WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.980 OK, let's start with a paradox, a real living, 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:05.339 breathing contradiction that in a lot of ways 00:00:05.339 --> 00:00:08.800 really defines the 20th century. Imagine a man. 00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:11.599 Right. And this man dedicates his entire life 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:14.710 to healing the human mind. He's a doctor. A clinically 00:00:14.710 --> 00:00:17.309 trained psychiatrist, someone who literally took 00:00:17.309 --> 00:00:19.949 an oath to do no harm. Yeah. A man whose entire 00:00:19.949 --> 00:00:22.710 job is to put broken people back together. Exactly. 00:00:23.190 --> 00:00:25.929 But this same man, he looks at the world and 00:00:25.929 --> 00:00:27.870 specifically he's looking at the colonial world 00:00:27.870 --> 00:00:30.570 of the 1950s and he makes a diagnosis. Right. 00:00:30.629 --> 00:00:33.670 And he decides that the political structure itself, 00:00:33.869 --> 00:00:36.109 this whole system of colonization, is a form 00:00:36.109 --> 00:00:38.590 of mental illness. And the prescription he writes 00:00:38.590 --> 00:00:41.259 isn't therapy. No, it's not medication. It's 00:00:41.259 --> 00:00:43.380 revolution. And we're not just talking about, 00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:46.179 you know, peaceful protest. He prescribes violence 00:00:46.179 --> 00:00:49.640 as a necessary, almost a medical treatment for 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:51.920 the soul of the oppressed. It's such a striking 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:53.799 image. Yeah. And it's not just some metaphor 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:56.560 he's using. For Frantz Fanon, the violence wasn't 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:00.409 theoretical. It was... So today we are diving 00:01:00.409 --> 00:01:03.409 deep into the life, the mind, the revolutionary 00:01:03.409 --> 00:01:07.590 fire of Frantz Fanon. And looking at this stack 00:01:07.590 --> 00:01:09.790 of research we have here, I mean, we've got biographies, 00:01:09.790 --> 00:01:12.129 military records, his own psychiatric case notes, 00:01:12.189 --> 00:01:14.329 and of course, his two monumental books. It's 00:01:14.329 --> 00:01:16.109 clear we aren't just talking about a history 00:01:16.109 --> 00:01:18.769 lesson. No, not at all. We're talking about the 00:01:18.769 --> 00:01:21.849 man who basically became the intellectual godfather 00:01:21.849 --> 00:01:25.319 of just about every. major revolutionary movement 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:28.500 from the 1960s onward. Absolutely. You can trace 00:01:28.500 --> 00:01:31.760 a direct line from Fanon's writing to, say, the 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:34.159 Black Panthers in Oakland. Right. Or the anti 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:36.400 -apartheid fighters in South Africa, people like 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:38.780 Steve Biko. To the Iranian revolution and even 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:40.840 to the academic debates on race and identity 00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:43.400 that are happening right now today, he is somehow 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:45.560 the common thread through all of it. He really 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:47.340 is. But the question that just jumps out at me 00:01:47.340 --> 00:01:50.859 from all these sources is, how? I mean, how does 00:01:50.859 --> 00:01:53.159 a comfortable middle -class kid from the Caribbean, 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:56.780 a guy who grew up believing with all his heart 00:01:56.780 --> 00:01:59.219 that he was French, end up becoming the ultimate 00:01:59.219 --> 00:02:01.959 enemy of the French Empire? That is the journey, 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:05.079 isn't it? It's a tragedy in a way, but it's also 00:02:05.079 --> 00:02:07.599 this incredible story of awakening. We're going 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:12.159 to see a man who... tries just desperately to 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:15.379 fit into a box. The box of the good French citizen. 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:17.580 The perfect French citizen. Yeah. And the world 00:02:17.580 --> 00:02:19.840 just keeps smashing that box over and over again. 