Identity

Unable to be assimilated, unable to pass unnoticed he consoles himself by association with the dead or at least the absent. -Fanon 65
Fanon writes from the unique perspective of a psychiatrist, a militant, and a black man. Black Skin, White Masks looks at the effects of colonization on the identity of the colonized. Fanon examines the formation of a new identity when one is subjected to consistent degradation and devaluation, as in a setting of colonization. Throughout his narrative Fanon shapes revolution as the only means of reestablishing a healthy self-image. For Fanon it is not enough to escape oppression; one must cast it off with violence to create a foundation of self-agency upon which a true identity can be built (11).
In chapter 3, Fanon discusses Jean Veneuse, a black man raised among whites. Veneuse has adopted a white mask. The mask Fanon refers to is one of imitated superiority. The black man imitates the colonizer’s language, mannerisms, and culture, to be considered of equal value. According to Fanon the Negro is made inferior when affixed by the gaze of the other. Fanon points out that not only must the black man be black; he must be black in relation to the white man (110). The black man is so devalued in society that he seeks to be anything but black (74). The colonizer, the one in power, “the other”, is white. The black man identifies with the values and needs of the colonizer and looses his self. This part of the colonization process has long reaching effects for the colonized people. Veneuse is faced with a difficult challenge of being a black man in a society that sees his color as a negative trait. Friends tell him he is “not black but extremely brown”, meant as a compliment but more a proof of innate arrogance and superiority that Veneuse faced daily (69). Even in acceptance there is only tolerance of his blackness.
The need of the colonized is the need to exist as a legal and moral entity. The colonizer, a new element, must be reconciled into the reality of the colonized (97). Because the “gaze” is consistently negative, the Negro (colonized) attaches to himself, necessarily, the attributes of inferiority. It is necessary because he, the Negro, must exist in some form and because he is not the conqueror, he is by default the inferior. Fanon then brings us to the only moment he feels the Negro can redeem a sense of self outside of the mask of the colonizer, through revolution. Fanon says, “Since no agreement was possible on the level of reason I threw myself back toward unreason (123).” Clearly, he believes that no compromise can be made with the colonizer. It stands to reason that one would need to fight for their independence for it to hold real value within their lives.
The combining of two very different societies must meet with compromise or colonization. In the colonization model, the colonized are subjected to a myriad of degradations designed to create a superior and inferior class with the colonizer as the superior. The loss of culture under colonization creates a loss of identity. An individual creates an identity in relation to that of the colonizer. This assumed identity is never fulfilling because it is false. A black will never truly be white, nor will a Senegalese ever be French. The individual will eventually have to find his true self. The identity created from his experience as a man and a black and a member of a colonized society, is the true self.