Inequality, defined as the “quality of being unequal or uneven,” is one of the only elements of human history that remains constant (Merriam-Webster). It was evident in the various forms of literature produced between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries that ranged from Jean De La Fontaine and Bernard Mandeville’s fables to novels by Jonathan Swift and finally to poems by Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Through utilizing anthropomorphized, hyper-rational horses in his novel Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift reveals the racist nature of human beings. Similarly, Bernard Mandeville details an exchange between an anthropomorphized lion and a merchant to dispel the notions of anthropocentrism in his fable “The Lion and the Merchant.” Lastly, Jonathan
…show more content…
Systemic racism is present in the Houyhnhnm society as the horses condemn interracial marriage and create a hierarchy within the society based on the color of horses. As Master Horse educates Gulliver about their society, he states that “the white, the sorrel, and the iron-grey, were not so exactly shaped as the Bay, the Dapple-grey, and the black; nor born with equal Talents of the Mind … without ever aspiring to match out of their own race” (Swift 216). The colors of the horses determine their social standing and also the public perception of their intelligence; some horses were more suited to be aristocrats while horses of other colors were more suited for intense labor and servitude. This parallels the way in which British society, and the majority of other European societies, was designed to place white male citizens at the top of the social hierarchy and others were innately “degenerate” and therefore were, by nature, part of the underclass. This also ties directly to the notion of slavery as white citizens enslaved their African American counterparts because they were viewed to be subhuman and overall inferior to the European ideal of whiteness. Superiority was solely based on the colors of the horses, similar to the way in which human society was hierarchized based on the lightness …show more content…
Swift illustrates the way in which the horses were “exactly careful to choose such colours as will not make any disagreeable mixture in the breed” during marriage which parallels the selective breeding process that is present in human society” (Swift 226). The process of selective breeding ensures that there is no mixing of races to produce unfavorable combinations which in turn implies that there is a preference for one race over another and the desire to preserve the racial purity of that dominant race. Although the selective breeding amongst the horses closely imitates the way in which pets are selectively bred in human societies, it also mirrors the laws forbidding interracial marriage (anti-miscegenation laws) passed by the British in the colony of India following the 1857 Indian Rebellion. By placing an explicit prohibition on the intermarriage of individuals from different races, the Houyhnhnms (and by extensions the Europeans) have placed an emphasis on the superiority of certain races. In the real-life situation in European society, the alleged superiority of whiteness is one that continues to perpetuate in the twenty-first century. Racism is rooted in the notion that a group of a certain color, typically white, is superior to groups of other
Systemic racism is present in the Houyhnhnm society as the horses condemn interracial marriage and create a hierarchy within the society based on the color of horses. As Master Horse educates Gulliver about their society, he states that “the white, the sorrel, and the iron-grey, were not so exactly shaped as the Bay, the Dapple-grey, and the black; nor born with equal Talents of the Mind … without ever aspiring to match out of their own race” (Swift 216). The colors of the horses determine their social standing and also the public perception of their intelligence; some horses were more suited to be aristocrats while horses of other colors were more suited for intense labor and servitude. This parallels the way in which British society, and the majority of other European societies, was designed to place white male citizens at the top of the social hierarchy and others were innately “degenerate” and therefore were, by nature, part of the underclass. This also ties directly to the notion of slavery as white citizens enslaved their African American counterparts because they were viewed to be subhuman and overall inferior to the European ideal of whiteness. Superiority was solely based on the colors of the horses, similar to the way in which human society was hierarchized based on the lightness …show more content…
Swift illustrates the way in which the horses were “exactly careful to choose such colours as will not make any disagreeable mixture in the breed” during marriage which parallels the selective breeding process that is present in human society” (Swift 226). The process of selective breeding ensures that there is no mixing of races to produce unfavorable combinations which in turn implies that there is a preference for one race over another and the desire to preserve the racial purity of that dominant race. Although the selective breeding amongst the horses closely imitates the way in which pets are selectively bred in human societies, it also mirrors the laws forbidding interracial marriage (anti-miscegenation laws) passed by the British in the colony of India following the 1857 Indian Rebellion. By placing an explicit prohibition on the intermarriage of individuals from different races, the Houyhnhnms (and by extensions the Europeans) have placed an emphasis on the superiority of certain races. In the real-life situation in European society, the alleged superiority of whiteness is one that continues to perpetuate in the twenty-first century. Racism is rooted in the notion that a group of a certain color, typically white, is superior to groups of other