00:02:20.219 --> 00:02:23.259 So we've got a roadmap for this deep dive. We're 00:02:23.259 --> 00:02:25.180 going to start in Martinique to really understand 00:02:25.180 --> 00:02:28.099 his upbringing. Then we'll look at the trauma 00:02:28.099 --> 00:02:30.360 of World War II, which I think you could argue 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:33.860 is the first huge pivotal moment where that mask 00:02:33.860 --> 00:02:36.800 he talks about starts to slip. For sure. And 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:38.599 then we have to really dig into his psychiatry 00:02:38.599 --> 00:02:41.340 practice. I mean, how he completely revolutionized 00:02:41.340 --> 00:02:43.699 mental health care in North Africa is a story 00:02:43.699 --> 00:02:45.759 in itself. And then finally, the writing of The 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:47.560 Wretched of the Earth. Which he wrote while he 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:50.259 was dying of leukemia. Yeah. And we can't ignore 00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:53.560 the end of his story. His death is, it's shrouded 00:02:53.560 --> 00:02:55.800 in this Cold War mystery and involves the CIA. 00:02:56.039 --> 00:02:57.960 It's a rabbit hole we definitely need to go down. 00:02:58.120 --> 00:03:01.740 Okay, so let's rewind the tape. It's 1925, Fort 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:04.520 -de -France, Martinique. The source material 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:06.960 paints a picture that honestly was a bit surprising 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:09.120 to me. I think a lot of people assume a revolutionary 00:03:09.120 --> 00:03:11.960 leader has to come from, you know, abject poverty, 00:03:12.099 --> 00:03:14.840 from the bottom of the barrel. But Fernand? Not 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:16.780 at all. Fernand was comfortable. He was born 00:03:16.780 --> 00:03:18.800 into the Martinican middle class, what they called 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:21.780 the bourgeoisie de couleur. His father was a 00:03:21.780 --> 00:03:23.780 customs inspector. His mother ran a hardware 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:25.879 shop. They lived in a house where they spoke 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:28.919 French, not Creole. And that distinction, the 00:03:28.919 --> 00:03:31.520 language, that matters immensely in that context. 00:03:31.740 --> 00:03:33.199 Oh, it's everything. It's the dividing line. 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:36.340 In Martinique at that time, speaking proper French 00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:40.259 was a huge status symbol. It separated the civilized 00:03:40.259 --> 00:03:43.819 from the quote unquote primitive. Fanon was raised 00:03:43.819 --> 00:03:46.719 from birth to believe that he was French, not 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:50.139 West Indian, not black, but French. So in school, 00:03:50.219 --> 00:03:52.020 he's learning about the French Alps. The French 00:03:52.020 --> 00:03:54.680 Revolution, our ancestors, the Gauls. Right. 00:03:54.969 --> 00:03:57.189 And the colony was legally a department of France. 00:03:57.289 --> 00:04:00.409 So the middle class, they completely bought into 00:04:00.409 --> 00:04:02.689 this idea of assimilation. They clung to it. 00:04:02.770 --> 00:04:07.009 He attended the Lycée Victor -Chauchat, which 00:04:07.009 --> 00:04:08.669 was the most prestigious school in the entire 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:11.090 island. And when you look at the faculty list 00:04:11.090 --> 00:04:13.069 from that time, there is a name that just junks 00:04:13.069 --> 00:04:16.370 off the page immediately. Aimé Césaire. Yes. 00:04:16.490 --> 00:04:18.610 And this is such a crucial intersection in his 00:04:18.610 --> 00:04:21.870 life. Aimé Césaire was one of his teachers. Césaire 00:04:21.870 --> 00:04:24.089 would go on to become this. massive political 00:04:24.089 --> 00:04:26.910 figure, a poet. But more importantly, he was 00:04:26.910 --> 00:04:28.689 one of the founders of the Negritude movement. 00:04:28.870 --> 00:04:31.009 OK, so for anyone who might not be familiar with 00:04:31.009 --> 00:04:33.050 that term, can we just quickly define Negritude 00:04:33.050 --> 00:04:36.649 in this context? Sure. So Negritude was a literary 00:04:36.649 --> 00:04:39.209 and ideological movement that really started 00:04:39.209 --> 00:04:42.269 in the 1930s in Paris. Yeah. And essentially, 00:04:42.290 --> 00:04:44.550 it was a profound rejection of French cultural 00:04:44.550 --> 00:04:47.480 dominance. It was. Black intellectuals from the 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:49.519 Caribbean and from Africa coming together and 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:51.839 saying, wait a minute, we have our own history, 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:54.680 our own culture, our own soul, and it is valuable. 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:56.899 It was about reclaiming black pride. It was a 00:04:56.899 --> 00:04:59.079 revolution in consciousness. So you have young 00:04:59.079 --> 00:05:01.459 Fanon sitting in a classroom thinking of himself 00:05:01.459 --> 00:05:03.899 as a French citizen through and through. But 00:05:03.899 --> 00:05:05.540 the guy at the front of the room is the one saying. 00:05:06.139 --> 00:05:09.259 Be proud of your African heritage. Reject the 00:05:09.259 --> 00:05:11.620 French ideal. It's got to be planting some seeds. 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:15.680 Seeds, yes. But at 17, Fanon is still a patriot. 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:19.060 He believes in liberte, egalite, fraternite. 