No Antillean could think of himself as a Negro until Aimé Césaire appeared

Evidence

In the Antilles that view of the world is white because no black voice exists. The folklore of Martinique is meager, and few children in Fort-de-France know the stories of “Compè Lapin,” twin brother of the Br’er Rabbit of Louisiana’s Uncle Remus. A European familiar with the current trends of Negro poetry, for example, would be amazed to learn that as late as 1940 no Antillean found it possible to think of himself as a Negro. It was only with the appearance of Aimé Césaire that the acceptance of negritude and the statement of its claims began to be perceptible. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 585

Categorization

• XREF: Historical grounding for the reader’s analysis of the two educational narratives and their psychological effects. — connects to: Local colonial schooling shapes Antillean boys to identify with whiteness and disavow their blackness

Related

• A few French phrases in Martinican education shape the young Antillean’s entire worldview (similarity 0.84)
• A few classroom phrases form the young Antillean’s entire worldview. (similarity 0.82)
• The Antillean is made white by unconscious processes while lacking white skin (similarity 0.82)
• In the Antilles, perception of people always occurs in white terms (similarity 0.81)
• Fanon’s claims are scoped to Antillean blacks, not Africans (similarity 0.81)
• Educated Martinican men studied European writers to make their color forgotten (similarity 0.81)
• For the Antillean Negro, mastery of French proportionally increases perceived whiteness and humanity. (similarity 0.80)
• The Antillean’s unconscious is populated entirely by white archetypes (similarity 0.80)
• Antillean children write fantasies that deny their own black identity. (similarity 0.80)
• Education and refinement could qualify blackness in Antillean social judgment (similarity 0.80)
• Antilleans going to France to confirm whiteness instead encounter their blackness. (similarity 0.79)
• Antilleans internalize European archetypes such that their anima and animus are white (similarity 0.79)
• Antilleans claim superiority over Africans by being closer to the white man. (similarity 0.79)
• Each Martinican exists as an isolated atom hungry for recognition (similarity 0.79)
• Mastering French makes the Antilles Negro whiter, earning honorary white status (similarity 0.79)