Pierre, your discussion post offers a rich analysis of how racism and self-hatred manifest in various contexts, drawing on the works of Kendrick Lamar, Maimouna Youssef, Bald, and Frantz Fanon. The connections you make between the internalization of racism and its impact on self-perception are compelling, particularly in your discussion of Lamar and Youssef’s music. Lamar’s critique of how racism leads to both external hatred and internalized self-loathing is powerful, and your interpretation of his line, “you hate me just as much as you hate yourself,” underscores how systemic racism not only dehumanizes its targets but also corrodes the humanity of the oppressors. Youssef’s exploration of her relationship with her hair and identity further demonstrates how white supremacy creates a distorted lens through which Black individuals often see themselves, echoing Fanon’s insights on the weight of being “fixed into nonbeing” by the gaze of the other.

The transition into Bald’s analysis of South Asian immigrants and their navigation of American society adds another layer to this discussion. The contrast between Khan’s and Singh’s approaches to naturalization speaks to the broader issue of how marginalized groups often face pressure to assimilate into dominant cultural norms to gain acceptance or success. Singh’s rejection of traditional Sikh expressions to achieve higher social status reflects the costs of assimilation, while Choudhry’s advocacy for the working class demonstrates a different, more grounded form of resistance. Your question about whether Singh would have advocated for the working class if he had been part of it invites a critical reflection on how privilege and positionality influence activism and representation.

Your analysis of Fanon is equally thoughtful, particularly the way you engage with his concept of being "fixed" by the white gaze and the burden it places on Black individuals. Fanon’s distinction between Black visibility and Jewish invisibility is intriguing, and your question about visibly Jewish individuals who express their faith raises an important point. While Fanon sees Jewish people as being able to avoid objectification through their appearance, visibly Jewish individuals, like those who wear religious garments, may also experience a similar “enslavement” to their physical identity. This comparison invites a deeper exploration of how different forms of visibility and embodiment shape experiences of racism and othering.

I really enjoyed how this post weaves together diverse perspectives to highlight how racism operates on multiple levels—external oppression, internalized self-hatred, and societal pressure to conform. A possible next step could be to explore how these dynamics intersect across the examples you’ve provided. For instance, how do the experiences of South Asian immigrants, as described by Bald, intersect with Fanon’s framework of being objectified and fixed by others? Similarly, how might the music of Lamar and Youssef provide a modern continuation of Fanon’s reflections on asserting oneself in the face of dehumanization? These connections could further deepen the already insightful analysis you’ve provided.

My response to Fanon, and my analysis of other readings/listenings

I agree with the sentiment that Fanon’s tone is negative, as to me it feels like this chapter is a description of his experiences, however rather than considering it purely fatalistic or even later as you described it as almost “explaining or justifying…”, I perceived it initially as his way of characterizing the intensity of the adversity he faced. By talking about his experiences as a black man in such harsh and explicit terms, he is giving readers just a glimpse into the alienation that he had to endure. While the true depth of difficulty and pain can never be understood, I feel as though his directed and explicit language, descriptions of events, and later on use of dialogue and poetry allow the reader to understand the issue in a deeper way through multiple facets. While at some points I found this reading more abstract and difficult to read, it would quickly transition into either an example of an experience or insert a dialogue that set me back on track.

As mentioned above, Fanon uses a myriad of terms and phrases that make it seem as though he is “poisioned by the steroetypes others have of them”, however again I think the emphasis on these terms is to expose the absurdity of racism he has experienced. Throughout the reading, I think that Fanon is set on describing the circumstances that have previously and continue to perpetuate this racism. The situation that brought forward the topic of subjecthood and objecthood is a perfect example of this; he describes an occurrence — a child talking with his mother — and describes how even in this regular occurrence, his race stands to mean more than him being a person. I think that this situation stands as an example of how any experience can be the catalyst for your self-worth shrinking. As the child repeats the phrase, Fanon describes his feelings shift from amusement to shock as he discovers the child is afraid of him, and he becomes confined by how the white child sees him, stripped down to just his race.

I also wanted to touch on Fanon’s description of his relation to the Jewish man. I think he does a very good job of comparing and contrasting by, on Page 92, speaking about how “I joined the Jew, my brother in misery” and goes on to even equate them to an extent saying that anything said about the Jewish can be interpreted towards a black person as well. However, earlier in the chapter, Fanon identifies the key difference in the treatment of the two groups — “All the same, the Jew can be unknown in his Jewishness. He is not wholly what he is.” I believe drawing this contrast is Fanon’s way of recognizing the Jewish people as those who have faced persecution, but identify that while they were segregated for their ideas and what they believe, it had never even gotten to that point for black people as others took one look and saw something wrong.

