Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 8, 2022

 

White Racist Prejudice and the Construction of the Image of the North American Indians

(Abstract)

 

Fu Chengshuang

 

Deeply influenced by racist prejudices shaped by their traditional perception of barbarians, European colonists simply placed the indigenous inhabitants of North America into one or the other of two opposing stereotypes: the noble and the ignoble savage. However, rather than being a true reflection of North American Indians and their culture, this betrays European colonists’ stereotyping of North American Indians as “Other,” refracting white Christians’ racist complexes and cultural prejudices. To achieve its goal of eliminating “barbarian” culture, white North Americans tried to conquer American Indians through cultural assimilation, but had little success. With the rise of multiculturalism and environmentalism, the “noble savage” has been recast as an “environmental Indian,” creating a tool for environmentalists to denounce environmental ethics. However, North American Indians have not only failed to resist this new label, as they did previously; instead, they have used it to construct a distinct new identity.