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A review by georgiaswad
Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon
3.0
i’m gonna be completely honest, i really really struggled with this. it took me ages to get through despite its small page count because every two pages i would be muttering ‘what the fuck’ under my breath or rereading to see if i could wrangle some sense out of the last paragraph. to be completely fair, it was written over seventy years ago and has been translated from french AND the author was a 1950s psychoanalyst so that comes with a level of pseudoscience that is difficult to come to terms with today. there’s also a level of homophobia and misogyny (and misogynoir) that made me wince, but as a 21st century white person i’ll leave those criticisms to someone better equipped.
it’s one i felt i had to read because fanon and this text specifically has been referenced multiple times across my reading in uni and beyond on the subject of critical race theory, and i can see why. he makes some really salient and interesting points, he puts forward a very personal as well as broad documentation of the effect of racism and living within racist structures on the black body, he dips into poetic prose that’s honestly kind of beautiful to read. however, his writing is also often overwhelming dense and also very much a product of its time. we have lots of fantastic 21st century black race theorists that, whilst writing on a foundation of someone as influential as fanon, definitely are preferable to read in our current day and age.
i could quote multiple highly questionable paragraphs that would no doubt reiterate the ‘what the fuck’ viewpoint, but i’ve taken a notable and relevant, point about how black people working against institutional racism can never just be good enough, but must be twice as good for half the reward, instead:
‘We had doctors, teachers, and statesmen. OK, but there was always something unusual about them(…) “Our physician’s black. He’s very gentle.” (…) I knew for instance that if the physician made one false move, it was over for him and for all those who came after him. What, in fact, could one expect from a Negro physician? As long as everything was going smoothly, he was praised to the heavens; but watch out—there was no room whatsoever for any mistake.’
if you do decide to plough through this, do so at your own risk, and be prepared to scratch your head a fair amount along the way.
it’s one i felt i had to read because fanon and this text specifically has been referenced multiple times across my reading in uni and beyond on the subject of critical race theory, and i can see why. he makes some really salient and interesting points, he puts forward a very personal as well as broad documentation of the effect of racism and living within racist structures on the black body, he dips into poetic prose that’s honestly kind of beautiful to read. however, his writing is also often overwhelming dense and also very much a product of its time. we have lots of fantastic 21st century black race theorists that, whilst writing on a foundation of someone as influential as fanon, definitely are preferable to read in our current day and age.
i could quote multiple highly questionable paragraphs that would no doubt reiterate the ‘what the fuck’ viewpoint, but i’ve taken a notable and relevant, point about how black people working against institutional racism can never just be good enough, but must be twice as good for half the reward, instead:
‘We had doctors, teachers, and statesmen. OK, but there was always something unusual about them(…) “Our physician’s black. He’s very gentle.” (…) I knew for instance that if the physician made one false move, it was over for him and for all those who came after him. What, in fact, could one expect from a Negro physician? As long as everything was going smoothly, he was praised to the heavens; but watch out—there was no room whatsoever for any mistake.’
if you do decide to plough through this, do so at your own risk, and be prepared to scratch your head a fair amount along the way.