Why Conrad is or is not a 'Bloody Racist'

After reading Conrad's, 'Heart of Darkness', the excerpt, and the Achebe;s essay/lecture, I am left with the opinion of whether Achebe refers to Joseph Conrad, as a 'bloody racist', or if it was misinterpreted. Therefore, it was crucial to come up with the answer to determine the truth, by reading and trying to understand what Achebe, was trying to prove.

In the essay by Achebe, some examples that can prove that Conrad is a 'bloody racist', is first in how he describes Africa as 'the other world', " the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant beastiality." (7) in this qoute he gives a comparison of Africa to Europe, how in Europe there is more civilization than in Africa. From the educated people, to the description of people educated in Africa. Another way that might be racist is how Achebe described that Conrad described the people, in a moment of the story he described them in when,"Now and then a boat from the shore gave one a momentary contact with reality. It was paddled by black fellows. You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang; their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks." This is how Conrad would describe working people, probably fisherman, but overall this was a way of discriminating their appearance, and their personal value. Conrad, was suppose in my opinion help his people where he was born, I think that he was a racist because he grew up with these ideas, he was born in the year 1857, where accarding to Achebe was , "It was certainly not his fault that he lived his lifetime when reputation of the black man was at a particularly low level." (41) Therefore, I think he was influenced by what he heard in his surroundings, and he grew up with this mentallity. Consequently, a way in which people can view Conrad, as not being a racist is how Achebe, described the the beliefs where not coming from Conrad, but from the fictional narrator, Mrlow. Achebe wrote, "It might be contended, of course, that the African in Heart of Darkness is not Conrad's but that of his fictional narrator, Marlow, and that far from endorsing it Conrad might indeed be holding it up to irony and criticism." (29) In other words, is that the beliefs where not from Conrad, but came from Marlow, where Conrad just criticized what was said, and though of when describing African people.