2.8

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2.8Women, Colonisation, and Racism, Jan Jindy
Pettman Pettman examines the impacts of
colonialism upon the colonizing (i.e., white)
women. --posits that white women are ambiguously
placed into constructions of global power
different from white men and from other women
--this ambiguous status has resulted in
many interpretations of white womens roles in
the colonial process Pettmans analysis points
to the problems of the historical
universalization of womens experiences, and she
argues that an accurate historical analysis must
account for racialized and gendered global power
relations. Much colonial theorizing has posited
that women share a status with the colonized due
to the nature of gendered power relations --but
Pettman argues that a new level of power
relations exists
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History tends to ignore or grossly overgeneralize
womens experiences Common
characterizations of women sharing oppression
with the colonized oppressing even more
extensively than colonizing (white)
men Retrieval stories often sanitize womens
roles in the colonial process, but while
colonisation was gendered, gender was racialized,
and white women were ambiguously placed in terms
of the colonial project (144) --This means
that Both the colonized and women were
oppressed by patriarchal relations But
colonizing women were privileged by race over the
colonized Also, Colonising women benefited from
empire, as the inferior sex within the superior
race (Strobel, 1991 xi) (145).
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2.9The Myth of Catching-up Development, Maria
Mies Catching-up Developmentthe idea that by
following the same path of industrialization,
technological progress and capital accumulation
(150) all countries can mimic the US, Japan, and
Europe --yet nowhere has this happened
--Much research points to colonizationrather
than some inherent inferiorityas the cause of
underdeveloped countries lack of
industrialization and advancement. --In
addition to this, colonization often comes at the
expense of the native culture and customs.
Mies posits that affluent societies live in a
sort of schizophrenic, double-think state of
existence in which we are aware of the problems
with our lifestyles and our consumption, yet we
do nothing to limit it. Why not? The inverse
relationship between GDP and quality of life
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• Part 3Constructing Difference Creating Other
  Identities
• 3.1Assigning Value to Difference, Albert Memmi
• Racism is the generalized and final assigning of
  values to real or imaginary differences, to the
  accusers benefit and at his victims expense, in
  order to justify the formers own privileges or
  aggression (173)
• Stressing the real or imaginary differences
  between the racist and his victim
• but it is not the difference which always
  entails racism it is racism which makes use of
  the difference (174)
• It is the interpretation of a difference that
  defines prejudice and racism
• Assigning values to these differences, to the
  advantage of the racist and the detriment of his
  victim.
• intended to prove two things the inferiority
  of the victim and the superiority of the racist
  (175)
• -the racist views the differences as deserving
  of denunciation
• -the racist will maximize the difference
  between himself and his victim

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• Trying to make them absolutes by generalizing
  from them and claiming they are final.
• One thing leads to another until all of the
  victims personality is characterized by the
  difference, and all of the members of his social
  group are targets for the accusation (176)
• In the extreme, racism merges into myth (177)
• this occurs often through a process of gradual
  dehumanization
• Slowly he makes of his victim a sort of
  animal, a thing or simply a symbol
• 4. Justifying any present or possible aggression
  or privilege.
• It is in the racist himself that the motives
  for racism lie (177)
• A certain embarrassment when faced with what is
  different, the anxiety which results, spontaneous
  recourse to aggression in order to push back that
  anxietyall of these are to be found in children,
  and probably in a good many adults as well.
  Whatever is different or foreign can be felt as a
  disturbing factor, hence a source of scandal
  (177)