For countless amounts of people, color is the most outward manifestation of race. Race has played an important role historically in shaping identity due to America’s slavery past. Slavery holds a traumatic past which is shown in the legacy left by Harriet Jacobs, in her slave narrative called “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”. In this novel, there are many examples in which race can be seen as a “traumatic experience” in both physical and psychological factors. In Frantz Fanon’s story of “Black Skin White Masks” he speaks about his various experiences living as an educated black man who is highly qualified, but still receives poor treatment from the white people. Similarly, Malcolm X was a highly educated black man but still received poor treatment due to his race. Malcolm X and Frantz Fanon and Harriet Jacobs perceive race as something that inflicts trauma on to the black body regardless of the temperament of being civil.
African history has been suppressed which has resulted in the distress and victimisation of colored people. In Frantz Fanon’s essay “Black Skin White Masks”, he speaks about the ideology of “race” as being traumatic. Fanon was also a persistent critique of “whiteness”. That being said, in his this essay he also critiques the fact that he wants to be seen as a gentleman, however in the Caucasian world in which he lives his skin colour turn out to be everything. His race is more significant than his education, accomplishments and even successes. Fanon believes that white people are irrational due to the fact that they simply hated him for no reason.
He is not seen as Dr. Fanon but as a black man who is a doctor, “I was walled in: neither my refined manners nor my literary knowledge nor my understanding of ...
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...t using the police forces to abuse to African American freely. Harriot Jacob endures horrible trauma due to her skin complexion, and the fact that she is a slave. Mutually, Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon and Harriot Jacob endured psychological as well as physical trauma due to the fact that they are all African American individuals.
Works Cited
Gates, Henry Louis. "Life of a Slave Girl Seven Years Concealed." The Classic Slave Narratives. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin, 1987. 413-614. Print.
Fanon, Frantz. "The Fact of Blackness." Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove, 1967. 21-37. Print.
Gates, Henry Louis, and Nellie Y. McKay. "The Ballot or the Bullet." The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1996. 159-64. Print.
Ali, Noaman. "Malcolm X - Speeches the Black Revolution." Malcolm X. N.p., Mar.-Apr. 2000. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen explores the daily life situations between blacks and whites and reveals that how little offensive denigrating conversations in the form of micro-aggressions conveyed to the black people intentionally by the whites and how these racial comments fuels the frustrations and anger among the blacks. She gathered the various incidents, where
In Claudia Rankine’s article ‘The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning”, she describes systemic racism as “Vulnerability, fear, recognition, and an absurd stuckness.” Living in America as a white person is completely different than if you were black. If you are black, you
Jacobs, Harriet, and Yellin, Jean. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
As the United States grew, the institution of slavery became a way of life in the southern states, while northern states began to abolish it. While the majority of free blacks lived in poverty, some were able to establish successful businesses that helped the Black community. Racial discrimination often meant that Blacks were not welcome or would be mistreated in White businesses and other establishments. A comparison of the narratives of Douglass and Jacobs demonstrates the full range of demands and situations that slaves experienced, and the mistreatment that they experienced as well. Jacobs experienced the ongoing sexual harassment from James Norcom, just like numerous slave women experienced sexual abuse or harassment during the slave era. Another issue that faced blacks was the incompetence of the white slave owners and people. In ...
James, Johson Weldon. Comp. Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 832. Print.
Having witnessed the racism and assimilation in the colonial Antilles, Frantz Fanon devotes himself to the battle for a human world--that is, a world of mutual recognition--where all races are equal. Applying the idea mutual recognition from Hegel to his situation, Fanon believes that mutual recognition is achieved when the White and the Black approve each other’s human reality, which is the capacity to have dreams and to turn them into reality. On the contrary, Friedrich Nietzsche believes the hope for humanity lies in the endless self-transcendence of becoming the overman, ignoring whether one receives acknowledgement from others or not. From his perspective, the overman is better achieved by solitude. Furthermore, Nietzsche bitterly criticizes the advocation of equality which is motivated by revenge against more powerful people. Nevertheless, he fails to realize that there are other situations where fight for equality is crucial to fully claim the humanity of the oppressed people. One of such situations is that for the Black in the colonial Antilles, which Fanon describes in Black Skin, White Masks, characterized by the lack of recognitions from the superior Europeans. As far as I am concerned, mutual recognition is important not only for solving the Black’s problem in the colonial situation, but also for empowering people of different groups nowadays to establish equal relationships, to maximize own potentials, to exceed to become the overman. To be specific, I will elaborate how the mutual recognition theory could be used to free women and men from deeply rooted inequality.
Harriet Jacobs wrote a moving slave narrative where she describes in great detail how her master constantly verbally and sexually harassed her. She was scared for her life many times when both her master, and his wife, threatened her. She tried many methods of escape, including becoming involved with a white lawyer who lived next door. Reading of her affair with a white man was completely shocking to northern white women. At the time, women were supposed to be pure by keeping their chastity. If you were pure, you had something to offer a future husband. By having this affair, Jacobs loses her purity, which was very important for women to have at the time; without it you weren't a woman. Jacobs appealed to her white readers saying, "You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom.... You never exhausted your ingenuity in avoiding the snares and eluding the power of a hated tyrant." (Jacobs 506) She couldn't find protection anywhere, from anyone. Her master was continually after her, finding new tricks to bother her, and attempt to seduce her. Not even the master's wife was willing to help. She was so lost in her jealousy, that she became blind to the fact ...
On April 3, 1964, Malcolm X made a powerful speech called The Ballot or The Bullet that probably changed the way how African Americans saw themselves in 1964. African Americans didn’t have much to say when it came to elections during 1964. The caucasian politicians would come into black neighborhoods to force African Americans to put them in office. Throughout his speech, Malcolm X’s uses ethos, pathos, logos and tone to get his point across. He used rhetorical appeals to explain that all humans should be treated equally and given equal rights. Since his speech took place in the 60’s, most of the crowd that came to hear his speech were African Americans. African Americans wanted to hear how they could be motivated to bring equality to society. Malcolm X used great examples of rhetorical appeals to make his speech inspiring.
To conclude, the criticisms of the book The New Negro are mostly distributed by the experience of the author who did not get exposed enough to understand his own race even though he seems to show his
Fanon focuses on two related desires that constitute the pathology of the colonial situation: “The Black man wants to be white. The white man is desperately trying to achieve the rank of man” (p. xiii). As an unconscious desire, this can result in a series of irrational behaviors and beliefs, such as the Antillean speaking French, the desire for a white
Hall, S. (1996), ‘The After-life of Frantz Fanon: Why Fanon? Why now? Why Black Skin, White Masks?’ in Read, A. (ed.) The Fact of Blackness, Frantz Fanon and Visual Representation. Seattle: Bay Press, pp. 12-37.
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like. Charles Ball’s Fifty Years in Chains and Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl were both published in the early 1860’s while Kate Drumgoold’s A Slave Girl’s Story came almost forty years later
Smith, David Lionel. “The Black Arts Movement and Its Critics.” American Literary History. 3.1 (Spring 1991): 94-109.
Zora Neale Hurston’s writing embodies the modernism themes of alienation and the reaffirmation of racial and social identity. She has a subjective style of writing in which comes from the inside of the character’s mind and heart, rather than from an external point of view. Hurston addresses the themes of race relations, discrimination, and racial and social identity. At a time when it is not considered beneficial to be “colored,” Hurston steps out of the norm and embraces her racial identity.
5. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Figures in Black: Words, Signs and the Racial Self. New York: Oxford UP, 1987.