keith

So I was reading this blog, UtopianTurtleTop, and he reprinted this anonymous 100 year old poem he found in a newspaper in his attic. It's a parody of Rudyard Kipling's racist "White Man's Burden":

The White Man's Shame

I.
"Take up the white man's burden" --
And do as he has done,
In the far-off southern desert,
Under the desert sun.
Rob and murder and pillage,
For the love of the bloodshed slay;
Fight for the itch of an ancient wound,
For the shame of a distant day!

II.
"Take up the white man's burden" --
His heavy load of shame,
Red with the blood of a million lives
Cursed with an empty name.
Go, and harry the poorest,
Nor thought of mercy have!
Go, and take from the richest,
His all and make him slave.

III.
"Take up the white man's burden" --
The He to duty give,
And say to your heathen brother,
"We die, that you may live."
Teach him as ye fought him
With ruin and with death,
His freedom and life will wither,
At the touch of the white man's breath.

IV.
"Take up the white man's burden" --
And do as he has done.
Point to your fame and glory
And the victories you have won.
Say that you did it in mercy,
To lead them to the light:
Cheat and kill and destroy them
With the power of your might.

V.
"Take up the white man's burden" --
But do not claim it due
That word or look or meed of praise
Should ever come to you.
With the sword of flame you conquer
Through all the coming years.
Will you not feel the silence --
"The judgment of your peers?"

--C. H. G. in Chicago Times-Herald, some time between 1899 and 1901