Analysis of Books on Racism and Discrimination

This summary provides an analysis of books on racism and discrimination, including Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being by Christian Sharpe, Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance by Ann Laura Stoler, and Culture of Terror--Space of Death by Michael Taussig.

Running head: SUMMARY
SUMMARY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SUMMARY
Black skin white mask by Frantz Fanon
The book Black Skin, White Masks; written by Frantz Fanon, a French psychiatrist is self
explanatory revelation of racist philosophy explaining domination of the white races over the
black people. The colonialism effect has been studied and has been presented through evidences
from history and relevant social instances having reflection of the discriminative human psyche.
The author has attempted psychoanalysis of several cases and has used the psychoanalytic theory
to understand the inferiority complex being experienced by the Black people. The book is
expanded over eight chapters which go on to analyse the different perspectives that elaborate the
themes and tries to reveal the journey of a coloured person in terms of his existential complex, in
terms of his/her yearning for blending with the society around him which is completely alien to
his origin and identity. The initial chapters discuses about the complex of the language of the
coloured person with respect to the language of the colonizing culture. This is the most vivid
discrimination observed in the society whereby the Black person tries to imitate the French
language and culture and even after doing so is reminded that by adopting the language one
cannot be fully French and they are even not encouraged to speak in their mother tongue, which
is deemed inferior and lacks cultural sophistication. The consecutive chapters discuss about the
complex of the woman and the man and their longing to merge with the French society and
culture by means more socially adaptable. These refer to the insecurity complex being suffered
by common coloured person and is discussed in the chapter 2 and 3 of the book. The consecutive
chapter 4 and 5 discusses about the dependency of the colonized individual.
The acceptance of the foreign culture has led to the development of the belief system of
the colonizers that they are superior to the cultures they dominate and has a right to discriminate

2SUMMARY
them. The last two chapters bring the Negro in a face to face interaction with himself and
identifying their roots and their originality. The fact of Blackness explores the roots of his/her
origin and relates that there is no harm in being a coloured individual rather it is the colonial
mentality of the whites to subjugate them and crate a discrimination in order to exploit these
people of coloured origin. The complex of inferiority has been created since the inception of the
individual in the world of discrimination, to which they are mere victims (Fanon, 2008). I deeply
agree with Frantz Fanon, in his quest for understanding the human psyche behind semantic
hegemony and racial discrimination. The research by Fanon does provide a deep insight into
human cognition with respect to discrimination and social disparity.
In the wake: of black and being by Christian Sharpe
The essay by Christian Sharpe reflects her journey as a black person and how that
influenced and developed her life being a black. She in the book has referred her life stories, her
struggles, her convictions and fears and has associated them with the ‘wake’ of the ship which is
the trail of the disturbances in the water left behind by a moving ship. Christiana Sharpe has
evaluated the atrocities and the discrimination being happening in the daily lives of the black
people. She explores the miseries arising out of these socio-communal reasons. She shares the
experience of the death of her family members and juxtaposes her realizations with the various
perspectives of a sailing ship in the various chapters of the book. She has revealed that Black
people are more susceptible to discrimination and deprivation in the various walks of life and
that they have lesser or unequal access to good health care and educational services, lesser
priorities are given when issues of the black people are to be considered and that the black
people face more stress related illnesses and mental disorders as compared to their white counter

3SUMMARY
parts. She states that that the society relates the responsibility of such a scenario on the black
people itself, which she contradicts by revealing her experience that the only reason for such a
discriminative attitude is because of the long history of structural anti semantic abuses. These
issues can be strongly agreed to due to the experiences shared by Christina, which are the
revelations of her experiences in life (Sharpe, 2016). The biographic evidence of Sharpe is a
justification of the several studies that support the existence of disparity based on ethnicity and
colour in the society, and it is of no doubt that there are similar instances with other individuals
who have experienced such discriminations in their lives.
Colonial archives and the arts of governance by Ann Laura Stoler
It is believed that anthropology and history share a common lineage and that it is time
that anthropology as a discipline should take a stand on either being an historical perspective or
being an ethnographic one. The recent studies in anthropology have numerous instances of using
archives to support their research and provide evidence to their cases. Several studies relating to
semantic discrimination and racism is largely based on the archival evidences. The studies
relating to the colonialism and its impact and influences are mostly reviewed on the archival
support that is available. The author lays stress on using archive as not just a source of
information but treating the archival evidence as a separate discipline given their credibility to
create credible sources.
The author argues that archival evidence should have an epistemology that links history
with anthropology. It can be argued that with the colonial history being studied from different
perspective and the anthropological evidences being used from sources of the archive it is time
recognize the colonial archives as a separate stream of study. The colonial history gives two

4SUMMARY
different streams of archives, one it talks about the colonizers and their history, while the other
talks about the colonized, the history and the effect of their culture on the colonized. This is a
valid concern put by the author and it is agreed that supporting the archives of the colonial
periods as a different steam will establish their credibility in further research and studies (Stoler,
2002). Understanding the history of colonialism will analyse the roots of racism and semantic
behaviour that is prevalent even in the present day. This is one of the missing links that might
serve as a providence to establish existing discrimination and their origin.
Culture of terror--space of death. Roger casement’s Putumayo report and the
explanation of torture by Michael Taussig
The culture of terror has been evaluated by Taussig in the space of death context and he
reveals that the colonial histories around the world involving Africa, India and other parts of the
world. He has rightly mentioned that a new world has been formed when a whole ethnic
community was subjected to intense torture and terror creating a space of death, by a smaller
number of Christians. The colonialism gave birth to the racism and semantic discrimination
around the world. The hegemonic ruthlessness practiced by the whites over the coloured races
paved the way for the birth of discriminative societies. European conquests and colonization
created spheres where the colonized were reduced to slavery, inferiority and utmost cruelty. This
created a fear and a feeling of hatred against the foreign supremacy. Michael Taussig rightly
resolves that the creation of a different space on the tenets of terror, torture and discrimination
created a social mentality that will continue to remain with time. The social discrimination,
bigotry and prejudices were all products of colonialism. The positivity of the effects cannot be
measured, though it might be referred to as the evil good. The views of Michael Taussig can be

5SUMMARY
strongly supported behind the formation of a society that has been formed from terror and
torture. The reality of colonialism lies in the fact that the European hegemony succeeded in
diluting the Oriental and the African cultures and making them doubt their sanity and beliefs,
thereby creating confusion and a complex within the different cultures (Taussig, 1984).

6SUMMARY
References
Fanon, F. (2008). Black skin, white masks. Grove press.
Sharpe, C. (2016). In the wake: On blackness and being. Duke University Press.
Stoler, A. L. (2002). Colonial archives and the arts of governance. Archival science, 2(1-2), 87-
109.
Taussig, M. (1984). Culture of Terror—Space of Death. Roger Casement’s Putumayo Report and
the Explanation of Torture. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 26(3), 467–497.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500011105