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:21.959 He really does. And when World War II breaks 00:05:21.959 --> 00:05:26.480 out, that belief, well, it gets put to the ultimate 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:28.560 test. This is where the story takes a really 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:32.100 dark turn. The Vichy regime. When France falls 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:35.199 to the Nazis in 1940, the colonial government 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:37.459 in Martinique sides with Vichy. So they were 00:05:37.459 --> 00:05:40.040 pro -Nazi collaborators. Yes. And this was the 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:42.600 first profound shock for Fanon. Thousands of 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:44.420 Vichy sailors were stationed in Martinique, and 00:05:44.420 --> 00:05:47.060 suddenly that polite veneer of French republicanism 00:05:47.060 --> 00:05:50.100 just evaporated. These sailors were openly, violently 00:05:50.100 --> 00:05:52.839 racist. Fanon watched as the colonial authorities, 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:55.139 the Frenchmen he was taught to admire, started 00:05:55.139 --> 00:05:56.959 behaving, as he later put it, like authentic 00:05:56.959 --> 00:06:00.230 racists. It's like the mask came off before the 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:03.029 racism was maybe more subtle, more systemic. 00:06:03.250 --> 00:06:06.550 But now you have white men in uniform literally 00:06:06.550 --> 00:06:09.589 pushing black civilians off the sidewalk. Exactly. 00:06:09.930 --> 00:06:12.730 And Fennin's reaction is so telling. He doesn't 00:06:12.730 --> 00:06:14.930 just get angry and, you know, write a poem about 00:06:14.930 --> 00:06:17.189 it. He decides to fight. He escapes the island. 00:06:17.389 --> 00:06:20.649 And the escape story is just wild. He literally 00:06:20.649 --> 00:06:23.170 runs away during his brother's wedding. He does. 00:06:23.389 --> 00:06:25.829 It's the perfect cover. I mean, everyone is distracted, 00:06:26.089 --> 00:06:28.889 celebrating, drinking. And Fennin just slips 00:06:28.889 --> 00:06:31.389 away, gets on a boat to the neighboring island 00:06:31.389 --> 00:06:34.029 of Dominica to join the Free French Forces. He 00:06:34.029 --> 00:06:36.370 wants to fight the Nazis. He wants to save Mother 00:06:36.370 --> 00:06:38.410 France. It's almost heartbreaking in hindsight. 00:06:38.509 --> 00:06:41.670 Yeah. He is risking his life for a country that 00:06:41.670 --> 00:06:44.189 is at that very moment treating his people like 00:06:44.189 --> 00:06:46.949 dirt on his own island. But he believes in the 00:06:46.949 --> 00:06:50.050 ideal of France. He really does. But that belief 00:06:50.050 --> 00:06:52.730 starts to crumble pretty quickly. Yeah. He trains 00:06:52.730 --> 00:06:54.689 in Morocco. And this is where the disillusionment 00:06:54.689 --> 00:06:57.089 really starts to deepen. The Free French Army 00:06:57.089 --> 00:06:59.889 was completely segregated. You had the white 00:06:59.889 --> 00:07:02.149 officers at the top. Then you had the black African 00:07:02.149 --> 00:07:05.269 troops, the Tiroars at the bottom. And then you 00:07:05.269 --> 00:07:07.810 had the West Indians, like Fanon, sort of stuck 00:07:07.810 --> 00:07:10.290 in the middle, considered more civilized than 00:07:10.290 --> 00:07:12.310 the Africans, but certainly not equal to the 00:07:12.310 --> 00:07:13.850 whites. So there's a hierarchy of oppression 00:07:13.850 --> 00:07:16.649 even within the oppressed. Precisely. And then 00:07:16.649 --> 00:07:19.720 he gets to Algeria. And for the first time, he 00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:23.079 sees how the French settlers, the Pied Noir, 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:26.480 treat the local Arab and Berber population. He 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:29.759 witnesses this intense Islamophobia, this intense 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:32.220 anti -Semitism. He's starting to realize that 00:07:32.220 --> 00:07:35.470 the liberators are also oppressors. But he keeps 00:07:35.470 --> 00:07:37.189 fighting. I mean, he fights in the Battle of 00:07:37.189 --> 00:07:40.069 Alsace. He takes shrapnel in the chest near Montbéliard. 00:07:40.170 --> 00:07:42.550 He gets the Croix de Guerre, which is a major 00:07:42.550 --> 00:07:44.949 medal for bravery. He's a war hero. You would 00:07:44.949 --> 00:07:46.990 think at this point he has proven himself. He 00:07:46.990 --> 00:07:49.470 is a hero of the Republic. He bled for France. 00:07:49.769 --> 00:07:51.509 And that is where the ultimate betrayal happens. 00:07:51.610 --> 00:07:54.310 The whitewashing. This is a historical event 00:07:54.310 --> 00:07:57.490 called Blanchement. And it really explains Fanon's 00:07:57.490 --> 00:08:00.319 entire future trajectory. I read about this in 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:01.899 the notes and I just had to pause. It feels like 00:08:01.899 --> 00:08:05.240 such a cold, calculated erasure. It was absolutely 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:07.300 calculated. So you have to picture the scene. 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:10.899 It's late 1944. The Allies are pushing the Nazis 00:08:10.899 --> 00:08:13.379 back. They are about to cross the Rhine into 00:08:13.379 --> 00:08:15.800 Germany. This is the big moment, the symbolic 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:17.939 victory lap. The liberation of Europe. Right. 