Fanon, Sivanandan and Maimouna Youseff
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Fanon has resolved to asserting himself as “black man” because of his acceptance that he cannot get rid of what he calls an “inborn complex”, a complex not born within himself. In every interaction, movement and expression he has in a white space he is undeniably a black man. While performing all of his actions, he keeps this in mind, and so do the white people around him. People also see him “in spite” of his colour; the physical characteristic standing right in front of them when they talk to him. He says, “When people like me, they tell me it is in spite of my color. When they dislike me, they point out that it is not because of my color.” He says these statements engrain the same level of shame as statements that do assert his color. He asserts himself as black man because, unlike Jewish people, his physical body that stands in front of the white person, is enough to fulfill the image of what the black man is in the minds of white people. It is also enough for them to hate him. There is nothing he can say or do that would fulfill any other stereotype needed to hate him. There is no use in trying to hide, disappear, or as Fanon says, “Slip into corners.” For the Jewish person, what they are is an idea to the white people, and they must fulfill this idea/stereotype in order to be hated. Most Jewish people can be in their bodies, disguising the idea of them that is hated by what they choose to do or say. Contrary to this, the black man’s body, without having to say or do anything, is hated. For Sivanandan, immigrants might fall in between this binary of the black man and Jewish man, or someone who is physically hated and someone who is hated as an idea, as Fanon highlights. For Sivanandan, the immigrant’s body is exploited through labour and it is for this that they are considered economically acceptable. At the same time though, they are physically forced into ghettoization and overcrowding based on their physical attributes like skin colour and as a result makes them socially undesirable as an idea. It is a blurry line between being able to be profitable to the state that makes the idea of immigrants is acceptable, but again, their physical features like skin colour is what the state uses to justify their physical exclusion and thus force them into conditions (ie overcrowding) where they are unwillingly fulfilling a stereotype or idea of them that is hated and considered socially undesirable. Through this cycle of oppression that immigrants were forced into upon arrival in the UK in Sivanandan’s context, the voice of the immigrant is often lost. The single immigrant man has become but a "unit of labour” in his words. Their humanity, voice and opinions are lost, and they are looked at as either being profitable to the state, or being socially undesirable/ a burden. This is related to Maimouna Youseff's repetition of the words “I just wanna tell my story,” in her song Tell My Story. As a Black and Indigenous woman, similar to immigrants in the context of Sivanandan, her voice is lost and as a result, she wants to share her personal experience and humanity that is so often ignored due to white supremacy. She goes on to say, “Obsessed with greatness, you can’t ignore me.” She is obsessed with greatness, something which many people might see as a bad or egoistical, but not for the same reasons as most. She is obsessed with greatness because in order to be heard, for her humanity to be seen, to be able to tell her story, she must be great.