Achebe Response

Wow. 

After reading this response to Heart of Darkness, it really throws a new light onto the book and how we as readers should look at it. We may realize that it is intensely racist in small ways or some parts, but the comparisons Achebe makes are somewhat frightening. By this I mean it's frightening that I did not pick up on some of them. 

Perhaps the idea of racism is so ingrained into our (white people) brain's that it's actually hard to distinguish when things are and are not racist. Being the discriminated against group is always a struggle, but to have it so blatantly ignored (while unintentionally) is appalling. While I do realize that we are all racist to some extent, I tend to wonder why. 

Achebe made the point that he wondered how this man, Conrad, could be considered an artist if he was so completely and utterly terrible in his intentions. He makes a comparison to the Nazi "great minds" that were eventually considered bad enough to not be considered great minds anymore. Perhaps what needs to happen in the literature sphere is a rethinking and new approach to "classic literature." If we look at many classic books we may find blatant racism that we refuse to acknowledge or that we know is there and yet still teach it. Is teaching these novels spreading racism or at least affirming that it is okay in people? I'm not sure, but it does leave one wondering if these novels can really be considered classic if they are so problematic. 

It seems in Conrad's novel he dehumanizes Africans to the point of them 1) not having language except to show how brutish they are, 2) use them as a foil to another planned white character, a point of comparison and nothing else, and 3) purposefully forgetting history and glorifying Europeans. This novel kind of reminds me of the white kid trying to go into the black neighborhood and make everything better because "I understand your struggles." Appropriation is disgusting, and yet here we are given a novel of it. 

Additionally, when Achebe described Conrad's apparent obsession with the black skin color and his overuse of disgusting words, the reader has to find themselves going back to the novel and wondering when they missed these moments of glorification of skin. 

Overall, this article was really enlightening and also terrifying in that I didn't even realize that some of this abuse of a culture was happening. It would be easy to say that this article will change how I look at literature in general, but I think this is a long process of looking at why we even choose the literature that we do as classics. Or rather, if the literature that we choose is really a classic if it is also dripping with cultural appropriation and racism.