00:08:18.439 --> 00:08:20.420 And Charles de Gaulle and the Allied command 00:08:20.420 --> 00:08:22.860 decide that the liberating army that marches 00:08:22.860 --> 00:08:26.459 into Germany needs to look. Well, French. And 00:08:26.459 --> 00:08:29.220 by French, they meant white. Explicitly. They 00:08:29.220 --> 00:08:31.819 ordered the Senegalese and Caribbean units, the 00:08:31.819 --> 00:08:33.500 units that had been the tip of the spear that 00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:35.700 had bled all the way across North Africa and 00:08:35.700 --> 00:08:38.480 Italy, to be stripped of their uniforms and equipment. 00:08:38.620 --> 00:08:42.740 No. Yes. And they gave that gear to white recruits, 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:44.799 some of whom were former resistance fighters, 00:08:44.919 --> 00:08:47.399 but many were just fresh volunteers who had barely 00:08:47.399 --> 00:08:50.100 seen combat. They literally replaced the experienced 00:08:50.100 --> 00:08:52.840 black soldiers with inexperienced white soldiers 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:54.980 just for the visuals. Just for the photo op. 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:57.879 They sent Fannin and his comrades south to Toulon, 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.799 away from the action, away from the glory. Fannin 00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:02.940 was sitting in a holding pattern while the white 00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:05.220 troops marched into history. That has to be the 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:07.120 breaking point. The cognitive dissonance just 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:10.019 snaps. It did. We have a letter he wrote to his 00:09:10.019 --> 00:09:12.340 brother, Joby, around this time, and he's just 00:09:12.340 --> 00:09:15.399 devastated. He writes, I've been deceived and 00:09:15.399 --> 00:09:18.940 I am paying for my mistakes. I'm sick of it all. 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:21.460 I've been deceived. I mean, that's the key phrase 00:09:21.460 --> 00:09:24.279 right there. It is. He realizes that to France, 00:09:24.460 --> 00:09:27.220 his body was useful for catching bullets, but 00:09:27.220 --> 00:09:29.919 his face was unacceptable for victory. He realized 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:32.340 that no matter how brave he was, no matter how 00:09:32.340 --> 00:09:35.220 French he spoke, he would never be French in 00:09:35.220 --> 00:09:37.460 the way a white man was French. He was permanently 00:09:37.460 --> 00:09:40.429 other. He was disposable. So the war ends. He 00:09:40.429 --> 00:09:42.909 has his medal. He has his scars. And he has this 00:09:42.909 --> 00:09:46.470 profound disillusionment. He goes back to France, 00:09:46.649 --> 00:09:49.970 specifically to Lyon to study. And he just dives 00:09:49.970 --> 00:09:53.379 into. Everything. Medicine, psychiatry, but also 00:09:53.379 --> 00:09:55.600 literature, theater, and philosophy. This is 00:09:55.600 --> 00:09:57.860 the intellectual incubation period. He's reading 00:09:57.860 --> 00:09:59.899 Hegel, he's reading Marx, and he's attending 00:09:59.899 --> 00:10:02.659 lectures by Maurice Merleau -Ponty. Okay, let's 00:10:02.659 --> 00:10:04.639 stop there, because phenomenology is listed as 00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:07.200 a major influence, and that's a heavy philosophical 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:09.980 term. How do we explain that to someone who hasn't, 00:10:09.980 --> 00:10:12.340 you know, spent four years in a grad school seminar? 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:14.679 Right. Think of phenomenology as the study of 00:10:14.679 --> 00:10:16.379 experience from the first -person perspective. 00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:20.539 It's not just about what exists objectively out 00:10:20.539 --> 00:10:23.019 there in the world. It's about how it feels to 00:10:23.019 --> 00:10:25.820 exist. How do I experience my own body? How do 00:10:25.820 --> 00:10:28.340 I experience the world? How do I experience you 00:10:28.340 --> 00:10:31.519 looking at me? So for Fanon, it's not just an 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:34.720 abstract idea like racism exists. It's what does 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:37.539 it feel like in my gut, in my head, when a white 00:10:37.539 --> 00:10:39.940 person looks at me with fear or disgust? Exactly. 00:10:40.120 --> 00:10:42.940 It gives him the language to describe the internal 00:10:42.940 --> 00:10:45.879 lived experience of racism. And this is what 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:48.039 leads directly to his first book, Black Skin, 00:10:48.100 --> 00:10:50.440 White Masks. Which, and this is a fun fact from 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:52.580 the notes, was originally submitted as his medical 00:10:52.580 --> 00:10:55.539 school dissertation. It was. He submitted a draft 00:10:55.539 --> 00:10:58.320 titled Essay on the Desalination of the Black 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:01.539 and the faculty at the University of Lyon. They 00:11:01.539 --> 00:11:04.419 rejected it. Too radical. Too subjective. They 00:11:04.419 --> 00:11:06.080 basically told him it wasn't scientific enough. 00:11:06.179 --> 00:11:09.179 It broke all the rules. It was mixing psychoanalysis 00:11:09.179 --> 00:11:11.399 with philosophy and personal anecdotes and poetry. 00:11:12.049 --> 00:11:14.590 So he quickly wrote a very boring, very technical 00:11:14.590 --> 00:11:16.990 thesis on a neurological condition just to get 00:11:16.990 --> 00:11:19.509 his degree. Just to check the box. Right. And 00:11:19.509 --> 00:11:21.730 then he took the real work and got it published 00:11:21.730 --> 00:11:24.669 as a book in 1952. So let's get into the meat 00:11:24.669 --> 00:11:27.809 of black skin, white masks. The title itself 00:11:27.809 --> 00:11:30.990 is such a powerful image. This idea that to survive 00:11:30.990 --> 00:11:33.450 in a white world, the black man has to wear a 00:11:33.450 --> 00:11:36.129 white mask. He is analyzing what he calls the 00:11:36.129 --> 00:11:39.899 performance of whiteness. Fanon argues that in 00:11:39.899 --> 00:11:42.659 a colonial society, the default setting for human 00:11:42.659 --> 00:11:46.460 is white. So for a black person to be recognized 00:11:46.460 --> 00:11:49.759 as human, they have to constantly perform to 00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:51.620 distance themselves from their own blackness. 00:11:51.679 --> 00:11:53.720 Right. They have to master the colonizer's language, 00:11:54.059 --> 00:11:56.600 adopt their manners, their values. It's all about 00:11:56.600 --> 00:11:59.210 trying to prove you're an exception. He talks 00:11:59.210 --> 00:12:01.730 about language specifically. He says that when 00:12:01.730 --> 00:12:04.029 a black Caribbean man speaks perfect Parisian 00:12:04.029 --> 00:12:05.990 French, the white Frenchman is shocked. They 00:12:05.990 --> 00:12:08.570 say, oh, you speak so well. Which is such a backhanded 00:12:08.570 --> 00:12:10.330 compliment. It's totally backhanded. Because 00:12:10.330 --> 00:12:12.909 what it implies is, I didn't expect a creature 00:12:12.909 --> 00:12:15.370 like you to be capable of sounding like me. This 00:12:15.370 --> 00:12:17.470 is what Fennan calls the zone of non -being. 00:12:17.610 --> 00:12:19.570 Okay, this is the core concept we need to land. 00:12:19.750 --> 00:12:23.009 The zone of non -being. It's an ontological hell. 00:12:23.210 --> 00:12:25.909 It's a state of being where you are not granted 00:12:25.909 --> 00:12:28.980 full humanity. Fanon argues that a white man 00:12:28.980 --> 00:12:32.100 is just a man. He has the privilege of just existing. 00:12:32.419 --> 00:12:34.940 But a black man is always a black man, first 00:12:34.940 --> 00:12:38.000 and foremost. He is trapped by his skin. He is 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.399 defined by the white gaze. He exists in this 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:42.980 zone where his humanity is constantly up for 00:12:42.980 --> 00:12:45.120 debate. He isn't fully being in the eyes of the 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:48.070 world. There is that famous gut -wrenching anecdote 00:12:48.070 --> 00:12:51.929 in the book, the look a Negro moment. Yes, it's 00:12:51.929 --> 00:12:54.710 devastating. Fanon describes being on a train 00:12:54.710 --> 00:12:57.169 or in a public space, and a little white child 00:12:57.169 --> 00:12:59.330 points at him and screamed to its mother, look 00:12:59.330 --> 00:13:01.830 a Negro, I'm frightened. Wow. And in that moment, 00:13:01.950 --> 00:13:04.090 Fanon says he is shattered. He ceases to be a 00:13:04.090 --> 00:13:06.429 doctor, a war hero, a philosopher. He says, I 00:13:06.429 --> 00:13:08.169 was an object in the midst of other objects. 00:13:08.690 --> 00:13:11.049 He's reduced to nothing but a scary object. He 00:13:11.049 --> 00:13:13.570 is just his skin. And the mask is the lifelong 00:13:13.570 --> 00:13:16.460 attempt to escape that reduction. But Fanon's 00:13:16.460 --> 00:13:18.820 ultimate conclusion is that the mask always fails. 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:21.700 It never works. It never works because the system 00:13:21.700 --> 00:13:24.240 is rigged. No matter how much culture you absorb, 00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:26.220 no matter how perfectly you speak the language, 00:13:26.440 --> 00:13:30.440 the skin remains. The gaze remains. Now, when 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:32.960 he tried to get this published, he sent the manuscript 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:36.139 to an editor named Francis Jensen. And there's 00:13:36.139 --> 00:13:38.580 a story here that I think really shows Fanon's 00:13:38.580 --> 00:13:40.879 personality. He wasn't exactly looking for a 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:43.379 pat on the back. No, not at all. Jensen loved 00:13:43.379 --> 00:13:45.879 the manuscript. He was blown away by it. So he 00:13:45.879 --> 00:13:48.820 calls Fanon into his office to praise it. And 00:13:48.820 --> 00:13:52.039 Fanon, sitting there, he's defensive. He's scarred 00:13:52.039 --> 00:13:54.659 by all these experiences. He just snaps at him. 00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:56.679 He says, not bad for a nigger, is it? Talk about 00:13:56.679 --> 00:13:58.559 testing the waters. He's basically daring the 00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:01.159 guy to be racist. He was waiting for the condescension. 