“The Deconstruction of Whiteness” and The World Without Us

“The Deconstruction of Whiteness” and The World Without Us, both focus on the way humans lack care for the environment. “The Deconstruction of Whiteness” relates racism as the one driving factor of global warming. The “white ideal” of domination and power is equivalent to life becoming only the way a “white” wants life to be. Slaves were mistreated to work the land so that profit can be made and were driven away from their homes to a new land: America. Native Americans were forced out of their land so that the “white man” can focus on making his community better without having to spend extra unnecessary money. This idea of profit and labor including violence is what brings forth global warming. Not only did the idea of domination hurt people but also it hurt nature because people used up nature’s resources without a single show of care. As they did not care for nature, people manipulated the environment and changed the natural habitats of nature. According to Anthony in the article, “the perfection of the market as a device for making decisions about everything” (“The Deconstruction of Whiteness” 271). The idea of money and getting money through other people’s labor unveils dominance. Furthermore, the way segregation separates people is the same way people are distant from nature and in turn lack care for taking care of the environment.

The World Without Us talks about ways in which the city of New York and other places are slowly fading away because of actions people made in the past and are making right now. One example would be people dumping tons of toxic chemicals in to the oceans and lakes in which have changed the environments of these bodies of water into something else. Another, example would be the creation bombs and testing them on land that homed people and land that was open space. Bombs resulted in a surplus of deaths, sickness, fires and losses of nature. Domination is presented in this real life scenario because bomb testing targeted certain selected places only let alone any.

Other people’s labor and lives should be sacrificed for one group of people. This idea is what connects these two sources together and also the lack of care for the environment. Race separation will destroy the planet because people would continue to manipulate the earth and not work together to save the planet. People will be wiped out from different places including New York City, if people do not recognize how we harm nature. A life without people will cause animal and plant life to change and mutate. No specific group of people is better than another because we are all humans and we need to stop controlling people, destroying the planet and using violence, in order to make changes to save the human race and nature.