Arlene A. Elder

The Future American Race: Charles W. Chesnutt's Utopian Illusion

The colonial society...embodies a rejection of the colonizer by the colonized and vice versa. This opposition, however, is accompanied by an equally profound dependency, particularly on the part of the colonialist. For while he sees the native as the quintessence of evil and therefore avoids all contact because he fears contamination, he is at the same time absolutely dependent upon the colonized people not only for his privileged social and material status but also for his sense of moral superiority and, therefore, ultimately for his very identity. -Abdul R. JanMohamed, Manichean Aesthetics, 1983