Black Skin, White Masks

Rating:
Summary: For those interested in the concepts behind racialism.
Review: Written in 1952, Fanon's novel is a response to Mannoni's 'Prospero complex', which states that white colonizers have a symbiotic relationship to the races they colonize, and that this relationship is built upon a system of mutual dependence. The whites have a need to dominate, and the other races have a need to be dominated. Fanon passionately and accurately REJECTS this theory, saying that the only neurosis resides in the white male, and his innate fear of other races. Taking his discourse to the sports arena and the bedroom, Fanon argues that the white male possesses a sexual-performance anxiety toward other races, especially the African. He fears he will be outmatched on the field, and outlasted in bed, by the African. It is this fear that causes the xenophobic anxiety within the white male, and propels him to subdue and dominate the other races. Fanon argues that the Africans were doing pretty well before the colonizers came along, but now all worlds are forever changed. Although this book is an angry argument against white ideas of dominance, I find it to be largely accurate and an imperative read for anyone hoping to gain greater insight into the 'true' motivations behind racialism.