The colonial seeks French refinement to prove he has measured up

Evidence

To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture. The Antilles Negro who wants to be white will be the whiter as he gains greater mastery of the cultural tool that language is. Rather more than a year ago in Lyon, I remember, in a lecture I had drawn a parallel between Negro and European poetry, and a French acquaintance told me enthusiastically, “At bottom you are a white man.” The fact that I had been able to investigate so interesting a problem through the white man’s language gave me honorary citizenship. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 148 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The colonized seek French refinement as proof they have measured up to the culture; Antilleans pursue French refinement to prove cultural adequacy to themselves; “He talks like a white man” is Martinique’s highest praise for mastering French. (+4 more)

Related

• “He talks like a white man” is Martinique’s highest praise for mastering French. (similarity 0.94)
• For the Antillean Negro, mastery of French proportionally increases perceived whiteness and humanity. (similarity 0.93)
• Mastering French makes the Antilles Negro whiter, earning honorary white status (similarity 0.92)
• Antilleans pursue French refinement to prove cultural adequacy to themselves (similarity 0.89)
• Mastery of the colonizer’s language confers honorary whiteness on the colonized (similarity 0.88)
• Language mastery determines how human a colonized black man is considered (similarity 0.88)
• The Antillean journey to France to become white reveals his real black face (similarity 0.86)
• Antilleans going to France to confirm whiteness instead encounter their blackness. (similarity 0.85)
• The newly educated black man speaks French to mark rupture from his past (similarity 0.85)
• Arriving in France transforms the colonized black man because France represents civilization itself. (similarity 0.84)
• A few French phrases in Martinican education shape the young Antillean’s entire worldview (similarity 0.84)
• Western language defined the Black intelligentsia before they mastered it. (similarity 0.84)
• The colonized Antillean internalizes the culture that enslaves him (similarity 0.84)
• Returning Antilles Negroes are diagnosed by family as European if French prevails (similarity 0.83)
• Antilleans internalize European archetypes such that their anima and animus are white (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• The colonized seek French refinement as proof they have measured up to the culture #corroborates (0.95)
• Antilleans pursue French refinement to prove cultural adequacy to themselves #corroborates (0.90)
• Mastering French makes the Antilles Negro whiter, earning honorary white status #expands (0.85) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 148
• For the Antillean Negro, mastery of French proportionally increases perceived whiteness and humanity. #expands (0.85)
• “He talks like a white man” is Martinique’s highest praise for mastering French. #exemplifies (0.60)
• Returning Antilles Negroes are diagnosed by family as European if French prevails #expands (0.60) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 140
• The newly educated black man speaks French to mark rupture from his past #expands (0.60) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 139