Fanon is probably a better and more likeable human being than many of his French existentialist contemporaries, with whom he is associated (I am thinking of Sartre specifically). However, the fact this book was written, published, and remains lauded and in print, and that its author went on to such enduring prominence, is a potent expression of what befell the Western world after the disastrous wars of the first half of the twentieth century. Granted that Fanon might have been an okay person, this is a muddled book that for the most part offers either conceits or platitudes. If it has any discernible central thesis at all, Fanon wants a complete break with the past so that a new reciprocally validating humanity can be built by "always asking questions". Implicit throughout is an explicitly denied prejudice that it would be effortless for the white man to do this, and that he is morally obliged to. ( )

This book was interesting but not really enjoyable or powerful. It certainly raised a lot of good points and its anecdotal evidence was meaningful and easy to follow, but it often fell victim to its own style, becoming too conversational yet discussing too serious of a topic. While I understood that Fanon was going for an easy to read, honest book, I feel that Black Skin, White Masks may have taken that concept too far. Also, some of the graphic descriptions were a little awkward... ( )

Black Skin, White Masks is psychologist Frantz Fanon’s analysis of the BlackSkinWhiteMaskspsychological pathologies produced by colonialism, in the West in general and in the French Antilles, in particular. Fanon’s main thesis is that colonialism and racism corrupt the psyche of both blacks and whites, albeit in different ways: “the Negro enslaved by his inferiority [and] the white man enslaved by his superiority alike behave in accordance with a neurotic orientation.”

An essential analysis of the psychosocial nature of blackness in the context of colonialism. Fanon is perhaps only hampered by his reliance on case studies representing the extremes of psychological conditions to explain and justify his more universal arguments about reactions to blackness. However, the phenomenological nature of the book allows for narrative to lend powerful support to the central thesis of double consciousness and tension that exists in the world he inhabits. It is impossible to ignore the lived experience of the Antillean as presented by Fanon. It calls us to challenge our perceptions, recognize our failings, and most importantly to allow a dialectical process to reimagine our relation to the other. ( )

Fanon, nascido na Martinica e educado na França, é geralmente considerado o principal pensador anticolonial do século XX. Seu primeiro livro é uma análise do impacto da subjugação colonial na psique negra. É um relato muito pessoal da experiência de Fanon sendo negro: como homem, intelectual e partidário de uma educação francesa.--Adaptado de wikipedia.org. ( )