Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon

4 reviews

insectcondo's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Colonisation

Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Medical content, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Genocide, Homophobia, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, and War

iarlais's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

This book walks the line between an academic study of colonialism's effects on the mind and a personal account of those same effects. The personal touch of Fanon to the subject matter enhances it all the more, as if it were not already strengthened by his academic approach. I did feel the book relied perhaps too heavily on external sources, particularly Sartre, which affected its ability to stand on its own, and some aspects felt rather unnecessary to communicate Fanon's analysis. Nevertheless, this 1952 work is an excellent and thorough analysis of the mental brutality of colonialism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, and Suicide

milliminal's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

3.25

Some remarkable ideas hidden behind some questionable phrasing. The ideas age well, the sentences do not. Still, I understand why this is seen as a classic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Minor: Incest and Suicide

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

This is mainly interesting as a foundational text to look at later writers. The idea that a Black child in a primarily Black space reads European books and sees himself in the white hero, only "becoming" Black after travelling to Europe and being seen as such there, as well as the ways racial hierarchies are artificially constructed are articulated in a compelling way, but the content is so dense (there is a lot of random poetry analysis) or dated (Freudian analysis, misogyny, homophobia) that it's hard to recommend to a "lay" reader.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, and Slavery