In Bald’s introduction, it is very insightful to see three different perspectives from South Asians all fighting for a similar yet vastly different population goal. Choudhry, in his letter, is advocating for the working-class, already residing labourers who have already been working and living in America to acquire citizenship. Mubarek Ali Khan is seen following a similar approach trying to get citizenship for the 3000 Indians in the US but with more reservation and a less direct approach. JJ Singh’s approach however is the most interesting to me as rather than fighting for the rights of the pre-existing Indian-American residents, he was not only lobbying for future immigrants, but even assuring Congress that his proposition would not lead to an influx of Indian-Americans getting citizenship. While my gut tells me to be optimistic and believe that he was blurring his intentions and would have shifted course later on, his assurance to Congress as well as his departure from cultural items such as his turban once he arrived in the US leads me to assume that there was likely some sort of class/superiority complex at play and he wanted improvement for the Indian-Americans, but only the ones he deemed worthy at 75 out of the 100 that would be allowed to naturalize being “more highly qualified”.

The main similarity I identified between Kendrick Lamar’s “The Blacker the Berry” and Maimouna Youseff’s “Tell My Story” was the concept of building black people up rather than tearing them down. While Kendrick’s song has a stronger focus on the issues and the violence that black people in America face, it always circles back to the chorus “The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice”, which can be interpreted differently at the end of the chorus when he says “the bigger I shoot” and transitions back into the issues and the violence, however, I believe the chorus serves as a reminder that despite all the violence, being black is “sweeter”, highlighting their resilience. Youseff’s song more explicitly builds black people up with lines like “I’ll be infamous either way you can’t ignore me”, which serves both to show that 1) there is a sense of negligence from other races towards black people and 2) again, similar to Kendrick’s, highlights the resilience of black people and the importance of not letting others put you down.

The last thing I want to touch on briefly is the final verse in Kendrick Lamar’s song where I think he is portraying the range/duality of experiences of a black man. When Trayvon Martin was killed, the black community was in mourning, and rejecting gangbanging and activities that endangered the lives of their youth, but the reality is that despite this, the situation that he found himself in forced him to kill another black man. This shows that there exists a fine line between being angered at black deaths versus participating in them.

I just want to make a note that the beginning of this discussion was in response to Cathy’s, however, it eventually transitions to my own analysis of the other readings and listening.

After reading Fanon's "The Fact of Blackness" and listening to Kendrick Lamar's "The Blacker the Berry", I found myself grappling with the similarities in the ways these men perceive and handle their "blackness". Both men speak at length about the hate they receive simply due to the nature of their skin. They are oppressed, discriminated against, feared, just for being black, due to the abhorrent assumption that black people are uncivilized, dangerous, and brutish. They talk about how they are being perceived by white society, how they are expected to act "thuggish" and how their every move and motive is being combed over by the Whites around them. Both of these men know that they are confined by their race, that all judgements made about them are made at the instant they are seen, and that at present there is no way to avoid these unjust and racist stereotypes. They both talk about giving in, truly being a black man, but Kendrick Lamar's ideas here seem to diverge from Fanon's.

When Fanon comes to the conclusion that he will always be known for his race first, he realizes that attempting to go unnoticed and be invisible is both an impossible task and also one that doesn't actually benefit him or other black people at all. He must stand as a black man, and do his best to dispel the myths of the black savage. Kendrick Lamar similarly understands that attempting to avoid being seen as a black man is an impossible task, but instead of talking about dispelling mythos he instead speaks on how these myths perpetuate themselves in black communities, how some black people allow themselves to (or are forced to, more accurately) become the very black devilish caricature that white society wishes for them to be. This is why he calls himself "...the biggest hypocrite of 2015" at the beginning of every verse, because while he discusses how society has demonized and forced the black man to assume a violent, aggressive persona and how this is obviously a detrimental form of oppression on the black community, he himself acknowledges that he plays this caricature himself in the way he walks, talks, carries himself and presents himself to the world. He laments the oppression that killed Trayvon Martin while he himself helps to perpetuate this society of violence.