Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men's Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Jan 24, 2008 - History
In 1900 W. E. B. DuBois prophesied that the colour line would be the key problem of the twentieth-century and he later identified one of its key dynamics: the new religion of whiteness that was sweeping the world. Whereas most historians have confined their studies of race-relations to a national framework, this book studies the transnational circulation of people and ideas, racial knowledge and technologies that under-pinned the construction of self-styled white men's countries from South Africa, to North America and Australasia. Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds show how in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century these countries worked in solidarity to exclude those they defined as not-white, actions that provoked a long international struggle for racial equality. Their findings make clear the centrality of struggles around mobility and sovereignty to modern formulations of both race and human rights.
 

Contents

Chinese migration
15
shareholder ofthe Commercial Bank ofAustralia Both men were leading
23
contracted between the British and Chinese governments extended rights
26
Colonial leaders preferred however to speak not of local but
41
2 The American Commonwealth and the
49
reference works for the Australian federal fathers meeting in conference
53
Bowen Fields and Shattock were among the ordinary society of
56
I go to see Lowell at the far end of
58
paramount defence requirement Without a navy we should
194
As a matter of fact Mr Deakin is it seems
200
Unification of South Africa 19021910 L M Thompson observed that
213
That day might come but equality between black and white
214
and unreasonable a manner Indeed if it were not so
216
imprisonment The decision to embark on a campaign of civil
218
It places Chinese subjects on the same level as British
219
London sanctions the Union
226

constrained his historical enquiry the important events of his world
60
Two races so differently advanced
62
The Negro after emancipation should have been dealt with not
70
white men must rule
71
Charles Pearsons
75
Pearson the liberal reformer
82
of more than 400 million people The Chinese like the
87
Pearsons challenge to AngloSaxon triumphalism
89
He regards the march of affairs from the Australian point
92
4 Theodore Roosevelts reassertion of
95
It was Pearsons account of the worldforces of the present
99
vigour and national character22 Their national frame of analysis misses
100
5 Imperial brotherhood or white? Gandhi in
114
South Africa declare itself a white mans country by which
119
racial competition or rule by coloured men In 1896 white
125
write a thirtyfive page memorial to the Colonial Office concerning
128
Immigration Restriction Act in 189650 In February 1897 the Governor
129
In the event the American Act of 1896 was vetoed
131
6 White Australia points the way
137
powers But it also alerted Australians to the political implications
143
privileges with Western nations in all matters regulated by international
147
Despite their pained and persistent protests in 1901 and their
150
Central to the white workers comfort and selfrespect was his
157
well as racist purposes and would later be deployed by
159
The need for population
163
A deep colour line of demarcation
164
7 Defending the Pacific Slope
166
Yet humiliated like dogs
168
in the 1880s and continued to pursue his crusade for
172
and assaulted and there was a growing demand to introduce
173
A national insult
174
superiority on one side and resentment against inferior treatment on
175
Count Hayashi declared fulsomely that Japan regarded America as its
176
the federal government to grant basic citizenship rights to the
177
He believed that if something is not done to stop
182
been successful and thus the main object ofhis mission to
184
neither converted Both read English literature and liberal political
188
the Pacific tour
190
Gandhi confronts Smuts
228
acknowledged right of selfgoverning colonies of white men
229
cosmopolitan
241
Whiteness is the ownership of the earth
247
global perspective on the Negro problem following the Universal Races
249
who wrote the preface to Pals The Soul of India
251
Wu TingFang then referred as had many of his countrymen
254
A new cosmopolitanism or intellectual incoherence?
258
11 Japanese alienation and imperial ambition
263
not white Cases in 1909 and 1912 also ruled that
267
A grave international issue
275
territory won in the war with Russia and add to
280
12 Racial equality? The Paris Peace
284
Whose equality?
287
equality and the principle of nondiscrimination waged by the Japanese
288
he said While all men of a particular nation might
292
Negotiations continued
297
Top dogs triumph
299
Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain had been able to impose his
301
National shame
303
the Commission would probably result in erecting a perpetual barrier
304
Global disillusion
305
we have friends who understand our aspirations who out of
312
A white Canada
317
concluded with the argument that it was desirable that there
318
American goods were boycotted cinemas removed American films
324
in the land of the white man
326
14 Individual rights without distinction
335
But the creators of the treaty system had no intention
336
From minority rights to human rights
337
people is at an end she declared In London Duff
341
minds of men and their mutual relationships51 Echoing the sentiments
346
protecting domestic jurisdiction fearing as they had in 1919 that
347
A momentous occasion
349
Race thinking assailed
350
White men in retreat
352
It was a key part ofAustralias heritage In 1950 the
353

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 26 - The United States of America and the Emperor of China cordially recognize the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual advantage of the free migration and emigration of their citizens and subjects respectively from the one country to the other for purposes of curiosity, of trade, or as permanent residents.

About the author (2008)

Marilyn Lake is Professor at the School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University, Melbourne. Her publications include Creating a Nation (with Patricia Grimshaw, Ann McGrath and Marian Quartly, 1994), Getting Equal: The History of Feminism in Australia (1999) and, as editor, Women's Rights and Human Rights: International Historical Perspectives (with Patricia Grimshaw and Katie Holmes, 2001).

Henry Reynolds is personal chair in History and Aboriginal Studies at the University of Tasmania. His previous publications include The Other Side of the Frontier (1981), Why Weren't We Told? (2000) and The Law of the Land (2003).

Bibliographic information