The black man becomes black only in relation to the white man

Evidence

However painful it may be for me to accept this conclusion, I am obliged to state it: For the black man there is only one destiny. And it is white. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 42 (#expands, via linked claim)

The Negro recognizes the unreality of many of the beliefs that he has adopted with reference to the subjective attitude of the white man. When he does, his real apprenticeship begins. And reality proves to be extremely resistant. But, it will be objected, you are merely describing a universal phenomenon, the criterion of maturity being in fact adaptation to society. My answer is that such a criticism goes off in the wrong direction, for I have just shown that for the Negro there is a myth to be faced. A solidly established myth. The Negro is unaware of it as long as his existence is limited to his own environment; but the first encounter with a white man oppresses him with the whole weight of his blackness. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 577 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The black man’s only perceived escape from insignificance leads into the white world. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 184; Suffering from non-whiteness begins only when the white man imposes discrimination; For the black man the white man is master, not merely The Other (+12 more)

Related

• For the black man there is only one destiny, and it is white (similarity 0.94)
• The black man’s only perceived escape from insignificance leads into the white world. (similarity 0.92)
• The black man aims all efforts at achieving a white existence. (similarity 0.90)
• Objecthood under the white gaze shatters the black man’s self into alienated fragments (similarity 0.89)
• The first encounter with a white man oppresses the Negro with his full blackness (similarity 0.89)
• The black man can become locked into his body as mere object (similarity 0.86)
• White acceptance of the Black man requires denying he is black. (similarity 0.86)
• The anguished Negro must prove his whiteness to himself and others (similarity 0.86)
• Ego-withdrawal as a defense is impossible for the black man (similarity 0.84)
• Being objectified as a toy drives the Negro toward explosive acting-out (similarity 0.83)
• The encounter with the real white man triggers the Antillean’s recognition of betrayal (similarity 0.83)
• The Black man is overdetermined from without, enslaved by appearance (similarity 0.82)
• Being limited to one’s own environment keeps the Negro unaware of the myth (similarity 0.82)
• Black consciousness is immanent and whole, not a potential lacking universality (similarity 0.82)
• Whiteness and blackness are each lived as mythic, opposing existential essences (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• For the black man there is only one destiny, and it is white #expands (0.85) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 42
• The first encounter with a white man oppresses the Negro with his full blackness #exemplifies (0.80) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 577
• The Black man is overdetermined from without, enslaved by appearance #expands (0.80)
• The white man’s stereotypes and historical images constitute the black man’s identity #corroborates (0.80)
• The black man can become locked into his body as mere object #corroborates (0.75) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 824
• Objecthood under the white gaze shatters the black man’s self into alienated fragments #expands (0.70)
• The white gaze returns the black body to its owner distorted and demonized #expands (0.70)
• White society accepts the educated black only by denying he is genuinely black #corroborates (0.60)
• Internalized whiteness collapses when the real white man demands total whiteness #exemplifies (0.60)
• Forcing pidgin on black people imprisons them in a white-defined essence #exemplifies (0.60) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 132