Arendt and Melville demonstrate that it is only possible for
individuals to willfully choose to be ignorant when they benefit from a
position of power or privilege. Within power relationships, privilege defines
who is allowed comfort. Privilege allows for the comfortable separation of
oneself from the suffering of others. In the context of willful ignorance,
privilege also allows an individual to disconnect their actions from the
consequences of said actions.
In “Eichmann in Jerusalem”, Eichmann’s job as as a major officer
in the S.S. allowed him to disconnect from the consequences of the holocaust.
In effect, Eichmann was able to ignore the reality of the Holocaust and the
human suffering it produced. Eichmann claimed that he had no direct involvement
in making the policy; rather, he simply acted on the policy. In addition,
Eichmann asserts that he never personally killed someone. Eichmann’s assertion
translates to the ignorance of the suffering that he indirectly caused [1].
In “Benito Cereno”, Melville seems to be making a comment on the
unimaginative, blind white man. Although Melville portrays Capt. Delano as a
well-kept, brave individual, there are many suspicious clues that Delano merely
dismisses while aboard the San Dominick. Melville seems to depict the average
white American as one who is blinded to slaves being anything other than
victimized, lesser human beings. Capt. Delano’s privilege as a white man allows
him to disconnect from the reality of the slaves. At a point in Melville’s
story, Delano almost comes to the realization of the rebellion but pushes it
away due to his racist beliefs. “Could then Don Benito be any way in complicity
with the blacks? But they were too stupid” [2]. Capt. Delano’s privilege allows
him to dismiss his suspicions given that they don’t directly affect him.
The characters of Eichmann and Delano both represent the privilege given to White, upper middle class men. Eichmann is a pure Aryan German and is exempt from the xenophobia and racism rampant in Germany in the early 1940s. Similarly, Delano is representative of all American bourgeoisie society that reap the benefits of chronic enslavement of the African people.
Taken from everydayfeminism.com
References:
[1] Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, (New
York, NY: Penguin Group, 2006), 135
[2] Herman Melville, Benito Cereno, (Boston, MA:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008), 65.
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