European historicism made racial difference explain subordination instead of colonial power.

Evidence

Postcolonial studies also attempt to examine how history and science were weapons in the quest to use knowledge to subordinate the colonized politically and economically and to get them to accept their subordination. In order to accomplish this, history and science needed first to be portrayed as the domain of Europe, part of the heritage of the Enlightenment that the West deemed necessary to bring to the rest of the world. History (the particular histories and trajectories of colonial appropriation) thus became a universalizing Eurocentric endeavor, describing every thing not just from the perspective of European eyes but in terms that made sense only in relation to European values. This kind of historicism situates progress and “universal” principles as emanating from the West and then flowing to the Rest: modernity emerges as a one-directional arrow pointing to Europe, something all “nonmodern” societies must strive toward. The history of human civilization is seen as an evolutionary trajectory that starts with man in a natural state and culminates with European “civilization.” Whatever inferior samples are encountered along the way (in the form of non-European humans) can have their differences explained through natural (that is, racial) means and not through a history of power. Whereas all knowledge systems can be said to be ethnocentric, this modern European ethnocentrism is the only one that claims for itself universality across time and space. Postcolonial studies help us see how the language of modernity and universal knowledge, inscribed in historical discourses, becomes a tool of imperialism to civilize and educate colonial subjects. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 263

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines how ‘universalizing Eurocentric historicism’ works: one-directional arrow from West to Rest, with racial rather than power-based explanations for difference.
• XREF: Relates directly to the data colonialism frame: the same universalizing move recurs in ‘neutral’ data extraction narratives; also resonates with Dipesh Chakrabarty’s ‘Provincializing Europe.’ — connects to: Racial historicism makes racial structures invisible and absolves individuals of responsibility for them — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 123; Nineteenth-century racial historicism framed non-Europeans as immature rather than inferior — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 860; Racial historicism and the rule of law co-evolved as instruments of dominance — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 78 (+5 more)
• SEED: An essay angle: how ‘the cloud’ or ‘the internet’ plays the same one-directional-modernity role today that ‘universal history’ played in colonialism — data infrastructure as the new civilizing mission.

Broader Connections

• Racial historicism makes racial structures invisible and absolves individuals of responsibility for them #expands (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 123
• Nineteenth-century racial historicism framed non-Europeans as immature rather than inferior #qualifies (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 860
• Historicist racism masks ongoing subjugation as cultural poverty #expands (0.80)
• Racism is a structural feature of European civilization, not the exception of colonial adventurers #corroborates (0.80) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 338
• Racial historicism and the rule of law co-evolved as instruments of dominance #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 78
• Racialism is rooted in European civilization itself, not a single era #corroborates (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 213
• Racial historicism held sway in colonial cities while naturalism dominated the frontier #complicates (0.70) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1414