Blaming the Negro for past cannibalism marks progress over fearing him in the present.

Evidence

Recently, in a children’s paper, I read a caption to a picture in which a young black Boy Scout was showing a Negro village to three or four white scouts: “This is the kettle where my ancestors cooked yours.” One will gladly concede that there are no more Negro cannibals, but we should not allow ourselves to forget… . Quite seriously, however, I think that the writer of that caption has done a genuine service to Negroes without knowing it. For the white child who reads it will not form a mental picture cf the Negro in the act of eating the white man, but rather as having eaten him. Unquestionably, this is progress. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 717

Categorization

• SEED: Fanon’s ironic logic—that historicizing a racist fear is progress—could seed an essay on how the timeline shift of racial stereotypes matters.
• XREF: connects to: Progress in the racial myth is moving cannibalism to the past tense; The patient’s alienation stems from fear of the Negro aggravated by circumstance — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 750; The Negro faces the white man burdened with a past to legitimate — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 825 (+3 more)

Related

• Progress in the racial myth is moving cannibalism to the past tense (similarity 0.90)
• The Negro faces the white man burdened with a past to legitimate (similarity 0.80)
• The patient’s alienation stems from fear of the Negro aggravated by circumstance (similarity 0.79)
• Negrophobia operates on the biological and instinctual level. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The Negro faces the white man burdened with a past to legitimate #expands (0.65) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 825
• The myth of the Negro can itself become a decisive cause of psychological alienation. #expands (0.60) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 718
• The anguished Negro must prove his whiteness to himself and others #expands (0.55)
• Negrophobia operates on the biological and instinctual level. #complicates (0.50) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 601