The West and the worst

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

Occidentalism:The West in the Eyes of Its EnemiesBy Ian Buruma and Avishai MargalitPenguin Press, 165 pages, $33Well, there certainly ought to be a word for it. "Westerners" can be easily arraigned or lampooned as imperialists or racists, or "Eurocentrics," and a surprisingly large number of them are more than ready to accept the implied guilt involved here, or at least to submit themselves to the procedure of self-criticism. Yet according to one theory of "racism," only white people can be guilty of it, since it -- "racism" -- is a power structure rather than a prejudice. Thus, one also needs a distinct term for a black person who is ethnically bigoted or race-obsessed ("racialist" might do here).