JAMAICA — While as a retired teacher, I strongly support contests such as the Rudyard Kipling Young Writers Awards, I must object to the uncritical treatment of the man for whom this award was named, Rudyard Kipling.
I feel that to give our young students, who in Windham County are overwhelmingly white, the sort of uncritical praise of Kipling that was reflected in the article is a disservice to their education and to the great need to raise the consciousness of all of us who are white regarding the history of racism and the imperialism that it was used to justify.
Unfortunately, Kipling was one of the most important purveyors of this racism, being the author of one of the most famous racist lines in all of colonial history, “the White Man's burden” to conquer and, in the language of his era, “civilize” the rest of the people of the world.
Anyone who doubts his ideology and perspective need only consult his books, such as Just So Stories and The Jungle Book.
I understand that his residence for a time here in Vermont makes him a local historical celebrity of sorts and that the Landmark Trust is dedicated to preserving his house and memory, but I think all people of conscience must object to this uncritical treatment of Kipling.
In an era when Confederate statues are being torn down in the South and when universities, southern and northern alike, are understandably re-evaluating the naming of buildings after those who profited from and defended racism, African slavery, and the slave trade, we in Vermont need to widen our view to include the historical interests of the millions killed, colonized, and exploited by European and American imperialist actions.
I would urge a serious revision of how Kipling is portrayed to our youth and in the work of the Landmark Trust in general.