Black Skin, White Masks: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Fanon places huge importance on language. He argues that black people exist in two modes: one when they are around other black people, and the other when they are in the company of whites. In this chapter, he will outline the way that black Antilleans become “whiter” through their absorption into the French language. All colonized people are forced to think of themselves in relation to the language and culture of the colonizers, and are taught to consider the colonizing country as vastly superior to their own homeland. Antilleans who travel to the major cities of the colonizing country and assimilate into the colonial culture are treated with awe by those who do not leave the Antilles. They stop speaking Creole, using it only to communicate with servants; other Antilleans will describe them as “almost white.”

Antilleans who spend time in France imitate the “correct” pronunciation of the French language to a degree that is at times almost comic. Fanon would like to see a study of the way that black people’s psychological state changes after only one month in France, and believes it is important to address the issue of narcissism. He argues that France casts a “spell” on black people in the colonies, due to the fact that everyone who occupies a position of authority in the colonies originates from France. When Antilleans return from France, they deliberately “forget” the way things work in their homeland, are highly critical of their countrymen, and behave in an authoritative manner.

Fanon reemphasizes the way that returnees from France speak in a new language, and points out that this is not just true of people from the Antilles but in fact all colonized peoples. Black people from the Caribbean tend to think of themselves as superior to Africans, because they are closer to French culture and thus to whiteness. For example, there is no solidarity between Antilleans and Africans who are serving in the army. Instead, Antilleans align themselves with the white Frenchmen. Black citizens of different nations within the Caribbean also feel superior to one another—for example, some Martinicans feel that they are better than Guadeloupeans.

Fanon brings up the common stereotype that black men are like children, but argues that the problem of the inferiority complex is far more complicated than this. Antilleans speak “correct” French in order to prove themselves to whites, and as schoolchildren they are forbidden by their teachers from speaking Creole. While many black people feel pressured to prove their intelligence to whites, Fanon emphatically states that philosophy and intelligence “never saved anybody.” While he is describing black people who have become “alienated” because of colonialism, it is important to remember that white people are equally alienated.

Fanon speaks from a position of curiosity and inquiry. He knows that the history of black people “takes place in obscurity” and that he must therefore illuminate this history himself. Some people try to prove the equality of the races by appealing to religion, love, and generosity, but this is not Fanon’s goal. Instead, he is trying to “liberate” black people from the psychological oppression caused by colonialism. Frequently, a white person will speak pidgin to a black person, supposedly out of kindness and generosity—while in reality it is deeply patronizing toward the black person. White people will protest that there is no harm meant, but this is not the point. The effect is that the black person feels his very self disappearing. When white people speak pidgin, the aim to remind black people to remain in their position of inferiority.

When Fanon speaks to a non-French white person who has only a limited command of French, he communicates in a simple manner while reminding himself that this person has a language and culture of their own. Yet within the colonial mindset, black people do not have a culture of their own, and are understood only in terms of racist stereotypes invented by white people. These stereotypes are conveyed through books, movies, and other elements of culture, and their impact is to trap black people within a false image of themselves. Black people who defy these stereotypes—for example, by being highly intellectual—are treated with suspicion.

White people fear that if black people are well-educated, they will revolt against white supremacy (particularly if they are reading authors who challenge existing power structures, such as Marx). Fanon notes that some Antilleans who return from France continue to speak Creole and deliberately try to make it seem as if “nothing has changed,” yet this act is unlikely to last long, since the returnee in fact has changed. Fanon argues that Antilleans who wish to become white will achieve this aim in the sense that, through their use of the French language, they can appropriate French culture. He recalls being told by a white Frenchman that he was “basically… a white man” because he had been speaking about French poetry.

Black people speak French in order to enter spaces and unlock opportunities from which they’d otherwise be excluded, but also to prove themselves to white people. When Aimé Césaire was running for office in 1945, his speech was so powerful it made some audience members fall on the floor convulsing. Some have said that Césaire has a command over the French language unmatched by any white person, and Fanon comments that if this is true, it shouldn’t really be surprising considering Césaire is “a Martinican with a university agrégation.”