Thinking activity: Black skin white Mask

 Hello Friends!

today I am going to write about postcolonialism's paper in The black skin white mask. This novel is very interesting and our expert lecturer taught us very well and in there five day we learn so many new things on postcolonialism. I appreciated and learned so many things during the lecture, sir was dealt with good examples regarding Colonialism and post colonialism.

In this novel, there are eight chapter. In Black Skin, White Masks – first published in 1952 – Frantz Fanon offers a potent philosophical, clinical, literary and political analysis of the deep effects of racism and colonialism on the experiences, lives, minds and relationships of black people and people of colour.

Fanon perceived colonialism as a form of domination whose necessary goal for success was the reordering of the world of indigenous (“native”) peoples. He saw violence as the defining characteristic of colonialism.

 So here, There are eight chapter in the novel Black skin white mask. As per my understanding during the guest lecture.

1 The Negro and Language:

The importance of language as a vehicle for colonial oppression is one of the most important themes in postcolonial studies. As Fanon shows, language is not simply a neutral tool through which people express themselves: rather, language gives people a sense of their own identity. When Antilleans who go to France stop speaking Creole except to servants, it is as if they have assumed the identity of the colonizer (even though their race means that they will never actually be in the colonizer’s position).

Fanon is not convinced by the idea that kindness, generosity, and love are enough to fix racism. As he shows in this passage, white people can claim (and perhaps they sincerely believe) that they are acting in a kind manner to black people. However, racism is so deeply entrenched in people’s psychology that it is often not enough to simply try to be kind (or claim that you are being kind). Instead, people must understand how their way of thinking has been shaped by racism and then actively work to undo this. In the example Fanon gives, the white person’s act of “kindness” only serves to reaffirm existing power structures.

2 The Woman of Color and the White Man :

In this chapter examines Mayotte Capécia’s autobiographical novel I Am a Martinican Woman, about a black woman obsessed with marrying a white man even though she knows that white men will always see her as inferior to them. The novel is very popular, but Fanon disapproves of it because it advocates “unhealthy behavior.” In colonial culture, whiteness is associated with virtue and beauty, and Martinican women like Mayotte have been taught to believe that they can “save” their race by making themselves whiter.

They come to feel desperate for white approval, which leads them to act in irrational and self-sabotaging ways. Fanon then turns to a novel called Nini by Abdoulaye Sadji. The titular character of this book is a biracial Senegalese woman who rejects the advances of a black man even though he is devoted to her, because she wants to marry a white person. Fanon argues that Nini shows how black women internalize racist ideas which they direct at black men and ultimately also at themselves.

3 The Man of Color and the White Woman:

Fanon looks at the reverse situation: black men who want to sleep with white women. This time he uses Rene Karan's autobiographical novel A Man Like Any Other, about a black Antillean named Jean Veneuse who lives in Bordeaux, France. Jean is talented but neurotic, desperate to prove himself to others. He is in love with a white woman, and although he has white friends who accept him, they do so on the condition of him renouncing his blackness—which only causes him further psychological torment.

 Fanon considers the fact that many black men desire white women because they want to engage in the vengeful act of “dominating a European woman.” Fanon argues that Jean suffers from an abandonment neurosis, which is described by the psychoanalyst Germaine Guex. However, Fanon clarifies that Jean experiences this neurosis differently than a white person would, and that understandings of the abandonment neurosis have to be adapted given this context.

4 The So-Called Dependency Complex of Colonized Peoples :

Fanon discusses Octave Mannoni's book The Psychology of Colonization, in which Mannoni analyzes the psychological relationship between the colonizer and colonized. Fanon criticizes Mannoni’s argument that the inferiority complex of colonized people originates naturally in early childhood, arguing instead that the inferiority complex is a direct consequence of colonization. Fanon then examines the ways in which, even among people of color, different ethnicities, nationalities, and religions are encouraged to feel superior to one another. 

This ultimately helps to maintain the power structure of white supremacy. He rejects Mannoni’s argument that the best sides of European culture are not responsible for colonialism, arguing instead that all of Europe is complicit in colonial violence. He also rejects Mannoni’s claim that Malagasy people did not have a sense of their own identity prior to colonization, pointing out that instead colonization destroyed Malagasy people’s existing culture and identity. He concludes that Mannoni does not truly understand Malagasy culture or have any sense of what this culture could be like if liberated from colonial oppression.

5 The Fact of Blackness :

It begins with the most famous passage in the book, in which Fanon describes sitting on the train and hearing a white child fearfully exclaim: “Look! A Negro!”. This interaction is deeply painful for Fanon, who feels an enormous sense of anger in response to the child’s fear of him. He describes how racism can engender a feeling of alienation from one’s own body. Quoting from Jean-Paul Sartre’s argument about the corrosive impact of anti-Semitic stereotypes on Jewish people, Fanon points out that while Jewish people can downplay or renounce their Jewishness, black people can never escape their blackness. 

Fanon examines the history of how science was used to justify racism, arguing that “science should be ashamed of itself.” He moves on to critique the artistic movement known as Negritude, stating that the attempt to reimagine a mystical, precolonial black culture ultimately won’t help black people in the present—and that certain aspects of Négritude also ironically confirm racist stereotypes about black people.

6 The Negro and Psychopathology :

Fanon evaluates whether psychoanalytic concepts can be usefully applied to the black experience. He argues that the family lives and early childhoods of white people are different from those of black people simply by virtue of racism and colonialism, and therefore many of the predominant psychoanalytic theories developed by white Europeans don’t hold true for many people of color. Fanon affirms the existence of a “collective unconscious” of black people and argues that the only way for black people to be healed from the psychological damage of colonialism is through “collective catharsis.” 

Fanon critiques the psychoanalytic idea that all phobias are necessarily caused by childhood traumas. In the case of negrophobia––fear or hatred of black people––the problem is actually rooted in racist colonial culture. At the same time, psychoanalytic theory states that phobias are ultimately sexual in nature, and Fanon believes this to be true in the case of anti-black racism, pointing out that anti-black violence is often sexual in nature. Fanon hopes that over time, the black “collective unconscious” will heal and black people will not feel so profoundly alienated. He concludes the chapter with a case study of a white woman who suffered from tics, which—through psychiatric treatment—were diagnosed as a symptom of her fear of black people.

7 The Negro and Recognition:

considers the work of the psychoanalyst Alfred Adler. Fanon supports certain aspects of Adler’s writing while noting that Adler views psychology too much in individual terms, without considering societal issues like racism. Fanon argues that the whole of the Antilles is a “neurotic society” as a direct result of colonialism. He considers the ways in which the psychological dynamic of master and slave still lingers today, even after slavery has been abolished.

8 By Way of Conclusion:

In the concluding chapter, Fanon admits that different colonized populations from around the world will need their own, specific solutions to the problems he has identified. He points out that appealing to dignity and reason alone will never change the world—and in some cases, conflict will be necessary. He resolves not to become obsessed with the past but instead focus on the present, and he dedicates himself to ensuring that no one will ever be enslaved again. He concludes with an appeal to true open-mindedness and a prayer that he will always be “a man who questions.”

Thank you...