The Concept Of Identity, By Franz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks

There is an inherently troublesome aspect to the question of what is self and how can it be free. After all, is the self not so easily determined or identifiable? Should selfhood not just be an identity shaped and defined by the specific individual? However, as recognized by Franz Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks, the concept of self is not so easily classified, nor is it so easily determined by the individual. Both observing and experiencing French colonialism in the Antilles, Fanon recognized the societal disparity that existed between black Martinicans and white colonialists. This social inequality between the blacks and the whites demonstrated that whiteness, the physical skin color itself, determined humanity and anything less than

As such, blacks—Fanon included—would try to emulate the white culture. One way to seem more white was through speaking French. However, by accepting the white culture, by speaking French, blacks not only ostracized themselves from their own community, but were further discriminated against. This discrimination took the form of what Fanon labeled as pigeon speak. This was the practice of French colonialists speaking a broken form of French to Martinicans on the assumption that the blacks’ language skills were lesser than their own. By belittling blacks for their languages, whites effectively “imprison[ed] the black man and perpetuat[ed] a conflictual situation where the white man infects the black man with extremely toxic foreign bodies” (Fanon 19). French as a language was unnatural for the Martinican, but to experience humanity, blacks accepted the language of their oppressors. “The more the black Antillean assimilates the French language, the whiter he gets—i.e., the closer he comes to becoming a true human being” (Fanon 2). The language, for Fanon, was a cornerstone of humanity, but only whites were viewed as humans. Consequently, racism for Fanon, was the necessity to assimilate with another culture in order to be seen as