Similarities Between Colonialism And Slavery

Everyone has felt proud or even been encouraged to be prideful of themselves or groups they are associated with. The media constantly tells us to be proud of who we are and aim for high self-esteem and self-confidence. There are numerous self-improvement books that supposedly help people become comfortable in their own body and accept who they are as a person. Even at Northwestern University, people proudly show their school spirit while wearing shirts with the words “purple pride” written on them. In these scenarios, pride is viewed as feeling satisfied from a deserving achievement or a characteristic. One could argue that being proud of who you are and what you represent is harmless and could not be considered as a moral failing. However,

when one’s pride exceeds the previous level and pushes a person to be unsympathetic towards others and needy for constant admiration, it should be considered a moral failing.
Being excessively prideful leads people to feel superior than other people around them. This is commonly makes people become stubborn and destroys meaningful relationships with other people. When people are prideful, they are usually want to be seen as an ideal person, who other people should strive to be like. They believe they have a characteristic or a material that others want, giving them a false sense of attention and care from others. Prideful people become self-centered and unable to recognize the reality that surrounds them. This idea of being superior to other people brings negative consequences like being unable to keep an open mind and unable to keep meaningful relationships with other people. It is difficult to foster and maintain a meaningful relationship when the other person always believes he or she is right and blames other people for his or her mistakes. Because prideful people are unable to see themselves anything lower than their perceptions of who they are, they are stubborn and unsympathetic towards others.
When looking back at history, pride also leads to negative consequences, like exploitation of others.

Although the motivating factor behind colonialism and slavery cannot be simply just pride, it did play a role in dehumanizing others based on someone’s race. Due to the colonists’ pride in their “higher status” and race, they were unable to view the slaves as regular human beings. Their perception of reality was skewed towards how they were at a higher status based on their skin color, completely disregarding the fact that slavery is dehumanizing and immoral. The colonists were overly proud of their skin color, and therefore, their higher status. They justified their immoral actions with the notion that their “higher status” allowed them to be more powerful than the slaves. By having excessive pride, the colonists lacked empathy for the slaves and were able to stubbornly justified their wrong

acts.
However, proponents of pride may argue that pride helps build confidence.

Having self-confidence is valued in American society, where extroverted, self-confident leaders are seen as role models. They are strong-willed individuals, who are able to speak their minds. These individualistic people are praised for being motivated and able to get what they want. Proponents of pride state that without pride, this underlying self-confident characteristic is unable to be fostered and built. However, being overly self-confident could also be self-centered, when people become egocentric and narcissistic. In this situation, prideful people are selfish, thinking they deserve more than other people based solely on their individual characteristics. Being exceedingly prideful makes people become conceited and unsympathetic towards other people’s needs due to this “higher status”

mindset.
Additionally, people also state that pride builds unification and instills motivation in groups. This can be witnessed through our “purple pride” shirts and traditions that we hold. We are encouraged to be proud of Northwestern University for our prestigious status. We proudly show our school pride in our purple shirts singing the fight song at football games. However, even this “innocent” pride can be harmful in some ways. For example, when we shake our keys at football games, there is a hidden meaning behind this action. It supposedly represents the false belief that even if we lose the game, the opposing team is going to park our cars. This, of course, is not true and discourteous in every way. Although Northwestern students may be unified and motivated to show off their school pride, this is an example of an excessive, misguided, prideful tradition. If being prideful encompasses being rude and putting others down, it should be considered a moral failing because nothing beneficial comes out of harmful actions and thoughts.
Although building self-confidence and unification among groups lead to higher value in life and motivation, pride is ultimately a moral failing. Being excessively prideful brings people to waste their time thinking they deserve better and more solely based on their characteristics or “higher status.” In these situations, pride is not helping these people improve their lives, but rather ruining other people’s lives. None of us want to be treated lowly based on our defining characteristics, especially if it is one that is outside of our control like the color of our skin. Even though having a closet full of purple and being able to stand up for what one believes is important, when pride becomes excessive and harmful to others, it should be considered as a moral failing.