The Superfluous African in Heart of Darkness Three works cited The story is about a man named Marlow, who is hired by The Company, a shipping company based in England. Although Marlow had sailed before, he had never gone to Africa. The people who ran the Company (the ones based in England) are so out of touch with reality that they have no idea of ​​the devastation caused by shipping large loads of ivory. The Company is a perfect example of how these profit-driven industries obtain their wealth – through blatant disregard for the environment and their fellow man. One can only imagine the death and destruction that was inflicted to ship massive quantities of ivory. The Company's lack of respect for Africans and their environment was typical of many nineteenth-century profiteers. Their logic was that regardless of the amount of damage inflicted, they felt it would never affect them. Their disdainful attitude towards Africans is expressed in the following words: The conquest of the land, which mainly means taking it away from those who have a different complexion or a slightly flatter nose than ours, is not a good thing if you look too closely at bottom. (Conrad 9) In order to conquer a people you must dehumanize them and believe them to be insignificant/inferior. This way of thinking is used to justify any atrocities committed by the conquerors. In “Root of Racism,” the superior attitude is described as All groups, by their nature, imply to members that they are somehow special in particular ways and in many ways. better than their traveling companions on this earth. (Ross)This superior attitude has evidently been pervasive throughout human history; some strong examples of these are the war in Bosnia, the Tutu massacre in Rwanda, and the nearly annihilated white Native American settlers. Conrad's character, Marlow, describes the natives as having “a wild vitality” and their “faces like grotesque masks. " These remarks demonstrate his fear and reinforce the distinction between him and the natives. Racial or ethnic hatred is a direct consequence of our fear response. Hate is really taking the fear response one step further. Let's justify that fear invoking certain attributes on others while assuming they may be inferior, evil, or harmful.