The White Man’s Burden in the Twenty-First Century By Phyllis Chesler

Ibn Warraq reminds us that in the past, the West and the East once learned from each other; that Orientalists were not immoral “colonialists” but were, in fact, deeply respectful of the “Orient” which in turn, respectfully received their work.

Although I knew and admired the late, great Dr. Margaret Mead and other pioneer-anthropologists, (Ruby Rohrlich and Eleanor “Happy” Leacock for starters), my ardor for anthropology gradually dimmed as the discipline became increasingly politicized. Ironically, anthropologists have judged western culture harshly and moralistically as “sexist, racist, class-ist, and anti-gay” — but have refused to judge Third World cultures even slightly by these same standards. Indeed, what began as a valiant attempt to understand the “Other” and the ravages of both poverty and oppression has degenerated into a valorization of barbarism and a demonization of any western attempts to either intervene or to introduce any principles of universal rights.

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