Question

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.

–Rudyard Kipling,
"The White Man's Burden"

Which lines in this excerpt show ethnocentrism?

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 serve your captives’ needs;/To wait in heavy harness,
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,/Half-devil and

Answer 1

half-child.

The lines "Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child" show ethnocentrism. This line suggests that the people who are being colonized are inferior and uncivilized, and that it is the duty of the colonizers to "civilize" them. This attitude of cultural superiority and the belief that one's own culture is superior to others is a key characteristic of ethnocentrism.