Everything about Colonial Mentality totally explained
Colonial mentality refers to institutionalised or systemic feelings of inferiority within some societies or peoples who have been subjected to
colonialism, relative to the
mores or values of the foreign powers which had previously subjugated them. The concept essentially refers to the acceptance, by the colonised, of the culture or doctrines of the coloniser as intrinsically more worthy or superior. The subject matter is quite controversial.
Origins
Throughout human history nations and peoples have continuously colonised and been colonised. It is said that when a foreign
colonial or
imperial power is too strong to be effectively resisted, the colonised population often has no other immediate option than to accept the rule of the foreigners as an inescapable reality of life. As time progresses, the colonised natives would perceive the differences between the foreigners and themselves, between the foreigners' ways and the native ways. This would then sometimes lead the natives to mimic the foreigners that are in power as they began to associate that power and success with the
foreigners' ways. This eventually leads to the
foreigners' ways being regarded as the
better way and being held in a higher esteem than previous indigenous ways.
In much the same fashion, and with the same reasoning of
better-ness, the colonised soon equates the foreigners' racial strain itself as being responsible for their
superiority. The native soon strives to that strain to give their children a
better standing in life than just their native genes.
English-speaking societies
The Indian Subcontinent
Some critics claim that
Rudyard Kipling's portrayals of
Indian characters generally supported the colonialist view that the Indians and other colonized people were incapable of surviving without the help of Europeans, claiming that these portrayals are racist. Examples of this alleged racism are mentioning "lesser breeds without the Law" in "Recessional" and referring to colonised people in general as "half-devil and half-child" in the poem "
The White Man's Burden".
The term
Macaulay's Children is used to refer to people born of Indian ancestry who adopt
Western culture as a lifestyle. The term is usually used in a derogatory fashion, and the connotation is one of disloyalty to one's country and one's heritage. It derives from
Thomas Macaulay, the 19th Century British historian and colonial administrator who regarded British culture as inherently superior to the Indian one, and who was the prime mover in replacing
Sanskrit and
Arabic with English as the medium of instruction. (see
Thomas Macaulay#India).
Canada
In areas where the indigenous nations were decimated by
epidemics and their cultures suffered generations of set-back the settler societies quickly outnumbered the colonized. In these cases, including much of
North America, and
Oceania,
decolonization is now taking the form of
indigenous decolonization in bringing back traditional cultural knowledge in the new society.
It has also been claimed that Canada itself has somewhat of a colonial mentality in regards to the
United States.
United States of America; Black America
The extremely race-conscious society of the United States is often cited as a prime example of colonial mentality. Numerous examples included the
one drop rule and practice of the "
Paper Bag Test", where African-Americans were allowed or denied entry in Black-only social institutions (bars, night clubs, cinemas, sororities, fraternities, etc.) based on how light the skin tone was when compared to a brown paper bag. Those African-Americans with skin tones the same or lighter than the paper bag were allowed entry. This practice of institutionalized
colorism, favoring degrees of "whiteness", was exemplified more so by "
The Blue Vein Society".
The "Blue Vein Society"
When U.S. slavery was at its zenith, a mulatto society known as "
The Blue Vein Society" came into being.
The original "Blue Veins" were organized in
New England. Their primary objective was to establish and maintain "correct" social standards amongst a people whose social condition, by virtue of their white bloodlines, was almost unlimited.
An outsider suggested that one must show "Blue Veins" to be eligible for membership. This suggestion was readily adopted by those who were not of the favored few; and "The Blue Vein Society" has been known as such ever since.
Black is Beautiful
In the late
20th century, the "
Black is Beautiful" movement sought to counteract the colonial mentality among African Americans by promoting dark skin and African features as ideals of high fashion.
The Spanish Empire
The former subjects of the
Spanish Empire in
Hispanic America and the
Philippines are the most commonly cited examples where the phenomenon of colonial mentality may be found. Spanish
conquistadors, the first European settlers in the
New World, divided the conquered lands among themselves and ruled as
feudal lords, treating their
Amerindian subjects as something between
serfs and
slaves. Some Spaniards, however, objected to this
encomienda system, notably
Bartolomé de Las Casas, who insisted that the
indígenas (natives) were
human beings with
souls and
rights. Serfs stayed to work the land and imported
African slaves were exported to the
mines, where large numbers of them died. Largely due to the efforts of Bartolomé de Las Casas, the
New Laws were adopted in
1542 to protect the Amerindians, but the abuses were not entirely or permanently abolished.
The Spaniards were committed to converting their Amerindian subjects to
Roman Catholicism, and were quick to purge any native cultural practices that hindered this end. However, most initial attempts at this were only partially successful, as Amerindian groups simply blended Catholicism with their traditional beliefs. On the other hand, the Spaniards didn't impose their language to the degree they did their religion, and the
Roman Catholic Church even evangelized in
Quechua,
Nahuatl and
Guarani, contributing to the expansion of these Amerindian languages and equipping them with writing systems.
The Philippines
» See also Filipino Americans.
In the
Philippines colonial mentality is most evident in the existence of favoritism for
Filipino mestizos (primarily those of
native Filipino and
white ancestry, but also indigenous Filipino and
Chinese, and other ethnic groups) in the entertainment industry and mass media, in which they've received extensive exposure despite constituting a small population in the country.
Of the current
demographics of the Philippines, the combined number of all types of Caucasian mestizos is 3.6% of the entire Filipino population, in a recent genetic study by
Stanford University. Of that 3.6%, half are of Spanish ancestral bloodline.
