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global studies


            Albert Memmi, The Two Answers of the Colonized.
             Memmi writes that colonizers are creatures of want while all who are colonized need change. The fact that the colonizers do not see this is due either to a lack of understanding of colonization or their own selfishness. If the colonizer is acting as the oppressor then the victim cannot live in peace.
             According to Memmi, the first ambition of the colonized is to become equal to the colonizer. While this may seem like acceptance of colonization, it is actually their submission and an attempt to assimilate because they are rejecting who they are at the same time. The colonized try to change the color of their skin to be more like that of the colonizer and in doing so are fully accepting someone else's values. The author gives an example of Negrophobia in a Negro, or anti-Semitism in a Jew, as being comparable to the colonized. .
             Once the colonist realizes that his assimilation will never be accepted by the colonizer he becomes angry because he sees that he has lost the values he once lived for. The next step the colonized takes is to revolt against their newly defined enemy. This is the only way out of the repressing status of the colony. .
             When colonized people view their colonizers as one oppressive human group they let themselves not only become racist but afraid of other people like them. This is a result, ultimately, of negatively judging themselves. However, their racism is not the same as that of the colonizers. Because the colonized are fearful of the colonizers their racism is defensive while the colonizer's racism is aggressive because they are hateful of the other. .
             The negative myth the colonized has about himself is followed by a positive myth. He becomes more self-assured and confident in whom he is and accepts his culture, country, color, and all the rest. In sum, he is able to justify who he is because he can explain it and understand it differently.


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