Settler colonialism discourse and how it falls short

The standard version of colonialism, explains Adam Kirsch in his provocative and important new book, involves a relatively small group of colonists—mostly colonial administrators, merchants, and military personnel—ruling over and oppressing a much larger Indigenous population, usually to extract needed natural resources. An example is the British colonial control of what is now India and Pakistan, where in 1931 a population of 250 million was ruled by a mere 150,000 “European British subjects.” France controlled 23 million Vietnamese with only 40,000 Frenchmen. Similar disparities existed in colonized regions throughout Asia and Africa. In the decades following World War II, successful revolutionary movements drove out their colonial overlords and established independent states. As Kirsch notes, “according to the UN, the number of people living under colonial rule fell from 750 million in 1945 to 2 million in 2020.”

But this was not the only form of colonialism. While some colonizers came to extract needed resources and exploit cheap labor, others came to stay. The latter became known as “settler colonialism,” and its chief examples are the United States, Canada, and Australia. In each case, the colonizers came not simply to extract resources but to establish a new homeland. The Indigenous population was either ruthlessly eliminated, confined to certain areas (reservations), or assimilated through often brutal educational enterprises.

Kirsch suggests that as the theory of settler colonialism developed, what began as a tool to distinguish between forms of colonialism became less of an academic discipline than a religion. The act of colonization became a form of original sin that is inherited by all the heirs of the original colonizers. “Settler, in this view, is not a description of the actions of an individual, but a heritable identity,” Kirsch writes. “In fact, it’s not even necessary to be the lineal descendent of an original dispossessor to qualify as a settler.” So, for example, even the descendants of Africans brought against their will to what became the United States are now considered settlers. Construed this way, settler colonialism, like the sin of Adam and Eve, produced evils that continue to oppress and corrupt the colonized peoples and lands: “Settler colonialism means that the violence involved in a nation’s founding continues to define every aspect of its life, even after centuries—its economic arrangements, environmental practices, gender relations.”