What did C.S. Lewis think of White Supremacy?

I asked Grok “What did C.S. Lewis have to say about white supremacy?”

And Grok replied:

C.S. Lewis did not directly address "white supremacy" as a specific
modern ideological term (which gained prominence later), but he did
comment on racial issues, colonialism, and the evils associated with
claims of racial or national superiority in ways that strongly condemn
the attitudes underlying white supremacy.

In his essay collection Christian Reflections (in the piece discussing
the imprecatory Psalms and applying their spirit of cursing evil),
Lewis wrote powerfully against the historical abuses committed by
white Europeans during the colonial era. He described the "White Man's
offence" in these terms:

"All over the earth the White Man’s offence ‘smells to heaven’:
massacres, broken treaties, theft, kidnappings, enslavement,
deportation, floggings, beatings-up, rape, insult, mockery, and odious
hypocrisy make up that smell."

This passage reflects a deep moral outrage at the pattern of
exploitation, violence, and hypocrisy perpetrated by white colonizers
against other peoples (whom he refers to as "Red men, and Black, and
Brown and Yellow"). It directly indicts the kind of racialized
domination and assumed superiority that characterized much of European
imperialism and aligns with a rejection of white supremacist practices
and attitudes.

Lewis was also critical of nationalism when it escalates into claims
of inherent superiority. In The Four Loves (in the chapter on
"Patriotism" or love of country), he warned against the progression
from healthy love of one's home and culture to demonic forms of
nationalism that claim racial or national supremacy, leading to
cruelty, oppression, and even extermination. He described how such
distorted patriotism can declare, "Dogs! Know your betters!"-a clear
repudiation of supremacist hierarchies.

He further critiqued the modern obsession with equality in a way that
highlights his opposition to envy-driven resentment of any
superiority, but he supported practical equality of rights and dignity
under God, while rejecting any idealization of flat equality that
denies natural differences or hierarchies of virtue.

Some critics have accused Lewis of unconscious racial bias or
"Orientalism" in his fiction-particularly in The Chronicles of Narnia,
where the Calormenes (a desert people inspired by Middle Eastern/Arab
cultures) are often portrayed as antagonists with stereotypical traits
(dark-skinned, turban-wearing, expansionist). Authors like Philip
Pullman and some academic analyses have labeled elements of his work
as implicitly racist or tied to white supremacist assumptions of the
era. Defenders argue these reflect common literary conventions of his
time (pseudo-medieval crusader-Saracen dynamics) rather than
deliberate advocacy, and point to positive elements like the
redemptive arc of a Calormene character (Emeth) in The Last Battle or
the depiction of an interracial marriage in the series.

Overall, Lewis's explicit statements condemn racial oppression,
colonial atrocities, and supremacist arrogance-rooted in his Christian
belief in the equal dignity of all people before God-while some of his
fictional portrayals have been seen by later readers as reflecting
unexamined cultural prejudices of mid-20th-century Britain. He did not
endorse white supremacy; where he addressed related evils, he
denounced them.

--------- end of Grok's reply ---------

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-- 
Stephen Hayes, Author of The Year of the Dragon
Sample or purchase The Year of the Dragon: 
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/907935
Web site: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
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