‘I am White … I am Black …’
Courtesy of Janus Films and The Criterion Collection
"I am white: that is to say that I possess beauty and virtue, which have never been black. I am the color of the daylight… I am black: I am the incarnation of a complete fusion with the world, an intuitive understanding of the earth, an abandonment of my ego in the heart of the cosmos, and no white man, no matter how intelligent he may be, can ever understand Louis Armstrong and the music of the Congo. If I am black, it is not the result of a curse, but it is because having offered my skin, I have been able to absorb all the cosmic effluvia. I am truly a ray of sunlight under the earth…"
In this passage from Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon talks about how the dominant, White society perceives Black people and White people. Fanon says that White people are "the color of the daylight" because of their pale, light skin complexion. They also have blue eyes and straightened hair. White people are depicted as beautiful people in mass media with these traits. In the dominant White world, Black people are discriminated against by White people for being physically different from them. The characteristics include having natural hair texture, brown eyes, and a darker skin complexion. The dominant White society finds straightened hair and blue eyes beautiful because they identify people with similar traits to their in-group. Therefore, White people see Black people as a threat and consider them ugly due to their physical features.
White people see Black people as an inferior race and a threat to them. Fanon explains that Black people have experienced more emotions and absorbed more trauma than White people as White people exploited them during imperialism, colonization, and slavery in Africa. No matter how smart and how much knowledge a White person acquires, White people will never understand what it means to be Black because they are not Black and the Other. White people will also never truly understand African culture. They will never know what drumming, Jazz, and other Black music genres meant to the Black founders of such music. White people can understand the meaning of the songs by dissecting the instruments and lyrics, but they will not fully comprehend the music's background and story. This passage is relatable to Ousmane Sembene's film Black Girl and African Americans' discrimination in the United States.
In Sembene's Black Girl, Diouana, a Senegalese woman from Dakar, works as a nanny for a wealthy, French, White couple in Antibes. Diouanna's boss Madame picked Diouana out from a group of Senegalese women and hired her to be her maid and babysitter for the three kids. Once Diouana gets the job, she dreams of a wealthy lifestyle, wishing to go to the Eiffel Tower. When Diouana arrives in Antibes, Madame and Monsieur use, manipulate, and lie to Diouana. Instead, they overwork Diouana, give her less sleep, and lie to her that their three kids will be at Antibes with them. Diouana is upset that they did not fulfill their promises. When she cleans up the house, Diouana wears a lovely dress and heels to feel like she can explore the world while being trapped in her own "cell." Diouana wears clothes with "beauty and virtue," but the French couple and their friends objectify her because of her skin color. Thus, "she offered her skin" and body when she applied for the job.
In this current world of post-colonialism, post-slavery, and post-Jim Crow, African Americans are offered more opportunities financially and economically because of the end of slavery, Civil Rights Acts, and Affirmative Action laws. Even though the law supports African Americans having a right to vote, to work, among other things, White people do not have to follow those laws. People can have beliefs of how their world should be. Legislation is just enforcing an order. With a nation having a leader that openly supports White Supremacy like Donald Trump from 2017-2021, he normalized White people to attack people of color with a racial motive. It allows racists to use the argument that because Trump has said a particular remark and opposed an act, it means that they can act like this too. It relates to the passage as Black people are attacked because they're in worse conditions than White people. Black people do not get on the covers of most magazines because they do not have the European Standards of Beauty with their dark skin complexion, brown eyes, and natural hair texture. Black people will also know what it means to be called on by the police only because of their race, as White people never have that justification for their arrest.
The film's second scene where Diouana works for the couple illustrates how invulnerable and confined Diouana is. To depict Diouana's confinement, she is positioned in tight framing. The clothes that Diouana wears give an impression that she will be touring around Antibes. After she leaves her room, it cuts to her maid duties in the kitchen. The cut reveals that this is her "uniform" instead of an outfit for the job. She is positioned at either the left or right side of the frame to depict her discomfort. To also display how Diouana is contained, she is framed tightly within the walls of Madame's kitchen and only stays within a row when she mops the living room. When Diouana cleans the floor, she goes from left to right as she hopes to achieve freedom. Then, Madame becomes an obstacle when she enters from frame right and shows her control over Diouana by giving Diouana strict orders and is upset when she sees Diouana wearing similar clothes while working.
According to Fanon, Diouana "offered her skin" when she applied to be Madame's maid. Diouana "absorbed all the cosmic effluvia" of joy and pain that reflects the African experience. Madame possesses "beauty and virtue, which have never been Black. She is the color of the daylight." Madame has straightened hair and pale skin. With the physical differences between Madame and Diouana, Madame's European beauty standards will be seen in more media than Diouana. Diouana forcingly staying in Madame's place represents the agenda-setting theory as dark-skinned people are not given proper media coverage. Sembene shows Madame as a colonizer where she mentally and financially exploits Diouana.
Since 2018, there have been more viral news headlines where White people have called the police several times when they see Black people from the naked eye. The phone calls that White people make are primarily towards innocent, unarmed Black people. When the police come over, they arrest Black people for loitering, driving, policies requiring them to purchase food before going to the bathroom, and "breaking in" their own house. Those arrests become viral on newscasts as civilians have a camera through a phone. The possession of their mobile cameras shows the majority (White Americans) an issue that they do not want to talk about in public or at all. These racial incidents have always been happening historically. But with a cell phone in use, people can see these incidents visually and can have reactions to them on the spot. These reactions spark protests, apologize from White people, give sensitivity training sessions, and update policies to prevent these arrests from tarnishing their public image.
Fanon stated that "if I am black, it is not the result of a curse, but because of having offered my skin." He means that Civil Rights and Affirmative Action legislation has offered Black people opportunities to be more inclusive. Those opportunities mean that everyone is equal, regardless of race. However, in reality, White people perceive other human races externally instead of internally, and people of color are still victims of racism. At the same time, White people use counter-tactics against such laws that support Black people by saying they commit violations such as loitering and bathroom policies. In addition, White people attempt to solve their bias against Black people by making unjustified phone calls to the police instead of walking past them and doing nothing with them.
When everyone has a cell phone, they can record these incidents and upload them to the internet. Once the incidents are uploaded, they will exist forever and make the White phone callers face the consequences and do damage control, attempting to make things right.
Fanon said that being Black is "a ray of sunlight under the earth." He says that Black people are unique in their own ways. They have gone through segregation for decades after the Emancipation Proclamation was published, while at the same time, they created popular music genres and had Black-owned businesses. White people will never fully understand what the impact of these ventures and products means for Black communities, even if they read the background history and interpretations of the products.
Black communities fought against society and the government for years and centuries for the right to freedom. In post-slavery and Jim Crow laws, Black people are still fighting for freedom by asserting their dominant presence in society. Some Black innovators are famous in their respective fields. Unfortunately, most White people do not want them to talk about politics, and they should stick with what they do. But Freedom of Speech gives Black people a "ray of sunlight" to be themselves and the chances they have to make an affordable living.