Fanon - Racial Lived experience Flashcards
(25 cards)
What does Fanon mean by the ‘Manichean’ divide in colonial society?
Fanon argues that the colonial world is divided into two rigidly compartmentalised halves: the coloniser and the colonised, with each position defined in opposition to the other.
It persists psychologically via the pedestal on which whiteness is placed, maintaining a racial binary.
How does Fanon explain the persistence of racism after colonialism ends?
Fanon argues that even after colonialism’s official end, the racialised infrastructure of the European political model remains intact.
He states that the real problem within political institutions is racism itself, a systemic issue that persists and prevents genuine equality.
What does Fanon say enslaves the negro and the white man?
Fanon famously says that the “negro is enslaved by his inferiority,” while the “white man is enslaved by his superiority.”
How does Fanon critique Octave Mannoni’s work on colonialism?
Fanon acknowledges that Mannoni’s The Psychology of Colonization is “intellectually honest” in capturing the psychological dimension of colonialism, but Fanon criticises Mannoni’s claim to objectivity.
He argues that subjectivity must be prioritized to understand colonialism’s full impact.
inside France, whilst he was a psych student
How does Fanon relate his own experience to the impact of colonialism?
Fanon is conscious of his own position as a subject and beneficiary of colonialism. He was influenced by his early years in Lyon, living in poverty alongside Lyon’s North African community.
This experience allowed him to articulate the uniqueness of the lived experience
What is Fanon’s view on how colonialism affects the family and children?
Fanon argues that the family serves as a “miniature of the nation,” racist values instilled in children
He describes how colonial society’s aggression is released through cultural symbols and children’s media, where Black figures are often depicted as evil, fostering alienation.
This social conditioning begins early and re-emphasizes the inferiority complex, making Black children equate moral behaviour with acting white.
How does Fanon use Lacanian psychoanalysis to explain the racialisation of identity?
Fanon draws on Lacan’s mirror stage to explain how the Black child’s identity is formed through misrecognition. The Black child looks into the mirror and sees a distorted, racially inscribed reflection, which is central to the psychological trauma of colonialism.
This is a cause of disorders as it forces the colonised to internalise an inferiority complex.
What does Fanon say about the psychoanalytic framework’s limitations in addressing colonial trauma?
He wrote it for his doctoral dissertation at University of Lyon but was rejected for being too politically controversial.
Fanon critiques traditional psychoanalysis for its failure to address the unique form of alienation caused by colonialism.
Unlike childhood trauma, the trauma of colonial subjugation is deeply ingrained in the socio-political structures. This results in a “double process” of oppression: material exploitation and psychological alienation.
What is Fanon’s view on the coloniser’s role in fabricating the colonised subject?
He states, “The colonist is right when he says he ‘knows’ them. It is the colonist who fabricated and continues to fabricate the colonized subject.”
What happened to Fanon on the train?
Fanon immerses the reader in a deeply personal anecdote of being racially harassed on a train by a white child, his mother watching. The chapter begins in media res, pulling the reader directly into this disorienting moment of racial violence.
In line with the phenomenological intent of the chapter, Fanon is objectified in his Blackness. The child’s cry, “Maman, look, a Negro; I’m scared!” represents an epistemic form of racism, where even the youngest members of the colonial metropole play a role in the racialised ordering of the world.
As Fanon writes, “I… gave myself up as an object,” illustrating the theme of “thingification” that recurs in The Wretched of the Earth.
How does Fanon use the shift in perspective in his narrative style to convey alienation?
Fanon intentionally disrupts traditional syntax in his writing, shifting between “I,” “you,” “they,” and “we.” This shifting perspective mirrors the lived experience of the colonised, creating confusion and disorientation.
What does Fanon say about the relationship between Black people and white society in terms of LANGUAGE?
As Fanon famously states, “To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture. The Antilles Negro who wants to be white will be the whiter as he gains greater mastery of the cultural tool that language is.”
But at some point, the colonised individual is confronted with the irrefutable truth: they are not and cannot be white, and in the eyes of white society, they are the evil “Other.”
This recognition is traumatic, as it makes them aware of their subhuman status.
The first words Fanon wrote as a child were “Je suis français” (“I am French”),
How does Fanon describe the psychological toll of colonialism on educated Black individuals?
