One realizes who he is when in contact with others. One of the main aspect which we should consider when reading Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks is the idea of the self and the other. We define ourselves when in contact with the other. When we take into account one of the main argument of Chapter 5, this idea is enforced. The black man only becomes aware of his blackness when in contact with the white world. In this essay, I will attempt to bring forward this issue of race and becoming aware of it. Drawing from my personal experience, I will discuss the ways in which that experience relates to Fanon’s representation of race. The writer, more often than not, makes reference to critics and other influential figures to support his views and his arguments. I will present this essay in the same manner in which Fanon presents his book, linking my personal experience to Fanon’s and some other important historical and cultural figures’ views.

Fanon’s writing relates the experiences of a black man from the Antilles and his relationship with white man, more specifically the coloniser. In his first chapter, we witness the changes which the black man goes through when he has spent a certain amount of time in France. He becomes conscious of who he is and changes the aspects of him which would distance him from the white man’s culture. The black man who has been lived among the white man has to do everything in his power to maintain this proximity. As a child, growing up, I had never