Blog: The Stockton Postcolonial Studies Project | \'The Fact of Blackness\' Need
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Question
Blog: The Stockton Postcolonial Studies Project | 'The Fact of Blackness'
Need help summarizing this blog. already did a little just need help adding a little more to it.
MY WORK:
In the blog ‘The Fact of Blackness’ the author goes into Frantz Fanon’s theory of “blackness” and how it affects the black man. How “blackness” is determined by outer appearance and works as a social “uniform” to alienate black people. That black people are not given the chance to self-construct themselves but that the image and ideas of them is what determines their blackness for them. The author goes into the insight of origin blackness by referring to Chinua Achebe argument that the westerners have given Africa a bad reputation making themselves look “immaculate” or greater than non-Europeans. Similar to Achebe Fanon argues that blackness is a construct that is meant to distinguish white from blacks and that black and white have no meaning. That a person who is black is not black by nature that another color could of been used to be described as if it was chosen. Because of the negativity that is associated with blackness African Americans absorb those negative ideas and images via their skin and are forced to wear it as a “uniform”.
Explanation / Answer
In the blog ‘The Fact of Blackness’ the author goes into Frantz Fanon’s theory of “blackness” and how it affects the black man. How “blackness” is determined by outer appearance and works as a social “uniform” to alienate black people? That black people are not given the chance to self-construct themselves but that the image and ideas of them is what determines their blackness for them. The author provides some insight into the origin of blackness by referring to Chinua. Achebe argument is that the westerners have given Africa a bad reputation making themselves look “immaculate” or greater than non-Europeans. Similar to Achebe, Fanon argues that blackness is a construct that is meant to distinguish white from blacks and that the words black and white have no such inherent meanings. He explaines that a person who is black is not black by nature and that another color could have been used to be described as if it was chosen. Because of the negativity that is associated with blackness, African Americans absorb those negative ideas and images via their skin and are forced to wear it as a “uniform”.
Mitchell Wright explains the emergence of the black other by suggesting that the social construct of the black other was constructed by the whites as a means of self-identification.The blacks who possess more stamina and energy were deemed fit for slave labor under the constant supervision of the whites. Such a supervision also reinforced the white supremacy. Even Hegel argues that blacks stay out of the State as irrelevant citizens because of their incapability to reason. Wright emphasizes that Hegel's theory contradicts itself. Wright says that even Hegel was influenced by the 'immaculate' social construct and that Hegel chose to focus only on certain qualities that would make the Europeans superior and the blacks inferior. The image of the European subject as well as the black other was created by a dual process of stripping the blacks of their history and then planting them in European history as inferiors.
In the United States, it is now common to criticize anyone who speaks of racism as some feel that it is non-existent today. It is felt that equality is the norm today because racism does not exist. It is because of some qualities of blacks like tendency towards crimes, single parent households, etc that the blacks are in a state they are. Thus, there is again a social construction of the black other with the above qualities attributed to the blacks. Such an image of the black other allows America to project itself as a progressive nation which has uprooted racism. Blacks have access to all the opportunities that the whites have.
We only fail to understand that though the opportunities may be the same, centuries of oppression has affected their abilities to compete in such equal-opportunities environment.