Colonial binaries align along chains so that colonizer-white-human-beautiful oppose colonized-black-bestial-ugly

Evidence

The binary constructs a scandalous category between the two terms which will be the domain of taboo, so that what might be called the “imperial gothic” emerges from such a blurring of distinctions - the colonizer going native, or barbarism encroaching on the space of civilization, or the scandalous ambivalence of colonial mimicry itself. But equally importantly, if we compile a list of such binaries, the structure can be read downwards as well as across, so that “colonizer, white, human, beautiful” are collectively opposed to “colonized, black, bestial, ugly.” — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3397

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘imperial gothic’ as the taboo zone produced when colonial binary distinctions blur.