Since the time of Homer every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the historical views of Europeans towards Eastern cultures, highlighting a pattern of racism and imperialism.
Edward Said's quote emphasizes the pervasive racism and ethnocentrism in European representations of the East, suggesting that since the time of Homer, Europeans have viewed and spoken about Eastern societies through a lens of superiority and otherness. This perspective has led to a distorted understanding of the Orient, reinforcing imperialistic ideologies and neglecting the complexities and realities of Eastern cultures.
In practice
During a lecture on post-colonial studies, one might reference this quote to discuss the lingering effects of colonial attitudes.
All knowledge that is about human society, and not about the natural world, is historical knowledge, and therefore rests upon judgment and interpretation. This is not to say that facts or data are nonexistent, but that facts get their importance from what is made of them in interpretation… for interpretations depend very much on who the interpreter is, who he or she is addressing, what his or her purpose is, at what historical moment the interpretation takes place.
Uninformed and yet open to appeals for justice as they are, Americans are capable of reacting as they did to the ANC campaign against apartheid, which finally changed the balance of forces inside South Africa.
Refuse to allow yourself to become a vegetable that simply absorbs information, pre-packaged, pre-ideologized , because no message.. is anything but an ideological package that has gone through a kind of processing.
Much as I have no wish to hurt anyone's feelings, my first obligation has not been to be nice but to be true to my perhaps peculiar memories, experiences and feelings.
It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in a jar.
Theory is taught so as to make the student believe that he or she can become a Marxist, a feminist, an Afrocentrist, or a deconstructionist with about the same effort and commitment required in choosing items from a menu.
There's no evidence whatsoever that men are more rational than women. Both sexes seem to be equally irrational.
Memory runs along deep, fixed channels in the brain, like electricity along its conduits; only a cataclysm can make the electrons rear up in shock and slide over into another channel. The human mind seems doomed to believe, as simply as a rooster believes, that where we are now is the only possibility
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; the Named is the mother of all things.
Cruelty might be very human, and it might be very cultural, but it's not acceptable.
It is not acceptable for one country to change the borders of another by force.
There's nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.