Frantz Fanon's essay "The Fact of Blackness" discusses how black identity has been constructed by white society as inherently negative. Fanon argues that blackness is seen as a uniform imposed by colonial powers to distinguish and alienate black people. He seeks to change this identity and establish equality between races. Fanon's life was a struggle against the color prejudices that rejected his humanity and individuality.

1. Presented by Sami ul Haq
M Phil English Literature 3rd Semester
Lahore Leads University

2. 
 Author (short introduction)
 Introduction of the essay
 Demographics of the world (Race)
 Afro American’s
 Racism / pride and prejudice/superior inferior
/Oppressor, oppressed
 Explanation of essay
 Conclusion/ lesson of the essay
Sequence of
presentation

3. 
Frantz Fanon
 Born on Caribbean
island Martinique, a
French colony on 20
July 1925, died 06 Dec
1961.
 His father ,a
descendent of enslaved
African’s, his mother ,
an illegitimate child of
African ,Indian and
European descendent.

4. 
 He was a psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary
and writer, famous in postcolonial study, critical
theory and Marxism, concerned with
psychopathology of colonization .
Frantz Fanon

5. 
The Fact of Blackness

6. 
 Fanon in this essay says:
 I am cast out on the basis of color prejudice.
 About color Fanon says: it is not self created but is
thrown by nature.
 “his customs and the basis on which they were
based, were wiped out because they were in conflict
with civilization.”
 “In America , negroes are segregated.”
 “they objectively cut away slices of my reality”
The Fact of Blackness

7. 
 “Blackness” is a social “uniform” which functions as
a means to set apart and ultimately alienate the black
man.
(Ashcroft 2006 et al, P292)
 Chinua Achebe in his 1975 speech: An Image of
Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”
argues that Africa has been “set up as a foil” to
western world, i.e his choice of title “Heart of
Darkness” in which “darkness” refers to Africa.
Blackness

8. 
 Michael M Wright in “Becoming Black 2003”
explores that the black other is as old as western
white self, by creating inferior African / Black
other’s, white forged a superior image of themselves.
Blackness

9. 
Demographics of the
world: Religion
 World total population
is about seven Billion.
 Major religions
Christianity, Islam ,
Hinduism and
Buddhism.

10. 
Demographics of the world
race
 White , Black , Hispanic
, Asian etc
 White in 1900 were
35% , now loosing their
number, some says by
2060 they will be in
single digit.
 “to be American you
first had to be
white”(Jackson era ist
half of 19th century)
www.sciencechatforum.com

11. 
Racism
 5th century BC treatise
Airs, waters, place by
Hippocrates, about which
Aristotle notes:
“ the idea that dark
people are cowards, and
light people courageous
fighters, is found in Air ,
Water places”
 Hegel; blackness is due to
environment.

12. 
 “Mama see the negro! I am frightened!” I am
frightened! I am frightened!”
 “look how handsome that negro is!...”
“Kiss the handsome negro’s ass, madame!”
 “the handsome little boy is trembling because he
thinks that the nigger is quivering with rage”
 “the little white boy throws himself into his mother’s
arms: mama , the nigger’s going to eat me up”
RACISM

13. 
Races
White Mullato Nigger

14. 
African American :
Slavery

15. 
African American : Share
Cropper

16. 
African American :Jim
crow

17. 
African American :
Lynching

18. 
African American : Civil
rights movement

19. 
African American :
Emancipation
 Emancipation
 Terms such as nigger
and other were
replaced by “Colored”
which means “Black”.

20. 
Struggle for new
identity
 Great Depression
 First identity slavery ,
now they want to create
new identity.

21. 
Racism/ identity crises
 Native Son (Bigger
Thomas)
 Dalton’s white cat
gazes at Bigger
(Symbolizing white
society)

22. 
 “White Man Black Masks”
 “Grapes of Wrath”
 “The White Man’s Burden”
 “Things Fall Apart”
 “Heart of Darkness”
 “The Bluest Eyes” (Picola Breedlove)
 “Sula”
Racism/ identity crises

23. 
 Fanon says; Blackness is a constructive identity that
exist for the purpose of distinguishing between black
and white.
 Discourse (blackness as negativity)
 They are forced to wear uniform of blacks.
 Their identity is fixed, so it is fact of blackness.
 “being for others”
The Fact of Blackness

24. 
 Fanon: “Every ontology is made un attainable in a
colonized and civilized society”
 “not only the black must be black; he must be black
in relation to the white man”
 “the black has no ontological resistance in the eyes of
the white man”
The Fact of Blackness:
quotations

25. 
 “it is difficult to develop own schema.”
 Hegel: two type of self consciousness is created
independent and dependent.
 “black customs were wiped up as they were in
conflict with civilization”
 “ to whiten their selves and throw off the burden of
the corporeal malediction” (as Michael Jackson did)
The Fact of Blackness:
quotations

26. 
 Fanon says the philosophy professor told me:
“whenever you hear any one abuse the Jews, pay
attention, because he is talking about you”
 An anti-Semite is inevitably anti-negro”
 Bigger Thomas: “all those white men in a group,
guns in their hands, can not be wrong. I am guilty, I
do not know of what, but I know that I am no good”
The Fact of Blackness:
quotations

27. 
Fanon says I was bettered down by;
1. Cannibalism “what an idea to eat one’s father!”
2. Intellectual deficiency
3. Racial defects
4. Slave ships
Problems with nigger

28. 
 “William Black on The Lord’s Prayer” says:
“The knave who is converted to Deism and the knave
who is converted to Christianity is still a knave. But he
himself will not know it, though everybody else does.”
 Fanon: “I am locked into the infernal circle”
 “I attached myself to my brothers, Negroo’s like
myself. To my horror, they too reject me. They are
almost white.”
Color prejudice

29. 
 “no exception was made for refined manners ,or my
knowledge of literature ,or my understanding of the
quantum theory”
 French men said in train where Fanon was sitting:
“Just let the real French virtues keep going and the
race is safe.”
Color prejudice

30. 
But Fanon wants change in identity, he says:
 “I want to be a man among other men”
 “The white man’s happiness can not be purchased by
the black man’s misery”
(Frederick Douglass)
 “ I felt knife blades open within me. I resolve to
defend myself. As a good tactician, I intended to
rationalize the world and to show the white man that
he was mistaken.”
Purpose

31. 
 Blackness is linked with negativity by whites.
 Fanon says , all those negativity and attached discourse is
the fact of Blackness.
 Fanon and all nigroo’s are discarded on the basis of color
prejudices.
 Fanon knows and accepts shortcomings of his own race.
 He is fed up ,he wants change in their identity.
 Heart of Darkness is written with racist point of view.
 Fanon wants equality.
 Fanon life was a tragedy , there was no outlet , this essay
is his catharsis.
Conclusion

32. 
 Jim crow is intact even in the present age, but
modified shape.
 After emancipation words like nigger and other were
replaced by colored (black).
 NAACP
 Obama as a president.
 Still race problems.
 ASU: US race theory and the problem of whiteness
(SP ,2015)
Conclusion