Modernity’s logic defines those outside Western norms as less than human

Evidence

A widely accepted theory in the nineteenth century was that human society was divided into different and distinct civilizations which existed in isolation from each other, each driven by its own core set of values. This theory held that the West, as a unique civilization with roots in ancient Greece, had certain qualities that differentiated it from all other civilizations. These included “freedom, law, rationality, science, progress, intellectual curiosity, and the spirit of invention, adventure and enterprise.” Every other civilization was then defined in relation to this notion of a superior “West.” Predictably, the world of Islam was characterized as premodern, backward, primitive, despotic, static, undemocratic, and rigid. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 121 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Modern science extended, not ended, the fiction of racial inferiority.; Civilizational theory defined all non-Western peoples as inferior by default — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 121; Counter-narratives to Western superiority lack equal cultural exposure. (+9 more)

Related

• The West’s entitlement to own the nonwhite world rests on defining it as subhuman (similarity 0.92)
• Civilizational theory defined all non-Western peoples as inferior by default (similarity 0.90)
• Western civilization discourse was built on a constructed binary of superiority and inferiority (similarity 0.86)
• Western civilization legitimizes dominance by narrating itself as temporal superiority (similarity 0.82)
• Modernization theory repackaged Orientalist racism in social-science guise (similarity 0.82)
• Nineteenth-century theory defined every civilization in relation to a singular Western ideal (similarity 0.81)
• Western civilization has not escaped universal civilizational evolutionary patterns (similarity 0.80)
• Modernization theory pathologized resistance to Western influence as laggard traditionalism, not rational choice (similarity 0.80)
• Modernization theory pathologized non-Western societies as internally deficient (similarity 0.80)
• Emphasizing essential cultural difference feeds the clash-of-civilizations frame (similarity 0.80)
• Cultural essentialism divides civilizations and serves as a pillar of race making (similarity 0.80)
• The clash of civilizations thesis asserts Western values are alien to Islamic societies. (similarity 0.80)
• Locke classed colonized peoples with children and idiots for lacking abstract reason (similarity 0.79)
• Modernization is distinct from Westernization and does not create a universal civilization (similarity 0.79)
• Orientalist civilizational essentialism is a pillar of race making (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Civilizational theory defined all non-Western peoples as inferior by default #corroborates (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 121
• Cultural racism substitutes cultural difference for biological difference as a racial logic #expands (0.70)
• Counter-narratives to Western superiority lack equal cultural exposure. #expands (0.60)
• Capitalism differentiated peoples into racial categories rather than homogenizing them #expands (0.55) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 205
• Racialism pervaded Western consciousness before and beyond capitalism #qualifies (0.50)
• Racial hierarchy and whiteness were invented inside Europe before modern capitalism #qualifies (0.50)