Why Conrad is Not a Racist

Is Conrad a “bloody racist”? I Believe it depends which way you look at the idea. Of course many people can argue why he is a racist such as what Achebe does. But I feel there is more in reading that can prove that he is not a racist. The story Conrad’s Heart of Darkness takes place in an environment where they is some kind of slavery going on, and a division of race. In the story we see that Conrad tend to call African’s names such as savages and cannibals, refer to African’s as lower human, maybe even animals which is part of Achebe’s argument is that Conrad is racist. But lets look at this text for a moment and interpret it “They were dying slowly—it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation lying confusedly in the greenish gloom. Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the leagality of time contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickend, became inefficient, and were then allowed to crawl away and rest.” In the quote you see that Conrad refers to there African’s as “black shadows of disease” which is fine if you want to use that and call Conrad a racist. But lets look at the rest of the text “they were not enemies, they were not criminals” “Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts, lost in ucongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food” this text shows that Conrad and the europeans were definetly ahead in the world with “technology” and everything. And the fact of the matter is that they were not Criminals or enemies and ate weird food but you get the idea from the text that it was a social norm for Conrad to be talking about the Africans in this way, because they are from two different worlds. So is it racist to call these people savages because they did things that in Conrad’s culture be not be savage like? Today people such as Achebe may look back at this story and call it racist but understanding the time of the text and the setting you can argue that at the time it was a social norm to have slaves and see these people as different beings. (in conrad’s eyes, as different).