Fanon describes the internal struggle of educated Black individuals who are alienated from their own race and culture.
He writes, “I begin to suffer from not being a white man…I must bring myself as quickly as possible into the white world… Then I will try to make myself white.”
How does Fanon’s writing style break from traditional academic norms?
Fanon’s writing is deliberately impassioned, breaking from the detached style of academic scholarship.
Instead of maintaining objectivity, Fanon engages directly with the reader, using a shifting narrative perspective and urgent tone.
This emotional engagement immerses the reader in the struggles of the colonised, making his critique of colonialism not just intellectual but a call to action.
What role do cultural allusions play in Fanon’s critique of colonialism?What role do cultural allusions play in Fanon’s critique of colonialism?
Cultural references, such as the image of the Senegalese soldier with a red chechia cap, to highlight the complicity of colonial forces.
This allusion to the “tirailleurs sénégalais” — African soldiers who fought for France during World War I — illustrates the tension between colonial subjects and their oppressors, a tension Fanon himself experienced as a member of the Free France Army.
What does Fanon mean by the “Negro is comparison”?
“The Negro is comparison…The Antilleans have no inherent values of their own, they are always contingent on the presence of The Other.”
The colonised person is defined not by their own qualities but by their difference from the coloniser.
How do mid-century French and German philosophers influence Fanon’s thinking about language?
Fanon’s thinking about language is influenced by the philosophical milieu of mid-century French and German philosophy, particularly phenomenology, existentialism, which explore the idea that language, subjectivity, and reality are fundamentally entangled.
Merleau-Ponty
What does Fanon discuss as one of the most important moments in the book regarding diction and racial embodiment?
In one of the most important moments of the book, Fanon discusses the problem of diction and racial embodiment. He explains that a black person can perfect speech, learn to speak perfect French, and sound like a sophisticated Parisian.
This might promise a certain kind of liberation from alienation through the mastery of proper French. If the black colonial subject learns to speak as well as a white Parisian, then perhaps they could achieve equal participation in language and its world.
What is the issue with the idea that perfect diction can lead to liberation for black people in colonial societies?
The issue lies in the “epidermal character of race.” Even if a black person speaks perfect French, they will still be seen as black, which means they will be marked as special, unique, and surprising. This surprise, Fanon argues, is a reminder of racial inferiority, not in the content of their speech, but because of their black skin.
How does the epidermal nature of race affect the significance of linguistic performance?
The epidermal nature of race limits the significance of linguistic performance because embodiment frames how language is received.
Even perfect diction cannot escape the stigma of blackness, meaning the black subject’s speech is always filtered through the lens of racial difference, rendering their linguistic mastery ineffective in overcoming racial boundaries.
What effect does the emphasis on diction have on the relationship between black people? (stylistic format as well as quote)
Fanon’s style is intentionally disruptive — his syntax defies conventional structure, shifting between “I,” “you,” “they,” and “we,” creating a sense of confusion and alienation that mirrors the lived experience of the colonised.
This disorientation is achieved through a stream-of-consciousness narrative
What does the shifting of these perspectives mean? And what does the educated Negro think? (quote)
The shift between these perspectives mirrors the ambiguity Fanon feels as an educated, w-class intellectual from Martinique, a colony still steeped in colonial ideologies.
As Fanon writes, “The educated Negro, slave of the spontaneous and cosmic Negro myth, feels at a given stage that his race no longer understands him. Or that he no longer understands it. Then he congratulates himself on this.”
How does Fanon critique Hegelian dialectics?
Fanon’s section “The Negro and Hegel” conveys Fanon’s belief that Hegelian dialectics of lordship and bondage are inapplicable in translating social relations under colonialism.
Unlike the Hegelian slave who eventually attains self-consciousness, Fanon asserts that the black subject is denied recognition as a human and is fixed as a “thing” in the eyes of the white Master
How does Fanon’s understanding of Hegelian dialectics deviate from the corresponding chapter in Phenomenology of the Spirit (1807)?
However, it becomes apparent that Fanon’s reading of Hegel deviates from the corresponding chapter in Phenomenology of the Spirit (1807).
This does not necessarily imply that Fanon’s argument is suddenly nonsensical.
Rather, it reflects the pervasive influence of Kojève’s understanding of Hegel, which dominated the French philosophical milieu from 1930s to late 1970s
