Quote:
Originally Posted by Thasaidon
In an earlier post Rider Haggard was accused of racism in books.
I disagreed and gave an example from the last Allan Quatermain book, which would be inconceivable if he was such a racist.
I then asked for an example of racism in his books
No one gave any.
So later I asked again for an example of racism in his books
Agaiin No one gave any.
So I will ask one last time and if no examples are given, I will take it that the accusation is just empty virtue signalling.
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This is not hard. When the native Africans are referred to as "primitives" as well as the entire theme of the white saviors of Europe coming to "improve" the natives are obviously racist, even if they were the status quo of the time.
Did Haggard hold racist views? Almost certainly. He was involved in colonialism in South Africa, which was a whole bag of issues all on its own. Nevermind that modern African scholars deplore his work and others like it. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, a Kenyan scholar of race and literature, refers to Haggard as one of the "geniuses of racism" in his book
Decolonizing the Mind.
He's dead and his works cannot profit anyone anymore, but I would still not enjoy reading them. However, as a member of a minority who had my private life subject to criminal law at one point, I am certainly not telling anyone what they can and can't read - only to be informed about it and not try to pretend that it is something that it isn't.