Colonial administrators misread their own invented rule as natural racial superiority

Evidence

I know that I must believe myself superior to the poor Bayas of the Mambere. I know that I must take pride in my blood. When a superior man ceases to believe himself superior, he actually ceases to be superior… When a superior race ceases to believe itself a chosen race, it actually ceases to be a chosen race. — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 102 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Colonial racial superiority must be actively believed to be maintained — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 102; Colonial officials used language hierarchy to justify claims of Indigenous mental inferiority; Colonial administrative overviews signaled assumed mastery rather than real knowledge — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 143 (+6 more)

Related

• Colonial racial superiority must be actively believed to be maintained (similarity 0.89)
• Colonial officials used language hierarchy to justify claims of Indigenous mental inferiority (similarity 0.83)
• British administrative aloofness fostered belief in permanent racial superiority over subject peoples (similarity 0.81)
• Language hierarchy alone does not create inferiority; colonization does (similarity 0.80)
• Colonial officials invented ideologies of racial superiority when confronted by evidence of native competence. (similarity 0.79)
• Colonial discourse distinguishes legal equality from factual inequality to justify hierarchy (similarity 0.79)
• Colonial racism generalized aristocratic superiority to justify empire and shore up domestic class rule (similarity 0.78)
• Colonial rule bound Indo loyalty to hierarchical complicity against natives (similarity 0.78)
• Colonial administrators promoted racial division to secure white loyalty and preserve slavery (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Colonial racial superiority must be actively believed to be maintained #expands (0.82) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 102
• Colonial administrators were certain about racial character but uncertain how to name the population #expands (0.80)
• Colonial officials used language hierarchy to justify claims of Indigenous mental inferiority #exemplifies (0.78)
• Colonial administrative overviews signaled assumed mastery rather than real knowledge #expands (0.75) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 143