“Will the Model Minority Please Identify Itself?” American Ethnic Identity and Its Discontents

Abstract

Analyzing Lord Cromer s writings on the proper governance of Britain s colonial subjects in Egypt, Edward Said notes that one of Cromer s assumptions is that he, and the West in general, are able to divine the true nature of “the Oriental,” and so know him better than he knows himself. Said describes the assumption that undergirds this viewpoint as the conviction that “knowledge of subject races is what makes their management easy and profitable; knowledge gives power, more power requires more knowledge” (36). Indeed, the work of empire can be enhanced if the knowledge that the ruler defines as his exclusive realm is used not to put into place draconian laws or brutal armies, but rather to convince the native (who, according to Cromer, is “in statu pupillari”) that whatever the colonial master does is for the native s benefit. In short, knowledge is the key to power; and true power is held through the acquiescence of those who are ruled.