Physical consequences
One of the more adverse physical consequences in the idealization and acceptance of the racial concepts of colonial mentality can be seen in the high rate of consumer demand for
skin bleaching products used by some indigenous women in the Philippines. Skin-whitening creams have for a long time been popular and widely used in much of the Philippines for the lightening of the skin tones in order to achieve the so-called "Mestizo look". The products are believed to be used primarily by women who have succumbed to the Filipino ideal and colonial doctrine of the idealization of mestizo beauty to the greatest extreme. The consumers of these products, whether conscious or subconsciously, are following the dangerous edict on beauty by continuing to use those products despite the extremely hazardous side effects to their health, including a high risk of various cancers due to many of its active ingredients, including
mercury. These products have been banned in the USA due to racial controversies, but their sale and demand in the Philippines continues to be widespread.
Pedigree and forgery
Colonial mentality is also at the root of a long established indigenous/European Filipino tradition of ancestral ethnicity forgery used in the attempt to conform to the idealized "mestizo pedigree" dictated by the former colonial rulers Spanish-Filipino socio-racial hierarchy.
This ethnic ancestral forgery is characterized by the habit of some modern-day indigenous Filipino families of no European ancestry, and claiming
mestizo ancestry. It is often accompanied by handed-down oral accounts of a presumed Spanish great-great-grandfather and grandmother with no evidence of Spanish blood in their genes, other than a
Spanish surname. Most mestizo Filipinos have
Spanish-names and surnames inherited from their Spanish ancestors, whereas most indigenous Filipinos with Spanish names and surnames acquired them as a result of the
Catálogo Alfabético de Apellidos ["AlphabeticCatalogue of Surnames"] decreed to be imposed on the entire indigenous Filipino population by the Spanish royal courts in order to facilitate record-keeping and tax collecting.
Latin America
As in the Philippines, colonial mentality can also be seen in much the same form across
Latin America. The demographic reality of Latin America is that half of its population is of part-white mixed race, either
mestizo (mixed
white and
Amerindian) or
mulatto (mixed white and
black) or triracial (of mixed white, black and Amerindian), who together account for approximately 50% of the region's total population. These percentages vary by country. Additionally, a large minority (30% or more, the largest single group in the population, actually) of Latin Americans is solely or mainly of European descent, again in varying percentages (some countries, such as
Argentina,
Uruguay,
Brazil and
Chile, have large European-descended populations, while in others, such as
Bolivia, European descendants make up a very small percentage of society). Amerindians, Asians, Blacks, and
zambos (mixed black and Amerindian) make up the remaining 20%. In the Latin American context, the
"Ideal of Beauty" isn't to be of mixed European and other ancestry, as most Latin Americans already are of that ancestry, but rather to be mostly European ancestry.
In this instance, the Latin American entertainment industry is saturated with
criollos (people of mostly Spanish ancestry) or other Europeans, with few mestizos, fewer mulattos, and almost no unmixed blacks or Amerindians. In the
Dominican Republic, a predominantly mulatto country, skin whitening products are also quite popular and readily available.
This European idealisation of beauty has also lead to a condition of ethnic forgery among many Latin Americans. However, in contrast to the Filipino experience where the majority is composed of unmixed native Filipinos of whom some attempt to claim mix-blooded status, in Latin America the norm is for some within the mix-blooded majority to concentrate on attempting to diminish, hide or deny any non-European admixture. These will then often falsely claim to be
pure Spanish or other European ancestry in their attempts to conform to the idealized pedigree dictated by their Latin American socio-racial hierarchy.
See also Passing - Race
A common joke in the
United States, among both Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike, is the presence of more blonde and blue-eyed presenters on US-based
Spanish language television networks such as
Telemundo and
Univisión than on the general public networks such as
NBC or
CBS.
The Arab world
Nada El-Yassir comments that "in certain areas in the
Arab world, the lighter you're the more beautiful you're considered." She also says that it's common that women in the upper classes dye their hair blond. In some countries the implications of this hierarchy go so far as to affect one's social class and job opportunities.
There is certainly nothing inherently wrong with beauty ideals; all cultures have particular notions about what is aesthetically pleasing. Like other places, India and certain Arabic countries had their own culturally specific beauty ideals. However, these largely fell by the wayside after their encounters with colonial powers.
Iman Al-Jazairi says "Looking at
Arabic poetry and novels, it's interesting to see that pre-
Islamic poetry up until western colonization at the eighteenth century, women were always described as having long, wavy, black hair, brown skin, black eyes with the white of the eyes very white. The body proportions were also bigger. During the later part of the nineteenth century and until very recently, light skinned, blond women have usurped the beauty standard in modern Arabic literature.
The former Soviet Union
In some of the successor states of the former
USSR much of the local, ethnically non-
Russian population sees
Russian culture as superior to the local ones. This has been the case in
Ukraine, for example, one of the more advanced successors, whose post-Soviet history has been marked by a preference for all things Russian and an overwhelming presence of the
Russian language in politics, television, the internet and music, at least.
Quebec
The idea that some Quebecers hold a colonial mentality, due to
the conquest of Quebec by the British and subsequent domination by
English Canada is important in a segment of
Québécois intellectual thought, notably within the
Quebec nationalist and
independence movements. These thinkers portray the relationship of Canada and Quebec as a dominant-dominated relationship and often consider the
Quiet Revolution an event of
decolonization. Those who are in favour of independence hold that Quebec
sovereignty is another necessary decolonizing step. The colonial mentality concept has also been used to criticize the relationship some Québécois have with
France, as Quebec was a colony of France in the era of
New France.
Further Information
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