Soulbook - Freedom Archives

105
or from North America), one is not at all surprised to discover the existence
of the same types of social problems whenever and wherever Bla.eks have come
into contact with whites, or vice-versa ;i . e . , with respect to the Black, the
inferiority complex, the sexualization of racism from the standpoint of the
victim . Thus, when we view from the side of the African male his relationship
to the white female, in reality we are viewing the hangups or potential
hangups (meaning here that social conditions for their blossoming objectively
exist) of a 11 Black men who comb into contact whth white women, whether
this contact occur in North America, the West Indies, Africa, or Europe .
In a chapter of his book dealing with the relationship of the Black man to
white woman, Fanon analyses a few passages from the novel, Un homme
~a r eil aux autres (A Man Like Any Other) . Here we check out the reactions
ofJean Veneuse, a West Indian Black who has lived for some time in Bourdeaux,
France (and as such is considered to be a semi white) ; Veneuse has
just asked a white man, Coulanges, for the hand of his sister in marriage
"Entreated t the white man accepts the offer of giving his
sister to Veneuse-- but on one condition : You have nothing
`'in common with genuine Negroes ; You are not black, but
excessively brown ."
This process is well known among students of color in
France . The Negro is a savage while the student is an
"evolved ." You are "us" Coulange tells him, and if someone
believes you are a Negro, it is thru error;you only look
like one . But Jean Veneuse Doesn't agree ; he can't, for he
knows . He knows that "exasperated by this humiliating ostracism,
common mulattoes and blacks have only one thought
from the time that they are in Europe ; to satiate the
appetite that they have for white women ." 12 .
Meanwhile, they tell us, Bro . Hernton has gone scampering off to Europe
. Will he escape the sexualization of racism there ? ; only Lawd knows !
Hernton has little understanding, if any, of Black Nationalism as it has
manifested itself in the U. S . It appears to me that he views "the humanit.~.rian
solution to the race problem," (i . e . , the mealy mush furnished him by
his beatnik "ideological" masters) as being threatened by this nationalism,
and has little comprehension -- nor does he appear to desire any -- of its use
as a vehicles for social change -save, perhaps, in its restricted, "cultural"
manifestations . Is Hernton unaware that nationalism has been used by Afroamericans
as a kind of "psychological balancing act" which has allowed them
to maintain their sanity while living in semi-colonial status ? I think so .
The slogan quoted by Hernton, "Buy Black, Think Black, and most of all,
Lpve Black, " is expressing a means to self-preservation . The fault here is