An ancient Negro past cannot ground the colonized subject’s humanity.

Evidence

The discovery of the existence of a Negro civilization in the fifteenth century confers no patent of humanity on me. Like it or not, the past can in no way guide me in the present moment. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 822 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Let us be clearly understood. I am convinced that it would be of the greatest interest to be able to have contact with a Negro Literature or architecture of the third century before Christ. I should be very happy to know that a correspondence had flourished between some Negro philosopher and Plato. But I can absolutely not see how this fact would change anything in the lives of the eight-year-old children who labor in the cane fields of Martinique or Guadeloupe. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 870 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Fanon rejects reviving a Negro past to ground identity; Knowing a past Negro civilization grants no present humanity; A rediscovered Negro past confers no humanity or guidance on the present — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 822 (+4 more)

Related

• Knowing a past Negro civilization grants no present humanity (similarity 0.97)
• Fanon rejects reviving a Negro past to ground identity (similarity 0.92)
• A rediscovered Negro past confers no humanity or guidance on the present (similarity 0.92)
• Reclaiming an ancient Negro civilization does not change present colonial suffering. (similarity 0.90)
• Recovering a glorious precolonial past cannot change present colonial suffering (similarity 0.89)
• The educated Negro’s estrangement culminates in a mystical-past idealism that abandons the present. (similarity 0.85)
• Educated Negroes respond by exalting estrangement or renouncing the present for a mystical past. (similarity 0.82)
• Alienated educated Negroes either embrace their difference or bury themselves in a mystical past (similarity 0.81)
• Genuine black culture cannot emerge under present colonial conditions. (similarity 0.80)
• Scientific and religious reason proved Negro humanity, yet this victory proved hollow. (similarity 0.79)
• Externally educated intellectuals feel alienated from Western culture and flee to rediscovered Negro civilization. (similarity 0.79)
• The Negro faces the white man burdened with a past to legitimate (similarity 0.79)
• Both colonizer and colonized carry disasters, yet the black man must reject retroactive reparations. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• A rediscovered Negro past confers no humanity or guidance on the present #corroborates (0.90) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 822
• Reclaiming an ancient Negro civilization does not change present colonial suffering. #corroborates (0.85) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 870