Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The black person has two dimensions. One with his fellows, the other with the white person. A black person behaves differently with a white person and with another black person.”
Frantz Fanon · Postcolonial philosophy · Modern · 1952
What does it mean?
The black person, in the introduction as this card compresses it, has two dimensions: one with his fellows, one with the white person, and does not behave the same way in both. Under colonial racism the self is split by the white gaze. The split is a wound produced by a world, not a private quirk. A rival reading generalises the sentence into 'everyone has two selves', which keeps the psychology and deletes the colony. He is describing a racialised situation, with psychiatry and philosophy together. Older translations say 'the black man'.
Did Frantz Fanon really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. A compressed English of the opening phenomenological claim of Black Skin, White Masks. Fanon writes in the first person elsewhere in the book ('The black man has two dimensions…' in older translations). This wording modernises the noun and shortens the passage. The claim is his; a verbatim extract should be taken from a named translation.
Where it comes from
Black Skin, White Masks, introduction, compressed
Approximate date: 1952.
How to use it
Notice code-switching that is not free style but a defence, in a classroom, a ward, or a stop in London. He wants that defence understood as a response to a structure, not judged as inauthenticity. The notice is not yet his analysis. The analysis is in the book, and it is not a tip for communication skills.
A mindset reading
Do not stretch the sentence into a vague claim about social roles. The two dimensions are specifically produced by an antiblack world. A metaphor that fits everybody has left the introduction.
Understand the philosophy
Black Skin, White Masks analyses language, desire, and recognition. It is the book to read before The Wretched of the Earth if you want the psychology his politics never left behind. The compression on this card is marked as a compression on purpose.
- self
- society
- power
FAQ
What does it mean?
The black person, in the introduction as this card compresses it, has two dimensions: one with his fellows, one with the white person, and does not behave the same way in both. Under colonial racism the self is split by the white gaze. The split is a wound produced by a world, not a private quirk. A rival reading generalises the sentence into 'everyone has two selves', which keeps the psychology and deletes the colony. He is describing a racialised situation, with psychiatry and philosophy together. Older translations say 'the black man'.
Did Frantz Fanon really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. A compressed English of the opening phenomenological claim of Black Skin, White Masks. Fanon writes in the first person elsewhere in the book ('The black man has two dimensions…' in older translations). This wording modernises the noun and shortens the passage. The claim is his; a verbatim extract should be taken from a named translation.
Which work is it in?
Black Skin, White Masks, introduction, compressed Approximate date: 1952.