Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

In Neil Bissoondath’s “I’m Not Racist But…” the narrator intends to bring awareness to his readers on the connection between stereotyping and racism and condemns such acts against one another, while in Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness, the protagonist informs his audience on the consequences of African colonization. Bissoondath’s work is oriented to educate the reader in the different types of racial acts leading to hatred, abuse or enforcement of power toward any given group of people. He condemns their use whether ignorantly or intentionally. Conrad’s work however, informs the reader of how the goals of the European settlers in Africa, such as ….., led them to exploit the Africans and their raw materials for the purpose of earning profits.
He explains how innocently people make racial comments against the other races, and still regard themselves as none racists. He further informs the reader about men who are known to be friendly but make innocent comments and in the end concludes that their comments renders them “open to the accusation” (Bissoondath, p. 84) thereby making them vulnerable to be considered as racists. In the same manner, Conrad’s use of racial inhumane words through Marlow renders his work sensitive to racial accusations. The Europeans cruelty was seen on the way they overworked the natives, mistreated them, gave them neither food nor proper medical care and left them to die. Marlow mercilessly describes a pair as bundles, “two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up […]” (Conrad, p. 28) a position that could be seen as defensive or a way in which they used to keep warm. Marlow also calls one of them a “creature that arose to his hands and knees and went off on all-fours toward the river […]” (Conrad, p. 28). The natives are overworked and underfed and have grown weak to support their human posture. Just because the particular native was unable to walk himself to the river does not guarantee Marlow the right to call him a creature. Also through Marlow’s eyes, they are also seen as shapes when Conrad describes them as “black shapes […], moribund shapes […] that crouched […], clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced […]”(Conrad, p. 28). Marlow himself witnessed how miserable and at a point of death this natives were, and having being led to an unknown land, all they could do was to defend their lifeless body from any further attack. It is completely unethical for Marlow to also describe them as “raw matter” (Conrad, p. 25) and their leader as “one of the reclaimed, the product of […]” (Conrad, p. 25) or does it seem correct for him to call them “strings of dusty niggers