Educated Martinican men studied European writers to make their color forgotten

Evidence

While he was in France, studying for his degree in literature, Césaire “discovered his cowardice.” He knew that it was cowardice, but he could never say why. He felt that it was ridiculous, idiotic, I might say even unhealthy, but in none of his writings can one trace the mechanism of that cowardice. That is because what was necessary was to shatter the current situation and to try to apprehend reality with the soul of a child. The Negro in the streetcar was funny and ugly. Certainly Césaire laughed at him. That was because there was nothing in common between himself and this authentic Negro. A handsome Negro is introduced to a group of white Frenchmen. If it is a group of intellectuals, we can be sure that the Negro will try to assert himself. He will insist that attention be paid not to the color of his skin but to the force of his intellect. There are many people in Martinique who at the age of twenty or thirty begin to steep themselves in Montesquieu or Claudel for the sole purpose of being able to quote them. That is because, through their knowledge of these writers, they expect their color to be forgotten. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 673

Categorization

• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s central question about externally educated Blacks vs locally educated ones; connects to the psychological mechanism of the educated Negro distancing himself from the ‘authentic Negro’. — connects to: Reading European literature leads the black colonial subject to enslave himself; Colored intellectuals feel European culture as exterior and themselves as strangers; Accepting European-imposed separation drives the black subject to seek elevation within a racial hierarchy (+3 more)
• SEED: An analysis of how colonial subjects weaponize European cultural literacy as a form of self-erasure could be an essay on performative intellectualism.

Related

• Each Martinican exists as an isolated atom hungry for recognition (similarity 0.92)
• Colored intellectuals feel European culture as exterior and themselves as strangers (similarity 0.82)
• Reading European literature leads the black colonial subject to enslave himself (similarity 0.82)
• For the Antillean Negro, mastery of French proportionally increases perceived whiteness and humanity. (similarity 0.81)
• Antilleans internalize European archetypes such that their anima and animus are white (similarity 0.81)
• No Antillean could think of himself as a Negro until Aimé Césaire appeared (similarity 0.81)
• A few French phrases in Martinican education shape the young Antillean’s entire worldview (similarity 0.81)
• The colonized Antillean internalizes the culture that enslaves him (similarity 0.80)
• Externally educated blacks disavow their race to prove European identity (similarity 0.80)
• Mastering French makes the Antilles Negro whiter, earning honorary white status (similarity 0.80)
• The colonial seeks French refinement to prove he has measured up (similarity 0.80)
• “He talks like a white man” is Martinique’s highest praise for mastering French. (similarity 0.79)
• The Antillean is made white by unconscious processes while lacking white skin (similarity 0.79)
• External education lets whites accept the black man as culturally white (similarity 0.79)
• Language mastery determines how human a colonized black man is considered (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The Negro and whiteness were invented in Europe through scholarly effort #expands (0.55)
• A few French phrases in Martinican education shape the young Antillean’s entire worldview #complicates (0.35) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 978