Race and Imperialiam

Imperialism creates the color line, and within this study, the color line as race and class based on power and the ability to make a profit through expansion is a good starting point for understanding. This means that race and class are more than just European and non-European, but more clearly the core and periphery in regards to those who possess the power to effectively (ineffectively in some instances) govern those without power or the true means to gain power. This power mostly held firm in its place through violence, however, war and systems of oppression along with an indoctrination of superiority hold those seen as inferior under the hegemonic dominance of Western paternalism. Imperialism creates race and class for capitalistic gains that would seat the United States, and Japan at the table with great empires such as Great Britain, Germany, Russia, and France.

The language of race over the course of history has evolved and changed much like the definition of imperialism, but class remains the same. Race began as a color system to describe the peoples of a region. Through the arbitrary practice of “defining the identities of other human beings by powerful outsiders, as well as by governments and institutions” race has become a marker of accepted exclusion. Class, has been and will continue to be the difference between those with power that is either real or perceived. In the absence of racial differences class and economical hierarchy becomes the key factor in othering, and where racial differences are present, no amount of class or economic wealth can discourage discrimination. Take for example, those wealthy Japanese placed into internment camps during WWII, or in Canada those of Italian lineage who were of a respected...

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...ho lynched those who would dare to act as though they were citizens. There becomes a top down understanding of how to treat people, and when those in power have no regard for anything other than power humanity suffers.

“The problem of the Twentieth century is the problem of the color-line,” and imperialism creates race, and class during its quest for power. It also creates legal systems of oppression that make it difficult for those discriminated against to escape their peril. For every law that gives people rights there are at least three that have been pivotal to stripping them away. People of the African diaspora did not arrive in the Americas as slaves, but laws would degrade them to the point of abject slavery. Japanese people would be subjected to these same tactics within the legal systems as their rights were stripped, and they were denied citizenship.