Audience context changes whether a black spectator identifies with Tarzan or the savages
Evidence
I recommend the following experiment to those who are unconvinced: Attend showings of a Tarzan film in the Antilles and in Europe. In the Antilles, the young Negro identifies himself de facto with Tarzan against the Negroes. This is much more difficult for him in a European theater, for the rest of the audience, which is white, automatically identifies him with the savages on the screen. It is a conclusive experience. The Negro learns that one is not black without problems. A documentary film on Africa produces similar reactions when it is shown in a French city and in Fort-de-France. I will go farther and say that Bushmen and Zulus arouse even more laughter among the young Antillea. ns. It would be interesting to show how in this instance the reactional exaggeration betrays a hint of recognition. In France a Negro who sees this documentary is virtually petrified. There he has no more hope of flight: He is at once Antillean, Bushman, and Zulu.
— Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 985
Categorization
SEED: The Tarzan viewing experiment is a vivid, concrete essay illustration of how audience context reshapes identification.
XREF: Directly bears on the reader’s question of how differently educated/positioned black subjects see themselves. — connects to: Consumerism’s communication systems extract from Black bodies through platformed spectacle — , The Braided Reading EPUB: 5-Year…, 1196; Audiences can decode the same message in a globally contrary or oppositional way; Audience readings range from dominant through negotiated to oppositional stances. — , The Braided Reading EPUB: 5-Year…, 1409