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Assignment 03

In chapter 1 of  Jennifer Morgan’s book, Male Travelers, Female Bodies, and Racial Ideology, Morgan goes on to describe how many Europeans ethnocentric view points to justified their actions and racism against Africans, especially African women. It was clear in the minds of the conqueror, that from a physical appearance of his own people were greatly different than those he had came upon. They would criticize how women were dress, African women would wear very little clothing and they would consider them as sluts to some extent. They would also criticized they way a women fed her child, aligning them to animals and savages. Simply put from the eye of the westerner the indigenous people were completely inferior and behave just like an animal. White women were often compared to African women and if an African lady did something a white women wouldn’t normally do, the act the white men would be shocked. In one example, the breast size of an African women was compared to an white women, African women generally had larger barest and that was seen as a bad thing, a bad trait. It was also described how the the sagging nature of the breast of African women were made them look like an alien when they were bending over while tending the fields. From the westerner’s point of view what they’re doing is not wrong, they’re showing them how to “properly” live and treat them as what they thought them as.

Due to the assumption that African women were like beasts, many believed that they would also be really strong, being able to take heavy blows without feeling much. Since they were though to be really strong, slavery and branding them wasn’t considered as immoral rather commonplace.  Overall Morgan tries to relay the message of how the white men used the differences among the two groups to bring up a valid reason for all this and to make themselves think less of what they actually done.

Q: Do you think people still have ethnocentric views today? If so far are people willing to go to prove that view or idea?