The Fact of Blackness by Frantz Fanon

"I came into the world imbued with the will to find a meaning in things, my spirit filled with the desire to attain to the source of the world, and then I found that I was an object in the midst of other objects."

Thus commences Fanon's article. The objectification he identifies is in principle no different to that which we have discussed previously in respect of the portrayal of women, the difference being that images of black typically assumed a racial superiority as opposed to a scoptophilic gaze. Black people were not so much objects to be gazed at, more to be taken for granted, not to be imbued with the same significance as images of white people.

Fanon argues that black men experience their being as seen by others once he is seen other than by 'his own'.  He views Hegelian ontology 'being for others' irrelevant; ontology does not allow for the understanding of being a black man: "...not only must the black man be black; he must be black in relation to the white man. Fanon continues that the reverse is not true.

We alluded to blackness with Barthes discussion of the myth:

Barthes (1973) actually uses the significance of the negro saluting the flag in his treatise:

".....there is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism than the zeal shown by this Negro in serving his so-called oppressors ...”

Barthes is here highlighting the ue of the black soldier to further the myth of France's colonial power and that that power is a good thing. There is no equivalent use of the white face in black culture; blacks do not seek to use whiteness in the same way.

Fanon claims a that an 'unfamiliar weight burdened [him]' when being seen the white people. He felt different, uncertain:

"Consciousness of the body is solely a negating activity"

There is congruence here again with women in visual - being conscious of being seen in a different (and assumed patronised and subjugated) light.

Fanon graphically describes what it was to be identified as black, to burden himself with all the negative baggage as construed by whites:

"I discovered my blackness, my ethnic characteristics; and I was battered down by tom-toms, cannibalism, intellectual deficiency, fetishism, racial defects, slave-ships, and above all else, above all: “Sho’ good eatin’.”"

From that day, he says, he made himself an object, despite his desire 'to be a man among other men.' 

There is a contrast between the perception of Jews and of black people. Jews have been ostracised, exterminated but at least Jews are not disliked by predetermined appearance; a Jew can 'go unnoticed', a black man never can':

"I am the slave not of the “idea” that the others have of me but of my own appearance."

Blatant racism is now rare, not least because of its illegality. The word 'negro' is no longer used, let alone the other 'n word'. In this visual culture respect, society has moved further than it has with the objectified depiction of women. In one sense, visual culture has reflected blackness as it is in society. There are few images of powerful black people simply because there have not been that many; paintings such as Manet's Olympia that include black people reflect that they were subservient. Visual culture has typically reflected the place of the black perosn in society - it has done little per se to change it.

Reference:

Barthes (1973) Myth Today in Visual Culture: the reader Evans and Hall (eds) SAGE publications, London