Valck’s philanthropy and callousness both grew from colonial politics
Evidence
As a window on what Valck felt, what deceptions he lived and how he was disposed, his narratives are wanting, full of holes. We know so many details and yet so little about him: not what books he read, how much he drank, what dreams he dreamt, whether he had a lover or frequented prostitutes during those seven years—from which injustices he chose to look away. His discrepant messages combine high morals and bold indif- ference, callousness and compassion, utter effectualness and power, de- pression and racialized distaste. They remind us that Valck’s humanist in- dignations and disregard were both nourished by colonial politics, were lived through those politics and on its edges. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1509
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships