A government or a party gets the people it deserves and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves.
Frantz FanonRead
Introducing someone as a "Negro poet with a University degree" or again, quite simply, the expression, "a great black poet." These ready-made phrases, which seem in a common-sense way to fill a need-or have a hidden subtlety, a permanent rub.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the labeling of individuals by race and education, suggesting it obscures their true identity.
Frantz Fanon addresses the problematic nature of categorizing human beings through simplistic labels such as 'Negro poet' or 'great black poet'. These terms, while seemingly descriptive, reduce complex individuals to mere stereotypes that may carry both overt and subtle implications, overshadowing their unique contributions and identities with societal prejudices.
Themes
IdentityLabelsRacePoetrySociety
In practice
Example use cases
During a literary panel discussion on the representation of race in poetry.
More from Frantz Fanon
All quotes βWhen we revolt itβs not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.
Frantz FanonRead
Certain things need to be said if one is to avoid falsifying the problem.
Frantz FanonRead
I want the world to recognize with me the open door of every consciousness
Frantz FanonRead
The gaze that the colonized subject casts at the colonist's sector is a look of lust, a look of envy. Dreams of possession. Every type of possession; of sitting at the colonist's table and sleeping in his bed, preferably with his wife. The colonized man is an envious man.
Frantz FanonRead
Hate demands existence, and he who hates has to show his hate in appropriate actions and behaviors; in a sense, he has to become hate. That is why the Americans have substituted discrimination for lynching.
Frantz FanonRead
Similar quotes
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty.
Thomas JeffersonRead
The philosopher is not a citizen of any community of ideas, that is what makes him a philosopher.
Ludwig WittgensteinRead
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Max EhrmannRead
America is strong because its journalism is strong. That's how democracies work. They're only as good as the quality of the information that the public possesses. And that is where we come in.
Scott PelleyRead
Our institutions were not devised to bring about uniformity of opinion; if they had we might well abandon hope. It is important to remember, as has well been said, 'the essential characteristic of true liberty is that under its shelter many different types of life and character and opinion and belief can develop unmolested and unobstructed.'
Charles Evans HughesRead
Woe to him who doesn't know how to wear his mask, be he king or pope!
Luigi PirandelloRead