Eurocentric anthropocentrism justifies Western ownership of world resources by deeming nonwhites less human.

Evidence

Arabs, for example, are thought of as camel-riding, terroristic, hook-nosed, venal lechers whose undeserved wealth is an affront to real civilization. Always there lurks the assumption that although the Western consumer belongs to a numerical minority, he is entitled either to own or to expend (or both) the majority of the world resources. Why? Because he, unlike the Oriental, is a true human being. No better instance exists today of what Anwar Abdel Malek calls “the hegemonism of possessing minorities” and anthropocentrism allied with Europocentrism: a white middle-class Westerner believes it his human prerogative not only to manage the nonwhite world but also to own it, just because by definition “it” is not quite as human as “we” are. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 303

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces Anwar Abdel Malek’s phrase ‘the hegemonism of possessing minorities’ as the mechanism linking anthropocentrism and Europocentrism.
• XREF: Connects to later Islamophobia readings on how dehumanization of the Other licenses material exploitation; echoes Said’s earlier construction-of-the-Other arguments.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 303