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Black Skin, White Masks
enlarge	Author: Frantz Fanon Creator: Richard Philcox Publisher: Grove Press Category: Book List Price: ~~$14.00~~ Buy New: $8.13 as of 11/21/2009 06:37 PST details You Save: $5.87 (42%) New (28) Used (14) from $8.13 Seller: a1books Media: Paperback Edition: Revised Pages: 240 Number Of Items: 1 Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4 Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 ISBN: 0802143008 Dewey Decimal Number: 305.896 EAN: 9780802143006 ASIN: 0802143008 Publication Date: September 10, 2008 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Product Description Few modern voices have had as profound an impact on the black identity and critical race theory as Frantz Fanon, and Black Skin, White Masks represents some of his most important work. Fanon’s masterwork is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers. A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the world, Black Skin, White Masks is the unsurpassed study of the black psyche in a white world. Hailed for its scientific analysis and poetic grace when it was first published in 1952, the book remains a vital force today from one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history.

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 18 1 2 3 4 Next » It's up to you May 31, 2009 Dorothy Grant (CA USA) 0 out of 1 found this review helpful I am not going to summarize or highlight this book. I say this because it is important that you read this book on your own terms and interpret Fanon's theories in your way and time. If you are even reading this book you are already aware of some of the theories that Fanon developed and lived. This awareness will guide you to your understanding and hopefully his writing will allow to truly see others and most importantly, see yourself. Black Nationalism May 25, 2009 Dancing Palmtrees (Jamaica, NY USA) This is and was a great book. Even though he discussed the effects of racism in regards to his native land of Martinique we Mr. Fanon has to say still resounds in today's so-called PC world. I do wish he had lived long enough to see Barack Obama elected President of the United States. I would have loved to hear his take on that. The only aspect I found missing from this book is his opinion on Black American ex-patriots living in France. James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Josephine Baker.... Did these African-Americans living in Paris not realize the effect of colonolism on all Africans in the Diaspora?, or were they treated as "Honorary Whites" in France. I truly wish Frantz Fanon had explored that entire subject. An evocative poetic-critical reading of oppression, racism, colonialism February 23, 2009 Ioana Stoica (Washington, DC) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful "I am black; I am in total fusion with the world, in sympathetic affinity with the earth, losing my id in the heart of the cosmos... I am black, not because of a curse, but because my skin has been able to capture all the cosmic effluvia. I am truly a drop of sun under the earth." (p. 27)~ Thus Fanon reaches into the experience and meaning of the black man's alienation. This alienation strikes in an essential sense--it stems from the denial of the black man's very flesh: "The black man is attacked for his corporeality. It is his tangible personality that is lynched. It is his actual being that is dangerous..." (142). The white man, who has been obsessed with eradicating the body out of collective consciousness for millennia, now associates this abjected domain of the body with the black man, and constructs it as the essential evil Other. The white man does this because he is insecure--he does this out of hatred, a hatred that he works to cultivate, that consumes his time and energy. The white man is dehumanized. Projecting his fears onto the black man, the white man shirks his responsibility to acknowledge his guilt (83) in instrumentalizing the black man (206). Even though this work was written over 50 years ago in a literal colony of Europe, sadly it remains only too relevant in the United States today as a condition between people that allegedly have the same legal and human rights. This is largely made possible by the many ever-so-casual-racists (who vehemently deny they are racist)--people who, for example, complain about affirmative action as unfair to them personally (nevermind history and generations of enslavement and stolen opportunities). Fanon writes, "outside university circles there is an army of fools... Granted, these fools are the product of a psychological-economic substructure. But that does not get us anywhere" (18). An education for racial tolerance from which we are sadly very far removed is necessary for moving towards a world of love. Race Theory February 17, 2007 David Gonzalez-nieto 7 out of 8 found this review helpful If you want to understand racial identity, you should read Fanon's approach. The most influential author on ethnicity and colonization in the twentieth century. From a teacher's perspective March 20, 2006 CCNY Grad student (Hollywood, FL) 26 out of 30 found this review helpful Frantz Fanon was a contemporary writer of the 1950's. Born in Martinique, he studied psychiatry and medicine in France as a young man after volunteering his services in World War II. He had an educational background in post colonial studies including racism and colonization. At the age of 27 he published "Black Skin, White Masks" which played a vital role in civil rights and Black consciousness movements throughout its time. Fanon's analysis of the Black psyche, "Black Skin, White Masks", was amazingly interesting and educational. It gave me a fresh perspective to what it means to live as the minority, as a person of color in a White world. This is a wonderful review of how the French of different backgrounds interacted with each other. There are also a few downfalls in understanding "Black Skin, White Masks". This book is hard to follow because it jumps around quite a bit, making various points throughout the same train of thought. There are many topics covered, one of the most thoroughly explored being romantic love between interracial couples. It also explores the use of language and the importance of