Kipling’s poem, an unabashed endorsement of colonization “to serve your captives’ needs,” may seem an antiquated view, condescending and paternalistic by modern standards. However, the poem, even in its title, has considerable value, conceptually and scientifically, i.e., factually.

Now is a good time to recall the poem, “The White Man’s Burden,” the famous Kipling verse written shortly before the 1901 death of England’s Queen Victoria. She had ruled Great Britain since 1837 and under her reign “the sun never set on the British Empire.”

Indeed, by the end of her rule, having amassed country after country, peoples after peoples, Great Britain’s empire included approximately one-fifth of the earth’s surface. As well, approximately a quarter of the world’s population, around 450 million people, owed fealty to Queen Victoria, perhaps the 19th century’s most historically important woman. She was the leader of England who led the empire-building, colonialism and imperialism of her country, much to the satisfaction and joy of her citizenry.

In 1845, as an example of that approval, Canada declared May 24th, her birthday, Victoria Day. And Great Britain marked her reign’s 60th year on June 22, 1897, with the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. British statesman and politician Joseph Chamberlain proposed a Festival of British Empire as a celebration of the monarch. Britain, Ireland and India declared the day a holiday. Such was the greatness of Queen Victoria, a white European female, that honors associated with empire-building came her way.

And it was in this period that “The White Man’s Burden” was published.

Written by Rudyard Kipling (whose first name derives from Rudyard Lake, where his mother and father courted each other), the poem provided counsel and support for the United States’ taking the Philippines. He urged that the U.S. “Take up the White Man’s burden” and “send the best ye breed,” even if it “sent your sons to exile.” Their purpose was “to serve your captives’ needs.”

The captives were “half-devil and half-child,” “heathens,” “whose sloth and folly” would mean little success. Further, taking up the White Man’s burden would be thankless, reaping “the blame of those ye better, the hate of those ye guard.” Kipling called “those ye guard” “silent, sullen peoples.” Those who assume the responsibility to “protect” and “enlighten” the native population will face challenges, for “Comes now, to search your manhood” and endure. Only or largely, men, not women, were to take the burden, perhaps dying in the process while serving the Queen who oversaw the empire.

The poem’s directives, to help the native population regardless of the population’s wishes, aligned nicely with Queen Victoria’s reign of colonization and imperialism.

Although in Kipling’s day, the directives were largely well received in England and elsewhere, they were roundly booed and hissed in other places.

Mark Twain wrote “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” (1901) as a response to Kipling’s poem.

“The Poor Man’s Burden” (1899) by Howard S. Taylor pointed out the negative effects of colonization while other critics centered on the ethical degeneration that was bound to occur with imperialism. The atrocities in the Belgian Congo provides support for the latter perspective.

Kipling’s poem, an unabashed endorsement of colonization “to serve your captives’ needs,” may seem an antiquated view, condescending and paternalistic by modern standards. However, the poem, even in its title, has considerable value, conceptually and scientifically, i.e., factually.

Indeed, what if Kipling’s famous poem was not racist but something quite else, a call to be our brothers’ keeper? And what if the West, by taking up that call, that “burden,” by assuming responsibility for the underdeveloped world, including its emigrants, now is under social and economic strain?

For instance, white men today can be said to be burdened by being the “wrong” sex, the “wrong” race and even of the “wrong” national origin. Forty years of affirmative action have taught men, young and old, that women are the preferred sex and that the sins of the father shall be visited upon their children, an obsolete and abhorrent tradition even in the Middle Ages.

Maybe blaming men and only men, and especially only white men, for all of civilization’s ills is misplaced.

Richard McGowan, an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, where this commentary previously appeared, has taught philosophy and ethics cores for more than 40 years, most recently at Butler University. Send comments to [email protected].