Black Skins, White Masks: An Analysis on Fanon
How does Fanon’s lived experiences of racism relate to Sartre’s theory on identity and bad faith for black people?
In chapter five of Fanon’s work “Black Skins, White Masks,” Fanon recounts memoirs of racist treatment towards him on various different levels and encounters with others– as suggested by the name of the chapter. Fanon discussed the conception of black people as being at a constant indentured servitude of white people. The reading opens with a fury of expletives that are specifically targeted at black people– used to disclose the deeply hurtful derision that blacks have to endure, and temporarily pull the reader in to feeling what the black experience is like. He uses such terms because they are used by white people to degrade and oppress blacks. Black people would never create such names for themselves; they are debasing expressions that white people assign to them. By opening the chapter with such a vehement scene, Fannon explores the power of the white gaze in permeating the cultural fabric and norms that determine black identity. Additionally, this scene provides Fannon’s personal example of how white people try to enforce their idea of ‘blackness’ onto black people– stripping them of their agency to determine their own identity.
Fanon’s autobiographical piece illustrates the extent to which endemic racist thinking is ingrained into systemic practices, and the insurmountable challenges for people subject to racism to escape it. Fanon expounds upon how the black man is only seen for what he has to offer– his labor, looks, servitude, or intellect– but he is never recognized as a person, in full. Fannon proclaims that isolating the blackness of black people, whether with good or ill intent, makes the black experience all the more infuriating. This is because such actions are done through the lens of objectification, which further dehumanizes the black man. For instance, Fannon describes a woman who casually exclaims “look how handsome that Negro is" (94, Fannon). Fannon posits that although the woman may be trying to express desire, which implies that she views him in a positive light, her sentiment is undergirded by the same racist ideologies as people who openly denigrate him. That is, her remarks are fetishing and exoticizing Fannon as a sexual play thing to fit into her white fantasy– rendering him to be different, strange, and inhuman object. Although there may be positive intentions of her praise, it indirectly reinforces existing power structures by subjugating the black man as an object of sexual lust. This demonstrates how praising a black man for his blackness is just as detrimental as abasing him for it; such two contraries are actually two sides of the same coin.
This reading is closely connected to a previous reading of ‘seeing but not being seen,’ how the concept of the black man is one that is not created by himself– but rather, predetermined by the white gaze. Black people only ‘exist’ in relation to the white man, which is one of racial dominance and subordination. People’s identities are often shaped by the view of others around themselves; therefore, many black people falsely, but genuinely, believe that they are innately evil due to their skin color. For instance, Fanon implores that “Sin is black as virtue is white. All those white men, fingering their guns, can't be wrong. I am guilty. I don't know what of: but I know I'm a wretch” (118, Fanon). Thus, Fanon laments that black people are fettered to an identity that they didn’t craft, and shackled to an unjust system that refuses to acknowledge their collective humanity. This is because “the white gaze, the only valid one, is already dissecting me” (95, Fannon). Given that racism is an abstract concept that is a part of a larger culture, black people feel as if it is impossible to escape an entire culture which envelops them. Furthermore, one might ask the question: how can you escape something that is impalpable? If white superiority were a mirror, the black man only views himself in reflection to it. His identity is a construction of white opinion, rather than through his own agency. However, ultimately Fannon reclaims his identity as a ‘black’ ‘man’ in the end of the narrative by acknowledging his own personhood and giving himself the permission to reach the full potential of humanity, rather than having such rights denied by others.
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