knowing one's familial, racial, and cultural history. One of the topics Fanon concentrates on is the Black man and his goals in life. To understand what Black men go through, one has to first understand the history of the particular Black man he is talking about which is born in an island off of France then moves to France and faces the culture shock of entering a country where the language and customs are different. Here the Black man goes from being comfortable and part of a larger entity to being the minority. At this stage the Black man feels he is worthless because of the history of the relationship of Blacks and Whites, where the Black man has led a forced life of servitude and abuse which has caused him to believe that he is inferior to the White man. The White man's racism has created the White man's feeling of superiority which correlates with the Black man's feeling of inferiority. Because of this inferiority complex the Black man has an overpowering need to prove himself equal to the White man. Fanon goes on to argue that the Black man's goal is to prove to Whites, Blacks and himself that he is an intelligent, good, and worthy of pursuing happiness individual. One of the most detailed examples was how the Black man attempts to get closer to being White by having any relationship, be it friendship or romantic (preferably sexual), with a White person other than a master/slave association. As an example Fanon tells a story of a young mulatto woman who marries a White man and in a split second goes from being the slave to being the master. Yet there are other cases when the Black man succeeds and he is not only rejected by Whites, he is repudiated by Blacks. Another theme was that of language and what happens to a Black person when he arrives to France. The Black man has to learn how to speak French as it is spoken in France in order to become "whiter", for example, an educated Black man is no longer seen as Black because Blacks are savages while the intellectual is civilized. Yet there have been many cases where despite the success of the Black man, Whites refuse to accept them as equals and show it by speaking to them in pidgin or as children. There is also the struggle of remaining part of the Black community after assimilating into the White world. After learning to speak French, he returns home as white in the eyes of other Black people. The Black man must be able to code change in order to survive in both worlds. Antillean education is looked at carefully in this book. Fanon compares the children of France with those of Martinique. As French children learn about their culture and their ancestors, Martinique children learn of the ancestors of others. Fanon proposes that the Black Martinique children should learn about Black history as a separate section in order to build self esteem and confidence. Children need to learn that there have been others in similar situations that have pulled through and made it despite discrimination and hate. If the educational system increases the Martinique children's knowledge and understanding of their own heritage and history, they will be able to make connections with their own ancestors and their amazing accomplishments. This would thus curb ideas of inferiority. There was a contrast between Blacks and Whites that kept the world as it was. In order for there to be white, there has to be black. In order for there to be a slave there has to be a master. In order for one group of peoples to be superior another group has to be inferior, and this is the case with Whites and Blacks. As a result, whatever one group is the other is the opposite. Here arise a series of stereotypes that support how people think of these two groups. Whites are intelligent, progressive, civil people while Blacks are primitive savages in need of taming. Since Blacks are savages they cannot control their emotional and sexual needs hence in contrast Whites are not sexual and have the ability to suppress their emotions. From this Fanon argues that a subtle jealousy was born; the White man envied the Black man's sexual freedom. As I read this book I could not help but think of my students and how they embody many of the same believes as Black men in the 1950's. The children I teach Mathematics to are people of color, either Latino or Black. I spend much of my day listening to them speak among themselves about various topics and have picked up on certain ideas that reflect that of past colonized populations. Although there is this total rejection of anything and everything that is White, there is also an underlining want to be White (perhaps mainstream is a better word). For example, I have heard my students discuss accents and the implication that those who have one are in some way less intelligent than those who speak like Americans. Students have also expressed in happiness that they do not speak their parent's native tongue, typically Spanish, which is an indication that they are closer to being white than those who's first language is not English. Another disturbing behavior I have noticed is the animosity towards Whites. It seems my students have been programmed to be hostile towards White people, especially peers. They constantly refer to Whites in derogatory terms; for example, when one of my mentors (an older White woman) spend a period in my classroom the students were flustered and after she left referred to her as "the white b*$^%" as opposed to "the lady who was just here". At the same time they insult each other by using terms that are associated with being Black such as insulting the wideness of their nose and/or thickness of their lips. I find this to be an interesting contradiction and would like to explore it further in hopes of understanding the contemporary adolescent. As a teacher I found this book to be very helpful in understanding why our children of color behave the way they do and why they consistently fail in a system designed for children who are not exposed to the gruesome situations the students in the South Bronx (where I teach) go through on a daily basis. These children could very well have an inferiority complex which they will have to overcome before being able to succeed in this White man's world. Showing reviews 1-5 of 18 1 2 3 4 Next »

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