The Black Body and Existential Violence in Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks

Abstract

      In this article, we will analyze and discuss the thought of philosopher Frantz Fanon in his work Black Skin, White Masks. Specifically, the aim is to highlight the relationship that the author establishes between the post-colonial social construction of the objectified image of the Black subject and their embodied existence within this reality. We will address the issue of the corporeal experience of the Black individual through Fanon’s concept of “sociogeny.” This concept refers to the link between historical and social frameworks concerning racist oppression and the constitution of the Black subjectivity in modernity. According to Fanon, modern racist violence consists of imprinting spectral images of the Black population across all social spheres. This necessitates an examination of the constitution of these abstractions that “fix” the Black body within the irrational notion of a thing, preventing its corporeal reality from being humanized. This work is a conceptual research endeavor. We propose an analytical level grounded in the description of the corporeal experience of the Black individual, with an emphasis on how Fanon addresses the impact of the post-colonial world on the constitution of Black subjectivity. This delineation will allow us to engage with crucial themes for the advancement of critical discussions on racism in contemporary sciences, particularly within psychology and philosophy, such as the social and individual manifestations of racism in the formation of the subject.