“Every citizen of a nation is responsibleforthe acts perpetrated in the name of that nation.” Francis Jeanson
Being the other, creating the other, perpetuating the other. Eroding dignity, respect. Stripping one out of the self-image, shredding it into pieces, mercilessly laying it bare in all its nakedness and vulnerability.
Black Skin White Masks is perhaps more than that. Much deeper, much wider and much more damaging. Yet, it is not a work of desperation. Of venting out. It is a quest for dignity. A similar quest, an identical search on which many embarks. The search for dignity. The search for humanity, immanent within all humans. The colour of the skin that is black, is more than skin deep. It permeates
the very existence of the black man and distorts the way he perceives himself in the realm of mankind. He is not born inferior. He is just born with a certain colour of skin. This sets him plummeting down the tunnel of indignity. Unknown at first it becomes bewildering as time goes. Gradually it is the Black Man who dons the ‘white mask’ of violence and oppression towards others. It is therefore not the mere oppression of one by another but creating a perpetual cycle of violence. Violence wielded by the dominant over the non-dominant. The face of the dominant alters as does the face of the oppressed. Sometimes they are black. Sometimes, they are the ‘dalit’, ‘tribals’, the slum dwellers, the poor, the women, the transgenders. Through the space time continuum of languages and states, through the divides of oceans, divides of customs and histories, divides of past that weaves into the present and the present that permeates the future, the oppressed and the oppressors have many faces. Yet their stories remain the same.
Fanon states, “All forms of oppression are alike. They all seek to justify their existence by citing some biblical decree. All forms of exploitation are identical, since they apply to the same “object”: man” “Colonial racism is no different from other racisms” idea of ‘good life’ permeates his thought and mind and soon translates into purposeful actions. These actions are laced with the idea of leaving all that binds him to his past. Suddenly the friends are too raucous, the heat is too oppressive, the villages are too backward, and the air is too polluted! An outsider’s perception seen through the lenses of colonialism and oppression, sees everything different from themselves, wanting in someways. The others, therefore, are viewed as ones needing guidance, leadership, ideas, hand holding. “The simplicity of the Negro is a myth created by superficial observers.” To address and redress the misgivings, reinforced by the guilt complex, the white man initiates development. Roads penetrate their sacred forests, temples of popular God built over their places of indigenous worship, the stone and the tree are replaced by deities made of stone. Their economy of exchange is replaced with money, their community practices of learning from every day is replaced with school book teaching of “I am a little teapot”. The mantle of developing the oppressed is taken up with much seriousness, to dim the differences.
The ‘black man’ welcomes these changes and perceives a future similar to the one he had so desired. It is like a dream coming true. Soon “the black child subjectively adopts the white man’s attitude.” Based on imagination or at least illogical reasoning, the oppressor finds it imperative to point out the sheer dependency of the oppressed on their masters. Deprived of their land and customs, denuded of their contexts, coaxed into an alien understanding of development and acceptance, the oppressed, find themselves at the crossroads. Either to reclaim their identity or to forever remain alien at the periphery of their oppressor’s world. “…society has crushed his old world without giving him a new one.” He is never quite understood. Never quite accepted. Never quite assimilated. He remains an outsider, the identity and the black skin, stark and irremovable. “An attitude of recrimination towards the past, a lack of self-esteem and the impossibility of making himself understood.”
the impossibility of making himself understood.”
He has to fight the fight all over again. However, this time, the fight is not just about reclaiming the past. Not just about the colour of one’s skin. A fight of human values of freedom and dignity. Of respect and equity. Of equality and a levelled playing field. He has to take up the fight for assimilation of developing a collective consciousness and understanding. “To fight with all (my) life and all my strength so that never again would people be enslaved on this earth.”
“…simply try to touch the other, feel the other, discover each other.”
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