00:14:01.419 --> 00:14:03.679 He assumed Jensen was just another white liberal 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:06.389 who was going to patronize him. But Jensen didn't 00:14:06.389 --> 00:14:09.009 do that. He got angry. He stood up and threw 00:14:09.009 --> 00:14:11.649 Fanon out of his office. He kicked him out. Kicked 00:14:11.649 --> 00:14:14.370 him out. He said something like, how dare you 00:14:14.370 --> 00:14:17.710 speak to me like that? And that reaction, that 00:14:17.710 --> 00:14:20.149 authentic anger, that refusal to play the game, 00:14:20.269 --> 00:14:23.169 convinced Fanon that Jensen was real. They became 00:14:23.169 --> 00:14:25.889 lifelong friends and allies. Real recognizing 00:14:25.889 --> 00:14:29.570 real. Now, we do have to pause here and address 00:14:29.570 --> 00:14:31.539 the critique of this book. We're reading this 00:14:31.539 --> 00:14:34.899 now, but it was written in 1952. And the notes 00:14:34.899 --> 00:14:37.139 highlight some pretty serious issues, especially 00:14:37.139 --> 00:14:39.840 around gender. It's crucial to be honest about 00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:42.240 this. I mean, black skin, white masks is a masterpiece 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:44.840 of race theory, but it's gender politics are. 00:14:45.389 --> 00:14:48.470 They're deeply flawed by today's standards. Fanon 00:14:48.470 --> 00:14:51.429 is often very dismissive of black women. He critiques 00:14:51.429 --> 00:14:53.190 them for wanting to marry white men as a form 00:14:53.190 --> 00:14:55.970 of social climbing. But his analysis of black 00:14:55.970 --> 00:14:58.950 men who desire white women is much more sympathetic 00:14:58.950 --> 00:15:02.570 and complex. And there are passages about homosexuality 00:15:02.570 --> 00:15:06.169 that are, they're rough to read now. Very rough. 00:15:06.330 --> 00:15:08.990 He equates what he calls negrophobia with repressed 00:15:08.990 --> 00:15:11.009 homosexuality in a way that is medically and 00:15:11.009 --> 00:15:13.049 socially offensive by modern standards. He was 00:15:13.049 --> 00:15:14.960 a man of his time. And while he could see the 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:17.360 cage of race with his incredible clarity, he 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:19.580 was still trapped in the cages of sexism and 00:15:19.580 --> 00:15:21.940 homophobia of that era. It's a reminder that 00:15:21.940 --> 00:15:24.700 these thinkers are complex, not saints, but humans 00:15:24.700 --> 00:15:26.659 grappling with their own limitations and blind 00:15:26.659 --> 00:15:28.580 spots. Absolutely. OK, so he's got his medical 00:15:28.580 --> 00:15:30.820 degree. He's got the book published. Now he needs 00:15:30.820 --> 00:15:34.639 a job. And in 1953, he accepts a position as 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:37.500 the chef de service, the chief of staff at the 00:15:37.500 --> 00:15:40.200 Bleda Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in Algeria. 00:15:40.340 --> 00:15:42.360 And this is where the theory just smashes into 00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:44.870 reality. You have to understand what psychiatric 00:15:44.870 --> 00:15:47.870 care was like in the 1950s, especially in a colony. 00:15:47.990 --> 00:15:50.950 It was basically custodial. It was about warehousing 00:15:50.950 --> 00:15:53.690 people. Straight jackets, heavy sedation, grim 00:15:53.690 --> 00:15:56.690 cells. Exactly. And the prevailing theory among 00:15:56.690 --> 00:15:58.750 the French doctors there was famously racist. 00:15:59.029 --> 00:16:01.649 The Algiers School of Psychiatry actually taught 00:16:01.649 --> 00:16:04.710 that North Africans had primitive... underdeveloped 00:16:04.710 --> 00:16:06.690 brains. They literally medicalized their own 00:16:06.690 --> 00:16:08.830 racism. They argued that the nadir was violent 00:16:08.830 --> 00:16:10.990 because his brain stem was more developed than 00:16:10.990 --> 00:16:13.950 his cortex. Shocking, but yes. And Fanon walks 00:16:13.950 --> 00:16:16.190 into this system and says, this is all garbage. 00:16:16.549 --> 00:16:19.490 He starts a revolution inside the hospital walls. 00:16:19.710 --> 00:16:22.330 He introduces what was then a radical idea called 00:16:22.330 --> 00:16:25.250 sociotherapy. What does that actually look like 00:16:25.250 --> 00:16:27.750 in practice? It means treating patients like 00:16:27.750 --> 00:16:30.990 human beings with a culture and a history. He 00:16:30.990 --> 00:16:33.279 unchained them. He got rid of the straitjackets. 00:16:33.299 --> 00:16:36.139 He set up a cafe inside the hospital. He organized 00:16:36.139 --> 00:16:38.580 football matches between wards. He brought in 00:16:38.580 --> 00:16:40.840 traditional Algerian storytellers and musicians. 