Black Man’s Burden in Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King

Kipling portrays the message that white people are mire superior and can bring prosperity in the world. But I believe that any race or any skin colour can not be discriminated and without unity no success can be achieved. Kipling presents a European view of the world, where non-European cultures are seen childlike and extremely cruel. Kipling believes that white people are more civilised than any other race in the world and he depicts that white people are more successful because of their skin colour and the great intellect they possess. His view offers that white people has great ability to bring prosperity, and as a result have a responsibility to rule and endorse the cultural development of people from different cultural backgrounds. He thinks that white people should rule until the people from different regions can learn how to live their lives under the western ways, and this European culture will bring prosperity in their region. Kipling believes that white people do not have any benefit for what they are doing but it is their moral duty and obligation to help poor better themselves whether the poor want help or not.

That’s not what I believe is right. Kipling sees the white man’s special and gender superiority as a special responsibility, and thinks that these white people are greatest human being on the planet that can help the poor. But was Martin Luther King Jr. a white? No he wasn’t. He was the man behind the civil rights movement in America. African Americans didn’t have civil rights in US but you know what they were ruled by white people at that time. It was them who were ruling but then came a black and made efforts so that there could be no difference between a white and a black. Why? Because there was actually no difference in them except for skin colour. Martin Luther King Jr. was the man behind African Americans getting basic civil rights.

Kipling had another point, and he believed that white people can bring prosperity in the world. Where were these white people when USA was in the Great Recession and when stock markets all around the world got crashed. But then came a man named Barrack Obama. He rescued USA from the Great Recession, and cut the employment rate in that period from 10% to 4.7% over six years, and passed the $78.7 billion America Recovery and Reinvestment Act to spur economic growth during the Great Recession. But guess what? He was a black.

Kipling also portrayed that white people had no benefits but it was their moral duty to help poorer. But that is actually not a case. We have a huge example, and that is Indian Subcontinent. There was a time when this subcontinent was developing in all aspects. But then came the British Rule and suddenly that growth was no where to be seen. It’s a question that always come to mind that what happened to that prosperity? These white people were the reason behind that. They always had benefit in ruling other regions. The main idea of British rule was to exploit the resources of Indian Subcontinent. They did so and brought prosperity in their region but not in Indian Subcontinent. But at the end of British rule a famine hit India which put four million lives of Indian People in danger. What happened? Where were these white people? And where was this all prosperity? In white people’s region. They always wanted benefits from other regions.

Conclusively, Kipling’s judgement in the poem was not realistic and it was his deduction that white people are more superior because of their skin colour. But, that is actually not a case in the real world. Because, there is no discrimination between a skin colour and it is only unity between people that can bring prosperity in the world rather than white man alone.