Within his piece, Fanon included a number of excerpts from poets and writings to convey the idea that the term “black” exists only within relationship to the dominant white majority. I thought it would be a good idea first to look at one of the poem that Fanon included within his writing to understand how [in my opinion] black and white began. The following poem was one of the attached poems within Fanon’s writing:
Those who invented neither gunpowder nor the compass
Those who never learned to conquer steam or electricity
Those who never explored the seas or the skies
But they know the farthest corners of the land of anguish
Those who never knew any journey save that of abduction
Those who learned to kneel in docility
Those who were domesticated and Christianized
Those who were injected with bastardy. . .
Here Fanon makes the point that his brothers are not remembered for their accomplishments like philosophy, innovation or exploration. Instead, they are remembered for their suffering, abduction, obedience and conversion. Looking back in history, the slaves were sold to help Europeans and Americans get work done. As the demand for slaves continued to increase, more people were taken against their will and sold in slavery. There they would be forced to be obedient to the powerful white man, who forced their own worldview upon the slaves, thus poisoning the cultural identity of the group. These things were done for the betterment of the white people out of fear and not for the sake of the black man.
I also wanted to ask your opinions on something that stood out the most to me. On Page 67, Fanon begins through his discussion of Color prejudice quoting Alan Burns,
It [color prejudice] is nothing more than the unreasoning hatred of one race for another, the contempt of the stronger and richer peoples for those whom they consider inferior to themselves, and the bitter resentment of those who are kept in subjection and are so frequently insulted.
When I first read this excerpt I began to think of it in terms of society in 1952, giving present day society the benefit of the doubt. However, as I read over each line, I began to realize how mundane discrimination and racial prejudice had become. One may hope that our society has learned from the mistakes throughout history like the Civil War and World War II, but unfortunately in today’s society we still find ourselves with the presumption that a certain person is a certain way because of their race or color. Though we all may try to avoid the presupposition, it becomes extremely difficult for one not to have previous notions on someone based off their physical appearance.
In no way am I trying to minimize the extent that color prejudice has on a black man, but at the same time, he is not the only one who suffers this prejudice. Coming from a Greek family, where I happen to be the fairest skinned of them all, I watch as my father is pulled aside in airport lines because of his strange and uncommon name. There he must take off his shoes, go through multiple security detectors and asked a series of questions on where he’s going and why. If he laughs at absurdity of this prejudice, he is threatened by those performing the “random search”. While he has not been stripped of his culture as the African natives were when they brought to different countries unwillingly, he is still demoralized and ridiculed for being the other.
So my question that I ask you guys is how do we fix or even deal with this problem of "blackness"? Blackness cannot just be limited to color, as we are all the black sheep segregated from the rest of the herd at one time or another in our life.
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I love this concept of 'blackness' as simply 'otherness.' It connects us all to the piece whether we're African American or not. It is true that we all at one point in our lives identify ourselves by what we are not - by what society constantly reminds us that we are not.
ReplyDeleteAs for my opinion on the Burns quotation from page 67, it stood out to me as well. Any sort of prejudice - not just that of color - should be recognized as "unreasoning hatred" because of the simple fact that it is pre-judging without basis or concrete knowledge of who that person is. Formulating opinions based on physical appearance (in this case, race, but universally anything applies) is inexcusable.
It is unfortunate to realize that while society may seem to have advanced past petty racial tension, we are nowhere near evolved. In reading a piece like Fanon's, it is easy to try and write it off as a commentary from the fifties, but the problems still exist at the core of society today. Yes, we have a black president, but the simple fact that it's such a big deal that we have black president and it took us so long to get there is a problem in itself.
Perhaps this piece is apocalyptic in the sense that it calls for a drastic societal change in the same way that Marx does in his piece (I think we ended up calling it 'chopping off society's feet'). Small parts of the foundation of society need to be altered in order for the superstructure to positively evolve. In this case, color prejudice must be eradicated - or at least alleviated - in order for society to progress and develop in a beneficial way for everyone.
It's a historical question, i think. Since the inception of writing there has been property value and social stratification. The question raised by Fanon is more complex than just different classes, or social order, it involves the cultural identity that Raymond Willams can call ordinary. But this 'ordinariness' doesn't seem applicable here, or at least a concept that, if applied, seems too ignorant, or 'bourgeois' or cynical or elitist. How do we get rid of this blackness? Is it as simple as finding self-identity in tearing down others? Probably not. But maybe 'blackness' has taken its historical American history--slavery segregation, racism--and effectively turned it into a culture of its own.
ReplyDelete"Here Fanon makes the point that his brothers are not remembered for their accomplishments like philosophy, innovation or exploration. Instead, they are remembered for their suffering, abduction, obedience and conversion."
ReplyDeleteThis passage in the first post reminded me of some material I've been studying in my Sociology of Gender class. Michael Messner, in his essay, "Becoming 100% Straight," writes about the sociological meaning of 'studying up' vs. 'studying down,' and the academic survey's proclivity towards the latter--the study of the culture with less power. Sociologists are far more inclined to study the group of people that is poor, or black, or female, or gay, as opposed to the more acceptable counterpart of any of those categories. Therefore, in a study sense, the violence and injustice done is important to focus on. However, this tendency is, in itself, unjust--it still refuses to see the people with less power as people, capable of both great and terrible things, rather than victims.