The Facts of Blackness –Frantz Fanon
The Theorist Frantz Fanon reveals that ‘blackness’ is ontologically irresistible in the eyes of a people of white decent. He highlights the racial barriers and the ‘facts’ of being black skinned is the ideology people of Caucasian race have fashioned due to negatively misconstruing of the historical implements that sculpt the fixed attributes of someone who is black skinned. He illustrates that black people are only classified as black in relation to the white man. The customs and culture are unseen due to the conflict of a civilisation that is dissimilar and also imposed on him. Fanon described this post colonial view as an ‘inborn complex’. He highlights that the attitude and psychological attributes we as human subconsciously apply to everyday life in terms of racial judgment and recognition is pessimistically critiqued to people of colour. The post colonialism of the self restricts our judgement as human beings to disregard the colour of our fellow human being and our immediate judgement depends solely on the colour of that person. “Oh I want you to meet my black friend” this emphasis of the man’s skin tone in Fanons article indicates not only the ignorance of men but the inability to bypass the mentality of racial recognition. Post colonialism of the self indicates the historical effects of why race is defined as our genetic makeup which visibly determines the colour of our skin and not the reality that there is only one race which is the human race and with the hope to break down colour prejudice. “A dog lies down on the grave of his master and starves to death” this example Fanon used was to exemplify the contrast between man and dog and the inadequacy to liquidate the past. His belief that the horrendous accounts of slavery has made a huge impact on the views of the coming generation in which black people encounter difficulties in their development mentally, physically and socially in a white colonised world. The use of tangible accounts of times his ‘blackness’ has been a disapproving subject may seem quite subjective however I agree in this case that based on the rationality of the reader and the writer his views and understanding of post colonialism and prejudice can only really be indentified and competent by a man of colour like himself. His accounts are indentified by people of colour