The Deconstruction of Whiteness and A World Without Us

The article “The Deconstruction of Whiteness” and the book The World Without Us act not as two different pieces of literature, but rather a continuation of one another. “The Deconstruction of Whiteness” is about how in early America, slaves were the building blocks for America. It talks about how the white people were taking black people from their homes and forcing them to work on plantations in America. This also relates to the actions early settlers took on Native Americans to take their land by expelling them to the west. It’s not just the racism that started global warming in the American country but also a simple little plant called tobacco.

Tobacco was the starting foundation for the economic system of America. Once it became a popular item to buy, plantations grew. With their increase in size the plantations required more workers which they got from Africa and were called slaves. The slaves were the beginning of the destruction of the Earth. In order for market workers to keep up the demand, the slaves were forced to work in the fields by cutting down the crops and trees to create a bigger plantation. According to Mr. Anthony, “At the point they realized that this one crop was a source of great potential wealth, they looked around for a labor force to cultivate the land. That’s when slavery began to develop and harden.” So not only did tobacco start global warming, but also slavery.

In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman is in the future, after global warming has started to take in effect and slavery is already gone. It talks in great detail on how the world would start to crumble at the thought of the disappearance of human civilization, according to Mr. Weisman, “Gradually, the asphalt jungle will give way to a real one.” It details on how we have deteriorated the planet with our consumption of the Earth’s plant life and moved on to using the resources at hand to create doomsday weapons like missiles and nukes.

It wasn’t the Earth that is killing us with deadly natural disasters, but rather ourselves. It’s always has been us from the beginning of industrialization of America to the construction of large cities to finally the creation of nuclear weapons. The article “The Deconstruction of Whiteness” starts from the beginning with our abuse on the planet to the end of the planet in the book The World Without Us. It’s a shocking idea but if mother earth doesn’t kill us with global warming, it will be our own species that have killed us not with weather, but with weapons.

Roszak, Theodore. The Deconstruction of Whiteness. New York: Sierra Club Books, 1995. Print

Weisman, Alan. The World Without Us. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2007. Print.