Colonialism functioned through thingification that made the oppressed accept subjugation as natural.

Evidence

Authors such as Aimé Césaire and Albert Memmi, writing in the 1950s, argued that there was no real human encounter in colonialism, only thingification, an objectification of the colonized that justifies violence and racism. The colonized were forced to occupy a place in which their culture and the culture of the colonizer were constantly in conflict and in which they not only suffered subjugation but came to accept it as a natural social order (although theorists such as Memmi have always seen in this opportunities for creation, not just destruction). — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 262

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces Césaire’s ‘thingification’ — a key term the book almost certainly reuses for data colonialism.
• XREF: Thingification of the colonized maps onto the book’s later claim that data extraction treats users as objects; also connects to the reader’s attention/surveillance frame reading. — connects to: Colonial subjugation extends beyond people to the natural habitat itself — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 441; Colonial rule manufactured political identities that it then naturalized as culture — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 45; The doctrine of progress makes colonialism appear natural rather than impositive — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 217 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The doctrine of progress makes colonialism appear natural rather than impositive #expands (0.90) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 217
• Colonial subjugation extends beyond people to the natural habitat itself #expands (0.85) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 441
• Colonial rule manufactured political identities that it then naturalized as culture #expands (0.85) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 45
• Colonial law transmuted cultural communities into political ones #expands (0.85) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 39
• Colonial domination is justified by inventing a dependency complex in the colonized #expands (0.85) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 149
• Colonialism functions as a coherent system requiring economic, political, and cultural domination. #expands (0.82)
• Colonialism operates through objective role, not personal intention #expands (0.80) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 125
• Colonial being-in-the-world constituted a concrete style governing speech, feeling, and thought. #expands (0.80) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 569