NE in last 8 years

Chhattisgarh: CRPF personnel injured while defusing a bomb in Bijapur

Chhattisgarh: CRPF personnel injured while defusing a bomb in Bijapur

No foreign diplomat raised issue of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, says External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

No foreign diplomat raised issue of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, says External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

Uttar Pradesh: AIMIM leader Uzma Praveen booked for offering namaz at public place in Lucknow

Uttar Pradesh: AIMIM leader Uzma Praveen booked for offering namaz at public place in Lucknow

Uttar Pradesh: Cleric Altmas Noman booked for raping a 14-year-old at a Madrasa

Uttar Pradesh: Cleric Altmas Noman booked for raping a 14-year-old at a Madrasa

Comments

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Organiser. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.

Latest News

King Prithu’s victory over Bakhtiyar Khalji commemorated: The day when North East was saved from Islamic invasion

King Prithu’s victory over Bakhtiyar Khalji commemorated: The day when North East was saved from Islamic invasion

AFSPA extended for 6 months in Assam, will remain valid in 8 districts; Insurgency reduced 76% in NE in last 8 years

AFSPA extended for 6 months in Assam, will remain valid in 8 districts; Insurgency reduced 76% in NE in last 8 years

Chhattisgarh: CRPF personnel injured while defusing a bomb in Bijapur

Chhattisgarh: CRPF personnel injured while defusing a bomb in Bijapur

No foreign diplomat raised issue of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, says External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

No foreign diplomat raised issue of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, says External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

Uttar Pradesh: AIMIM leader Uzma Praveen booked for offering namaz at public place in Lucknow

Uttar Pradesh: AIMIM leader Uzma Praveen booked for offering namaz at public place in Lucknow

Uttar Pradesh: Cleric Altmas Noman booked for raping a 14-year-old at a Madrasa

Uttar Pradesh: Cleric Altmas Noman booked for raping a 14-year-old at a Madrasa

India ‘mother of democracy’ and home to ‘idea of elected leaders’ much before rest of world: PM Modi

India ‘mother of democracy’ and home to ‘idea of elected leaders’ much before rest of world: PM Modi

Ministry of Defence signs 3 contracts worth Rs 5,400 crore to boost defence capabilities

Ministry of Defence signs 3 contracts worth Rs 5,400 crore to boost defence capabilities

Three Khalistani arrested for violence against Indian-Australians at Federation Square in Melbourne

Three Khalistani arrested for violence against Indian-Australians at Federation Square in Melbourne

Bihar: ASI Mumtaj Ahmed shot Sudhir Yadav for evading vehicle at check post in Jehanabad; 5 constables & ASI suspended

Bihar: ASI Mumtaj Ahmed shot Sudhir Yadav for evading vehicle at check post in Jehanabad; 5 constables & ASI suspended

  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Cookie Policy
  • Refund and Cancellation
  • Delivery and Shipping

© Bharat Prakashan (Delhi) Limited.
Tech-enabled by Ananthapuri Technologies

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Bharat
  • World
  • Editorial
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Defence
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Business
  • RSS in News
  • My States
  • Vocal4Local
  • Special Report
  • Sci & Tech
  • Entertainment
  • Education
  • Books
  • Interviews
  • Travel
  • Health
  • Obituary
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Circulation
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Refund and Cancellation

© Bharat Prakashan (Delhi) Limited.
Tech-enabled by Ananthapuri Technologies