00:16:41.139 --> 00:16:43.320 He even created a newspaper for the patients 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:45.639 to write in. So he was trying to rebuild the 00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:48.039 community that the asylum and, by extension, 00:16:48.259 --> 00:16:51.559 the entire colonial system had destroyed. He 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:53.379 believed that mental illness wasn't just some 00:16:53.379 --> 00:16:56.700 biological defect. It was social. He argued that 00:16:56.700 --> 00:16:59.000 if you treat a patient with dignity, if you reconnect 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:00.919 them to their culture and their social world, 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:03.399 they start to heal. And it worked. The whole 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:06.000 atmosphere in the hospital transformed. But while 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:09.220 he's creating this little oasis of sanity inside 00:17:09.220 --> 00:17:12.200 the hospital, the world outside is going completely 00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:15.859 insane. November 1954, the Algerian War of Independence 00:17:15.859 --> 00:17:19.240 begins. The FLN, the National Liberation Front, 00:17:19.339 --> 00:17:21.140 launches its first attacks against fresh rule. 00:17:21.579 --> 00:17:24.240 The French army responds with absolutely brutal 00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:27.039 crackdowns, torture, collective punishment, and 00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:29.200 Fanon is caught in the ultimate double life. 00:17:29.420 --> 00:17:31.279 This is the part of the story that feels like 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:33.980 it's straight out of a suspense thriller. He 00:17:33.980 --> 00:17:36.579 is a French government employee running a state 00:17:36.579 --> 00:17:40.789 hospital. But secretly... Secretly, he's part 00:17:40.789 --> 00:17:43.549 of the rebellion. He's treating the FLN fighters. 00:17:43.930 --> 00:17:46.170 They're sneaking into the hospital at night, 00:17:46.250 --> 00:17:48.890 or he's hiding them in the wards, disguised as 00:17:48.890 --> 00:17:51.430 patients or orderlies. He's patching up bullet 00:17:51.430 --> 00:17:53.829 wounds, teaching them how to manage the psychological 00:17:53.829 --> 00:17:57.029 trauma of being hunted. But, and here is the 00:17:57.029 --> 00:18:00.009 core paradox of this period, he's also still 00:18:00.009 --> 00:18:02.369 treating the French police officers and soldiers. 00:18:02.750 --> 00:18:06.390 By day. The French torturers, the police and 00:18:06.390 --> 00:18:08.589 soldiers who were interrogating the FLN suspects, 00:18:08.950 --> 00:18:11.890 are coming to Dr. Fanon for therapy. They are 00:18:11.890 --> 00:18:13.930 traumatized by their own violence. Wait, just 00:18:13.930 --> 00:18:16.670 let's sit with that for a second. He is treating 00:18:16.670 --> 00:18:18.990 the victim of torture and the torturer in the 00:18:18.990 --> 00:18:21.529 same building. Sometimes on the same day. He 00:18:21.529 --> 00:18:23.470 describes a case in his writings where a French 00:18:23.470 --> 00:18:25.690 police inspector come to him complaining that 00:18:25.690 --> 00:18:27.529 he can't sleep because he keeps hearing the screams 00:18:27.529 --> 00:18:29.690 of the men he tortured. And what does the inspector 00:18:29.690 --> 00:18:33.029 want? He wants Fanon to cure him. to make the 00:18:33.029 --> 00:18:35.210 nightmares go away so he can go back to work 00:18:35.210 --> 00:18:37.630 and torture more effectively. That is just sickening. 00:18:37.650 --> 00:18:39.670 And for Fanon, that must have been the moment 00:18:39.670 --> 00:18:42.470 of absolute clarity. You can't cure the inspector. 00:18:42.670 --> 00:18:44.930 The inspector isn't the one who is sick. The 00:18:44.930 --> 00:18:47.950 entire system is sick. That is the profound realization. 00:18:48.609 --> 00:18:51.930 He saw that psychiatry was useless, even fraudulent, 00:18:51.970 --> 00:18:54.210 if the society itself was designed to produce 00:18:54.210 --> 00:18:57.849 trauma. You cannot heal a man's mind if you are 00:18:57.849 --> 00:18:59.690 just going to send him back into a world that 00:18:59.690 --> 00:19:02.470 is fundamentally trying to break him. He realized 00:19:02.470 --> 00:19:04.869 that the colonial system was a pathogen. So he 00:19:04.869 --> 00:19:07.829 has to make a choice. And in 1956, he resigns. 00:19:07.829 --> 00:19:10.069 And he writes this letter to the resident minister 00:19:10.069 --> 00:19:12.769 that is basically a declaration of war. It's 00:19:12.769 --> 00:19:14.509 one of the most powerful resignation letters 00:19:14.509 --> 00:19:16.930 in history. It's just electric. He writes, there 00:19:16.930 --> 00:19:19.269 comes a time when silence becomes dishonesty. 00:19:19.390 --> 00:19:22.730 Silence becomes dishonesty. It gives me chills 00:19:22.730 --> 00:19:25.329 every time I read it. He says he can no longer 00:19:25.329 --> 00:19:28.809 be responsible for sending back to the oppressor 00:19:28.809 --> 00:19:31.809 a man who has been made whole. only for him to 00:19:31.809 --> 00:19:35.630 be broken again. He resigns his post, and the 00:19:35.630 --> 00:19:38.049 French government obviously expels him from Algeria. 