Rich Newcum
Hst498 se3

Throughout the history of cultures there has always been “others”. The Greeks referred to everyone living outside of Greece as babaros, but an other need not live in a foreign land. An other is one who is looked at and treated differently because of some difference, noticeable or not. These unfortunate people suffered for not fitting the mold of a particular time and place. Classic cases of others include: women, Jews, Christians, lower castes, and blacks. Africans were especially looked at as something not only different to the white European of the early 20th century, but as culturally and biologically inferior as well.
The Scramble for Africa, where various European countries “colonized” (divvied up) the continent, placed whites in a position where they had to deal with Africans on a much larger scale. There was a small population of freemen and their descendents living in Europe, but the carving of Africa itself required the white governments to scrutinize these people as never before. The Scramble itself goes to show how little the whites thought of Africans. To be so cavalier to think that these lands required white stewardship exemplifies the theory that Africans were believed to be culturally backwards and had no right to govern themselves. It is also interesting to note that there was actually very little interest in Africa as a resource for any particular empire. Sections of Africa were gobbled up to prevent rival nations from having it.
The occupation of the Rhineland after The Great War was another unique situation in the examination of African as other. Whites were brought face to face with Africans again, but this time it was in Europe. The French used their “colonial” troops from their various holdings in Africa (as well as Asia) to occupy the borderlands of the recently defeated Germans. Much of Germany, at this point, was starting its obsession with race and was scandalized that blacks were put in such a lofty position. There were debates and articles running rampant with concern about the black menace that faced not only the white Germans, but whites as a whole. The focus of this paranoia was a handful of children that resulted from the union of a black and white. Stereotypes and other fictions sprouted. Black men were demonized as sexually depraved monsters that carried a multitude of diseases.