Black Skin White Masks

he quote, “...There is one destiny for the black man. And it is white”, is from the book Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon. In Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon combines and connects his case study, philosophy theory, and his autobiography to describe and analyze the experience of Black men and women in white controlled societies. Fanon focuses on the Black experience from the Caribbean to France because he lived that experience. He analyzes how Black people in those communities are forced and/or encouraged to become white like by this racist society. Fanon states, “The black man possesses two dimensions: one with his fellow Blacks, the other with the Whites. A black man behaves differently with a white man than he does with another black man.” Then focuses on the fact no matter how much the Black community tries to fit into the white society, they will never have the experience of being white because they cannot do so.

Fanon states, “We attach a fundamental importance to the phenomenon of language and consequently consider the study of language essential for providing us with one element in understating the black man's dimension of being-forgoers, it being understood that to speak is to exist absolutely for the other.” (Fanon, Frantz. pg. 1) Fanon believes that it is very critical to understand the language of the Black man because language is a Segway into culture. For example, Fanon speaks French, which demonstrates French culture, but he is reminded that he and the rest of the Black French speakers can never be fully French. Language is important in this book because it reminds the Black community that they do not have a language of their own like the Europeans, Russians, etc. It ensures them to feel and it reminds the Black community that they are uncivilized human