This document discusses black existentialism through the works of Frantz Fanon and James Baldwin. It summarizes that black existentialism shares similarities with existentialist philosophers like Sartre but focuses on the liberation of all people of color rather than individual freedom. It provides biographical context of Fanon and Baldwin, outlining their major works and influences. Both writers examined issues of colonialism, racism, and identity from the perspective of being black in a white-dominated world.

1. Black Existentialism:
Frantz Fanon &
James Baldwin
HTH 1002 History of Though II
Kara Heitz

2. Black Existentialism
• Black existentialism
• Similar perspective as existentialists like Sartre
• But … focus not individual freedom but liberation
of all peoples of color
• Historical context:
• Western colonialism & imperialism
• Decolonization & independence struggles
• Civil Rights movement in US
• Western views of the “other”
• Self/Other dichotomy

3. Imperialism, 1914.

4. Decolonization and Independence

5. The Black Atlantic Diaspora

6. Black Existentialism
• Black existentialism
• Similar perspective as existentialists like Sartre
• But … focus not individual freedom but liberation
of all peoples of color
• Historical context:
• Western colonialism & imperialism
• Decolonization & independence struggles
• Civil Rights movement in US
• Western views of the “other”
• Self/Other dichotomy

7. Frantz Fanon
• Born in French Caribbean colony of Martinique
• Psychiatrist, philosopher, political activist
• Marx, Freud, Sartre
• Influenced anti-colonial movements and
postcolonial thinkers
• Black Skins, White Masks (1952)
• The Wretched of the Earth (1961)

8. “Black Skins, White Masks”
• “Look, a negro” incident
• Self/other in context of colonization
• Colonial self
• Fractured identity of colonized peoples
• Alienated sense of self
• People of color as objects and not full subjects
• Psychology of racism for whites
• “The black man has no ontological resistance in the
eyes of the white man”
• Structural power of whiteness

9. James Baldwin (1924-1987)
• American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet,
and social critic
• Writings explore dynamics of race, class, and
sexuality in America
• Spent much of his life living abroad
• Major literary voice of the civil rights movement
• Major works:
• Go Tell It On The Mountain (1953)
• Notes Of A Native Son (1955)
• Giovanni’s Room (1956)
• The Fire Next Time (1963)
• Blues for Mister Charlie (1964)
• No Name In The Street (1972)
• The Devil Finds Work (1976)
• The Price of the Ticket (1985)
• Baldwin and Postcolonialism?

10. “A Stranger in the Village”
• What are the villagers’ reactions to Baldwin as a black man?
Why do they react this way?
• “… there is a great difference between being the first white
man to be seen by Africans and being the first black man to
be seen by whites”
• “… It is one of the ironies of black-white relations that, by
means of what the white man imagines the black man to be,
the black man is enabled to know who the white man is”
• How does Baldwin use his experiences in the small Swiss
village to reflect on race in America?