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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Rape
A truly, truly interesting take on race relations in the 20th century. As a work of literature, this is an example of exquisite writing; every other line is quotable. Fanon presented numerous excerpts from other philosophical works to back himself up, and he did so quite well.
I would not go so far as to call this required reading (it's certainly not Baldwin's The Fire Next Time), but it does present a harrowing, emotional take on the absolute reality of the relationship between black and white. (It often reads more like prose than a piece of philosophical discourse.)
I commend Fanon for putting so much of himself into this book, and subsequently causing the reader to look so deep within oneself.
"My final prayer:
O my body, always make me a man who questions!"
I would not go so far as to call this required reading (it's certainly not Baldwin's The Fire Next Time), but it does present a harrowing, emotional take on the absolute reality of the relationship between black and white. (It often reads more like prose than a piece of philosophical discourse.)
I commend Fanon for putting so much of himself into this book, and subsequently causing the reader to look so deep within oneself.
"My final prayer:
O my body, always make me a man who questions!"
Harsh, transcendental truth. A must-read, especially for white people
Black Skin, White Masks is a nonfiction exploration of how black men function in a white society, and the first work I’ve thus far finished concerning race and post-colonial studies... review
Reading Fanon, I only wish I were more intelligent, so his brilliance would not be wasted on my ignorance! In any case, I can grow and revisit his words — which are wow. Fanon is masterful in his writing as both an academic, philosopher, and poet. His works cannot be hailed enough! I’m excited to read “The Wretched of The Earth,” next.
I’ll leave this with Fanon’s words:
“I ask that I be taken into consideration on the basis of my desire. I am not only here-now, locked in thinghood. I desire somewhere else and something else. I demand that an account be taken of my contradictory activity insofar as I am fighting for the birth of a human world, in other words, a world of reciprocal recognitions. He who is reluctant to recognize me is against me. In a fierce struggle I am willing to feel the shudder of death, the irreversible extinction, but also the possibility of impossibly.”
I’ll leave this with Fanon’s words:
“I ask that I be taken into consideration on the basis of my desire. I am not only here-now, locked in thinghood. I desire somewhere else and something else. I demand that an account be taken of my contradictory activity insofar as I am fighting for the birth of a human world, in other words, a world of reciprocal recognitions. He who is reluctant to recognize me is against me. In a fierce struggle I am willing to feel the shudder of death, the irreversible extinction, but also the possibility of impossibly.”
(Pending revisit to write a more nuanced review than I did in 2017)
Wretched of the Earth, written nine years after this one, is such a strong critique of the psychology of colonialism, that I immediately preordered the new edition of Black Skin, White Masks upon finishing it. Unfortunately, while the bare bones of the critique is here, so a vast load of Freudian crap - some of it very sexist, and truly cringeworthy around the psychology of black women, and some homophobia thrown in. I'm going to choose to be pleased Fanon's later work moved away from this, and go back to being enthused about that.
Fanon spends the majority of the book critiquing various ideas that were part of his zeitgeist, so the text is very esoteric and dense. His ideas are timeless but his examples are dated. As a reader you have to put in a lot of effort to extract the principles that can be analogized into modern examples.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced