In “The Lived Experience of the Black Man”, Dr. Fanon talks about how African-American people, in this instance himself, are profiled based on the color of their skin. Racial identity, according to Fanon, is about how someone looks instead of how they act. Because of the color of an African-American person’s skin they are judged and ruled to be at one point not human. Even though it had been scientifically proven that black people were human just like white people, some didn’t believe it or couldn’t believe it. The fact that the white man and the black man could be so closely related was ridiculous but it was true.
In the reading Fanon used the examples of Jews. Jews, unlike black people, can go unnoticed and passed for white people. The only way that you can tell a Jew is Jewish, according to the passage, is because of their acts or behaviors. The color of their skin is the same as the white man and apart from a few features he can be undetected. When a black man is seen, you know he is black. There is no debate or guessing, which is why Fanon said “I am a slave not to the ‘idea’ others have of me, but to my appearance.”
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"The Lived Experience of the Black Man".
While Fanon is simply trying to live his life just as anyone would he keeps getting reminded of his skin color; for instance when a little boy came up to him and said “Look a Negro!” and another incident where someone came up to him and started to talk about how “the Black” is just a man as the people surrounding him. This is when he decided that he would no longer be subjected to being just a “Negro” but instead a proud black man by making himself known instead of people trying to see him as just another black and scary man.
