Essay : ‘‘The Black Skin, White Mask’’

‘‘The Black Skin, White Mask’’ by Frantz Fanon:

‘‘Post-colonialism :

‘‘Post-colonialism deals with the effects of colonization on cultures and societies. As originally used by historians after the Second World War in terms such as the post-colonial state, ‘post-colonial’ had a clearly chronological meaning, designating the post-independence period. However, from the late 1970s the term has been used by literary critics to discuss the various cultural effects of colonization.’’

About Essay :-

The Black Skin, White Mask studied under the psychological term, given by Freud. He gave three level of mind

Basic idea is to understand notion within psyche, the notion of the color lie. The idea of race/color coming from colonialism. Colonizers turn the notion into symbolic value. This symbolic value created problems. It is lead towards the idea of

‘‘Lackness’’.

Black Skin, White Mask reading within ‘‘the lack’’ and it is generates the idea of desire. Desire of having white skin it is constructed idea by colonizer. White as a superior, the idea is created by White Man.

At the very bottom level the idea is constructed at that level that black people hating their own self. That’s how they constructed that having black skin, it is became the curse for them. They don’t like to look themselves as a black man. Their mind is totally controlled by the given symbolic value. They feel shame for having black skin. Fanon described that when black man seemed their face, they seemed themselves as a white face. Being a human with black skin was became more dangerous for them. At that level their mind is washing by white man. Therefore they have desire for white skin. White skin became the goal for black man. But desire is abstract thing, it cannot achieve. They frustrated because they cannot achieved the goal. That’s why Fanon said that

‘‘If we cannot achieved the goal, changed the goal.’’

Celebrate what we are. He tries to goes into the roots and celebrate their culture, notion, tradition. And try to put themselves as it is. But he was not fully happy with going back to ‘‘nativism’’ because there were also some trouble. We cannot fully celebrated our Nativism as it is. So, he tries to goes beyond the notion of color and tries to seemed people in parallel instead in hierarchical way. He believe in ‘‘HUMANITY’’.