History and Background
The poem "The White Man's Burden," written by Rudyard Kipling, who was a poet and novelist of the Victorian era, to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, was published in 1899.
The poem talks about the moral obligation of white folk to civilise the uncivilised, savage, wild, and primitive non-whites through imperialism and colonialism, and that this is their burden that they have to carry. Their virtue of being white is to educate all non-whites and serve them. Since whites are the best breed, all white youths should take this responsibility and serve unwillingly.
Non-whites are half-devil and half-child, and therefore all white people should act with maturity, patience, and self-control and talk with them in simple language so that they can understand. Whites should feed them and fight for their benefits even if one has to die, because all non-whites are sloth, sluggish, and total foolish by nature. The whole process of industrialization-the making of ports, roads, and railways-is done only to make non-whites civilised, and those whites won't use them. Non-whites will surely blame white people, saying that they ruled and imposed their ideas on us and will eventually revolt against the superior (whites). Even if White wants to make a road of light for them, the wild people would still like to conserve their Egyptian darkness. It's the duty of whites, and they should never turn back from this path. Because if they do, then black people will judge them, their culture, and their gods. Whites should constantly do this moral act, even if they don't get appreciation, because it's their responsibility.
This poem shows the degree of their intellectuality and how doomed their wisdom is. It also stands at the peak of racism and represents their way of thinking towards other communities and their dispositions.
The Poem
The White Man's Burden
Take up the White Man's burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man's burden—
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden—
The savage wars of peace—
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hope to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden—
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper—
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man's burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:
"Why brought ye us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden—
Ye dare not stoop to less—
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the White Man's burden—
Have done with childish days—
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
-- Rudyard Kipling
White Man's Burden Theory