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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
Seminal, but too many issues. I hope I will have a more formulated opinion once I’ve read Wretched.
Very interesting read. It's about the psychological violence inflicted upon black people living in white supremacist societies & cultures. The writer is from France, so it is influenced by his experiences in France & French colonies but it in no way detracts from the message. Through examples of literature, various people's anecdotes & some of his own, he explores the many ways Colonialism & racism affect people of color across the world. Whether it's a person's confusion about where they fit in, especially if they are mixed or are immersed in a culture that is not their own, a person exhibiting the behavior of a sycophant, or just generally struggling to have their humanity recognized, it is clear that the black man or woman struggles for a place in society. This is contrasted with the way white people view black people. This is understood through expressing desire for black people to be kept in place at the bottom & projecting fears of retaliation, projecting a fear of having the same ill treatment visited upon them or their sexualizing fears of black people's perceived sexual virulence. All of these are dealt with in different ways by white men & white women & how they are is given attention as well.
Published in the 1950's, it is clear that an understanding of the past is necessary to figure out what to do in what for the intended audience was the present & how the past affected the situation of black people across the world at the time, it is not about living in the past, but what understanding ever is? It is about black people's struggle to have their humanity recognized. A message that is sadly still relevant.
Published in the 1950's, it is clear that an understanding of the past is necessary to figure out what to do in what for the intended audience was the present & how the past affected the situation of black people across the world at the time, it is not about living in the past, but what understanding ever is? It is about black people's struggle to have their humanity recognized. A message that is sadly still relevant.
What a wild book. Written like a manifesto; Fanon had the true heart of a radical.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
Very misogynistic and homophobic at times and the science is outdated but I still think there’s so much value in this book and his writing is incredible so it didn’t feel as dense as it was
challenging
informative
reflective
It's both fascinating and alarming that so many of the observations in this book still hold true 70 years after it was first published. An essential read for anyone wanting to dismantle their internalised racism and biases.
Black Skin White Masks confused the hell out of me when I read it in second-year English lit. It was one of my first experiences with literary criticism and also with semiotics and the theories of difference and orientalism. We read it contextually along with Edward Said and Jacques Derrida. The previous semester I'd been introduced to and bewildered by Foucault, Judith Butler, and Lacan in my women's studies course, which was taught by an English professor - luckily for me, because those theorists and theories came up many times in my senior years; unluckily also, for me, since that particular professor was from New Zealand and I could barely understand her accent. To say the least, those first two years of my English literature degree opened my eyes to ideas that have since shaped my entire understanding of the world.
I'll be honest: I skimmed the later half of the book, foregoing huge chunks of quoted text and footnotes to try and get to the meat and potatoes of things. Even then, I don't think this book is quite for me. Any essays written in the 1950s or before that have a writing style that I can't quite sift through, and on some level, I've lived through the experiences that Fanon writes about.
Don't get me wrong, though. When he says, "wherever he goes, a black man remains a black man," I felt that. I know what it's like to never feel at home, in the US or abroad. Fanon has powerful gems of wisdom sprinkled throughout that I'll probably quote from.
But, it's just too dense for my taste.
Don't get me wrong, though. When he says, "wherever he goes, a black man remains a black man," I felt that. I know what it's like to never feel at home, in the US or abroad. Fanon has powerful gems of wisdom sprinkled throughout that I'll probably quote from.
But, it's just too dense for my taste.
reflective
slow-paced
I am Black, not because of a curse, but because my skin has been able to capture all the cosmic effluvia. I am truly a drop of sun under the earth.
I really don't have a clue on how to rate this book because some passages are so impactful and are written so poetically, yet there was a whole chapter that was so misogynistic? As soon as I read a few sentences about his view on Black women, I knew he married a white women AND I WAS RIGHT.