FANON, MALCOM X and
BLACK IDENTITIES.
FANON, MALCOM X and
BLACK IDENTITIES.
Summary by Maricarmen Martinez
Frantz Fanon's conception of the black person's identity takes the form of a rebuttal of the argument that identities are shaped by the appropriation of the past. The idea that a person or group that does not have a past, does not have an identity is criticized by Fanon. He argues that the present situation of oppressed people and the possibility of a their future freedom and dis-alienation depends on acting right now for the creation of that future. It is the liberatory present and not the idealized past that will bring about a future of healthy social ,political and economic conditions for the oppressed people. Fanon says "in no way should I derive my basic purpose {liberation} from the past of the people of color." (101)
Of course, Fanon is NOT saying that the past of oppression of black people should be forgotten. Actually, it should be preserved in our memories so that we can be "committed" to ourselves and to our neighbors to fight with all our strength for the freedom of subjugated people. (102)
Nevertheless, Fanon is concerned with the past of the Negro people as the past of a subjugated and oppressed people. Fanon does not emphasize the past of the "Negro people" as Negro people. It is their oppression that must be eradicated, and with this eradication, the identity of black people would be preserved. Again it is not the "blackness" of black people, but their subjugation, that which is the focus, of Fanon's inquiry. For Fanon, what black men and women have truly in common is not their blackness but their oppression. Hence, black persons in Cuba, Martinique and Harlem have different experiences of "being black" and this implies that "black" does not mean the same in each of these contexts. Blackness means something for the white man, another for the black man; it means something for a black scientist or intellectual and to a starving person in Haiti. For Fanon, there is no essential "blackness" but a commonality of oppression . However, even the word "oppression" means something different in different socio-political contexts.
We are the positions we occupy and oppressed black people share among them their powerless positions in a more dramatic way than they share their blackness. Of course, their skin color is the basis that have been used to justify the oppression of black people, but their skin color does not define them, what defines them is, rather, their subjugation BECAUSE of their skin color.
Fundamentally, for Fanon, men and women are projects, always on the making. In other words, the positions that we occupy in different contexts makes us an ongoing project or as Fanon states it: "In the world through which I travel, I am always creating myself." (103)
Malcom X, on the other hand, believes that black people and people of color in general, share a common enemy, which he calls "the white man." Black men and women can unite as people who share a common enemy. The white man is the oppressor and colonizer of the black men. This is, for Malcom X, true for all black people all over the world. The same is true in the USA. Black people from Georgia, Michigan, or California are oppressed by the "same" white man.
Malcolm X calls on people of color, and specially on black people, to set aside their disagreements and find a common unity in the fact that they all share the same enemy. For Malcom X white men have "stopped quarreling among themselves" or they have ceased disagreeing for the sake of common interests. By the same token, Malcolm X recommends to people of color: "don't let the enemy know that you've got disagreements." (107). For Malcolm X, its is important to "stop airing our differences in front of the white man." (107). This implies that the white man should be excluded from black people's deliberations about their particular interests.
Malcom X believes that unity among blacks must stem from the conscious identification of the common enemy and the airing of differences of blacks among blacks. These steps should lead to revolution. The white man, Malcolm X claims, is violent as it is evident from the wars in which he engages . The white man, Malcom X adds, uses the blood of the black man to fight his war, only to be violent against the black man once the black man returns home. This fact, along with the revolutions against their oppressors and colonizers carried out by people of color all over the world are, for Malcolm X, indications that a black revolution can should take place. Besides, Malcolm X argues, that historically revolutions are always violent and caused by control and ownership of land. Revolution implies, then possession of land, and the sovereignty of the people who fight for such land. According to Malcolm X in a revolution "you don't do any singing, you 're too busy swinging" (109). A revolution, for Malcom X, "is based on land" (109). In the case of black people this land is a land for the Negro people, the Negro Nation. A revolutionary wants land so that he can set up his/her own nation that is, an independent nation. In order to achieve his/her objectives a black revolutionary must first pose to him/herself the question of whether he or she wants true sovereignty or simply a more "tolerant" slavery.
Malcolm X believes that there are two ways of acting to acquire the liberation of Negroes: one can act like a "house Negro" or exhibit a "house Negro" mentality, or one can act like a "field Negro" or exhibit a "field Negro" mentality. The "house Negro" would remain oppressed by his master, the "field Negro" will achieve his/her sovereignty. A "house Negro" is good to his/her master and tries his/her best to love his master and to be loved by him. For the "house Negroes" who eat well in of their masters' houses separation from their oppressors is simply madness. If someone tells a house Negro, or rather, a person with a house Negro mentality, "Let's separate", s/he would answer: "What you mean, separate? From America, this good white man?" (109)
According to Malcom X the person with the "field Negro" mentality understands the master's cruelty and suffers in his/her own skin the effects of his/her subjugation. The house Negro "hates the master" (109). S/he knows that his/her life the plantation, that is, in the white man's world, is pure hell. Therefore, the black person with the "field Negro" mentality won't move a finger to save his/her oppressor. If some one asked the black person with the "field Negro" mentality whether s/he wants separate from his/her oppressor s/he would say: "Any place is better than here." Hence, s/he wants to separate from cruelty and liberate his/herself.(109).. The "field Negro," Malcolm X argues ,is justified to say this because he/she knows that s/he does not form part of wider white community. For Malcolm X, a Negro that uses such expressions as "our Navy" or "our Country" "our astronauts" is not talking at all. He or she is not making sense because the imaginary "We, in the expression "Our Country" really means "white folks." The expression "Our country" implies evokes the '"all-American-white" man or woman image. The "official" America does not see itself as "black, yellow, or brown". The white nation has already excluded black and colored people, so why should black and colored people settle for tolerance? Mental separatism of black and white America already exist. Hence, black people need a sovereign nation where they can live and prosper.
