In the bad old times, when the white male of noble descent was still the pinnacle of the creation, some of these men who had also a noble mind ventured the continents inhabited by savages to tell the white readers how the savages live and feel. Yes, they did tell their readers that contrary to some preconceptions the savages have human feelings and noble thoughts, and henceforth the "noble savage" was born. We regard this kind of anthropological writings now as patronising despite the sincere and noble motives of those who did the patronising.

The patronising of that era is out of fashion now, but we sometimes encounter a new way of supporting the feelings and actions of "nonwhites" that treats them once more as kids and not quite normal humans despite or even because of the sincere wish to support them. In contrast to the old patronising I call it matronising.

Whenever a group of "Non-Westerners" acts or threatens to act in a way that would not be tolerated or accepted at all if done by members of the in-group the matronisers show up and ask us not to treat the "Non-Westerners" as adult humans but rather as kids or "savages" whose outbreaks of temper are rather ignored than criticised. In the long run, this "support" and pampering is damaging to group it is meant to help.

Wolfgang