Colonial whiteness was self-confirming, tautological, and closed to questioning its grounds.

Evidence

Behind the White Man’s mask of amiable leadership there is always the express willingness to use force, to kill and be killed. What dignifies his mission is some sense of intellectual dedication; he is a White Man, but not for mere profit, since his “chosen star” presumably sits far above earthly gain. Certainly many White Men often wondered what it was they fought for on that “wet and windy road,” and certainly a great number of them must have been puzzled as to how the color of their skins gave them superior ontological status plus great power over much of the inhabited world. Yet in the end, being a White Man, for Kipling and for those whose perceptions and rhetoric he influenced, was a self-confirming business. One became a White Man because one was a White Man; more important, “drinking that cup,” living that unalterable destiny in “the White Man’s day,” left one little time for idle speculation on origins, causes, historical logic. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 568

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Weber’s concept of legitimacy, Gramsci’s hegemony and common sense — the ‘self-confirming’ circularity of an unquestioned worldview the reader is building toward.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 568