Gary Y. Okihiro (1945-2024) was Visiting Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration at Yale University and the author of many books, including
Imperialism, both discursive and material, extended European rule over the earth. Geographic and biological determinisms explained superior and inferior human varieties (races), justifying extraterritorial powers, and taxonomy named, classified, and ranked all life-forms, installing order amid alleged chaos. Those discourses justified and motivated the material relations of conquest, occupation, and colonization of the Third World with the rise of nationalism and capitalism in Europe.
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