Critical Analysis on Black Skin White Masks

1. Name :- Mansi Upadhyay
Roll no :- 18
Semester :- 3
Year :- 2019-20
Paper no :- 11 ( The Post-Colonial Literature)
Topic :- “Critical Analysis on Black Skin White
masks”
E-Mail :- mansiupadhyay06@gmail.com
Submitted to :- Department of English Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

2. “ Black Skin White Masks” Introduction
» “Black Skin white masks” is a book about
the mindset of psychology of racism.
» The black man trapped in his blackness,
the white man in his whiteness, both
trapped into their mutual and aggressive
narcissism.
» The novel has an idea of Christianity and
Jewish.
» “Black Skin, White Mask” this book divided
in 8 parts. Each chapter has its own
importance.
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3. How this white and black are portrayed in literature in
different ways?
» Christianity :- Whiteness portrays as goodness
» Jew :- Black portrayed as Evil.
» Conflict between Christian V/S Jew
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Christian Jew

4. Black skin White Mask Divided in to the 8
parts
1. The Black Man and Language.
2. The Woman of color and the Whiteman.
3. The man of color and the White woman.
4. The so-called Dependency complex of the colonized.
5. The lived experience of the Black skin.
6. The Black man and the psychopathology.
7. The Black man and recognition.
8. Way of conclusion.
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5. 1.“ The Black man and Language”
» This chapter deals with the language of white
people.
» The language of White people is in centre, and
language of Black people is in periphery.
» Black people have to learn the language of White
people.
» That if a black person does not learn the White
man’s language perfectly, he is unintelligent.
» It shows that language of White people is in
power position and language of Black people has
lesser importance.
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6. 2. The Woman of Color and the White Man
» The idea of blackness, the mind set of people is like this “I
loved him because he had blue eyes, blond hair, and a light
skin”.
» The Mulato, Mulato is a kind of a race which is not black
and white.
» “I want to be recognize not as black, but as white”
» The effect of white people also touched to the society.
» How desire of “WHITENESS” is more in the Black woman.
Because of that many “FAIRNESS CREAM” and their
industries grow faster.
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7. 3. The Man of Color and the White Woman
» The mental condition of Black Man and their
desire to be white.
» Why Whiteness is something goodness?
» White people have rules over Black people
and they have shaped that idea that whiteness
is symbol of goodness.
» Whiteness is spread as a something goodness
and they believe that whiteness gives them
higher position in society.
» Example :- Gwendolyn Brooke’s poem “We
Real Cool”
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8. 4. The So-called Dependency complex of the
colonized peoples
» The writer argues against Fanon’s view that people of color
have a deep desire for white rule, that those who oppose it to
do not have a secure sense of self that they have a chip on
their shoulder.
» I came to understand that the stereotypes of happy Darkies,
Uppity Negroes and white saviors all come from the need of
white people to feel that their power in society is good and not
racist.
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9. 5.The fact of Blackness
» In this chapter Fanon argues about his own fact of
Blackness and his struggle he endured such the
psychologically alientaly effects of colonialism and
racism.
» Highly educated
» Spiritual knowledgeable
» Color of skin giving feeling of embarrassment.
» Pathetic conditions of Blacks.
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10. 6. The Negro and Psychopathology
» Writer ask question to reader that, Why should people
fear Black?
» Part it has to do with white men’s repressed
homosexuality and their strange hang-ups about Black
men’s penises.
» Black man are viewed as a body, which makes them
seem like mindless, violent sexual, animal beings.
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11. 7. The Negro and Recognition
» In this section Fanon applies Adler’s personality theory to
the ‘Antillean Negro’, how Antillean Negro act towards each
other.
» Fanon says, that “The question is always whether he is less
intelligent than I, blacker than I, Less respectable than I”.
» In the second section fanon applies Hegel’s Master-slave
dialectic.
» The ‘Hegelian dialectic’ offers, Fanon argues, an
explanation of what distinguishes “Human reality” from
“Natural reality”.
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12. 8.Way of conclusion
» The escaping the prison of one’s past and one’s
race.
» “The Negro is not: any more than the white man”. In
Fanon’s words, his writing
» “Exposes an utterly naked declivity where an
authentic upheaval can be born”
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13. » Fanon throughout the book deals with the inner struggle of Black
when they were colony “The Black man and Language” deals with
language.
 The idea of Blackness
 The idea of identity
 Notion of desire
 The idea of Negritude
 The idea Darkness
 O- other
 Hate- other
 Self-ego
 Self ego idea
 Black-Mulato-White
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14. » There are two such women: The Negros and the mulatto.
» The first has only one possibility and one concern: to turn
white.
» The second wants not only to turn white but also to avoid
slipping back.
» Then Mulatto woman’s acceptance of a Negro husbands?
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15. Conclusion
» Thus, Black skin and White Mask is remain Important
work to give voice to the problems of racial discrimination
to Black people.
» Black people have desire to became white. Because
being white is means Superior. so they have desire to
became white.
» They feel superior among black and inferior among white
people. So it gives voice to such issues of society.
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