00:19:38.299 --> 00:19:40.539 But he doesn't go back to Paris to sip coffee 00:19:40.539 --> 00:19:43.319 in a cafe and write memoirs. He goes to Tunis, 00:19:43.400 --> 00:19:45.700 which had become the headquarters of the rebellion 00:19:45.700 --> 00:19:49.220 in exile. He joins the FLN officially and becomes 00:19:49.220 --> 00:19:51.500 their voice to the world. He becomes a journalist 00:19:51.500 --> 00:19:54.279 for their newspaper, Al Mujahid. But he's not 00:19:54.279 --> 00:19:56.779 just a writer, is he? He becomes a diplomat. 00:19:56.880 --> 00:19:59.980 He serves as the ambassador to Ghana for the 00:19:59.980 --> 00:20:02.420 provisional Algerian government. Yes, he's traveling 00:20:02.420 --> 00:20:06.400 all over Africa, Accra, Addis Ababa, Cairo. He's 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:08.170 meeting with leaders like Kwame. and Nkrumah. 00:20:08.289 --> 00:20:10.470 What was the strategy there? Was he just trying 00:20:10.470 --> 00:20:12.950 to get political support and recognition? It 00:20:12.950 --> 00:20:14.890 was that, but it was also highly logistical. 00:20:15.069 --> 00:20:18.910 He was trying to open a southern front. The French 00:20:18.910 --> 00:20:20.869 Navy had the northern coast of Algeria completely 00:20:20.869 --> 00:20:23.789 locked down. Fanon's idea was to run supply lines 00:20:23.789 --> 00:20:25.990 of weapons and medicine across the Sahara Desert 00:20:25.990 --> 00:20:28.710 from countries like Mali and Ghana into southern 00:20:28.710 --> 00:20:31.769 Algeria. He was trying to unite the African continent 00:20:31.769 --> 00:20:34.289 against imperialism, practically speaking. He 00:20:34.289 --> 00:20:36.809 was. And while he's doing all this, he writes 00:20:36.809 --> 00:20:39.730 another book, A Dying Colonialism. Yeah. And 00:20:39.730 --> 00:20:41.369 there's a section in there that I think is just 00:20:41.369 --> 00:20:43.890 fascinating with the sociology of a revolution. 00:20:44.130 --> 00:20:47.410 He talks about two objects, the veil and the 00:20:47.410 --> 00:20:49.710 radio. This is Fanon the analyst at his best 00:20:49.710 --> 00:20:51.930 looking at how culture changes under pressure. 00:20:52.109 --> 00:20:54.549 Exactly. So take the radio. Before the war, the 00:20:54.549 --> 00:20:56.849 average Algerian peasant didn't own a radio. 00:20:57.089 --> 00:21:00.089 They saw it as the voice of France, this foreign 00:21:00.089 --> 00:21:02.029 object broadcasting in a language they might 00:21:02.029 --> 00:21:05.589 not even speak. But once the FLN started broadcasting 00:21:05.589 --> 00:21:08.450 the voice of fighting Algeria from Tunis... Suddenly, 00:21:08.529 --> 00:21:10.690 everyone needed a radio. It became a lifeline. 00:21:10.789 --> 00:21:13.349 The object itself completely changed meaning. 00:21:13.609 --> 00:21:15.950 It became an instrument of liberation. And he 00:21:15.950 --> 00:21:17.730 does the same analysis with the veil, which is 00:21:17.730 --> 00:21:19.869 such a loaded symbol, especially today. It really 00:21:19.869 --> 00:21:22.809 is. So Fanon analyzed it tactically. The French 00:21:22.809 --> 00:21:25.410 colonizers were obsessed with unveiling Algerian 00:21:25.410 --> 00:21:27.710 women. They would hold these big public ceremonies 00:21:27.710 --> 00:21:29.930 where women would take off their hakes. And the 00:21:29.930 --> 00:21:32.490 French would frame it as liberation. We're saving 00:21:32.490 --> 00:21:35.450 you from your oppressive culture. Exactly. So 00:21:35.450 --> 00:21:38.670 naturally, the Algerians resisted by clinging 00:21:38.670 --> 00:21:41.029 to the veil even tighter. It became a powerful 00:21:41.029 --> 00:21:43.549 symbol of national resistance. But then it flips 00:21:43.549 --> 00:21:46.599 again, doesn't it? It flips again. The FLN realized 00:21:46.599 --> 00:21:48.779 that the French soldiers at checkpoints were 00:21:48.779 --> 00:21:51.099 less suspicious of women who looked westernized. 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:54.119 So female revolutionaries started taking off 00:21:54.119 --> 00:21:56.519 the veil, putting on makeup and European dresses, 00:21:56.599 --> 00:21:59.039 and carrying bombs and messages in their handbags 00:21:59.039 --> 00:22:02.019 right through the checkpoints. Wow. Then later, 00:22:02.099 --> 00:22:04.079 they'd put the veil back on because now the French 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:06.259 were suspicious of the westernized women, and 00:22:06.259 --> 00:22:07.940 they'd hide submachine guns under the flowing 00:22:07.940 --> 00:22:10.859 cloth. Danon shows how the culture was never 00:22:10.859 --> 00:22:13.619 static. It was fluid. It was a weapon of war. 00:22:14.039 --> 00:22:16.640 So decolonizing the mind isn't just some abstract 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:20.019 idea. It's about repurposing the very tools and 00:22:20.019 --> 00:22:22.519 symbols of your own culture to fight back. That's 00:22:22.519 --> 00:22:25.380 it. Exactly. But as he is doing all of this, 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:27.079 I mean, the man is traveling constantly, writing, 00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:29.660 strategizing, running guns. His body is failing 00:22:29.660 --> 00:22:33.900 him. It's 1960. He's just completed this exhausting, 00:22:34.180 --> 00:22:36.779 dangerous trip across the Sahara to try and open 00:22:36.779 --> 00:22:39.859 that southern front. He returns to Tunis completely 00:22:39.859 --> 00:22:42.940 wiped out. losing weight, and he gets the diagnosis. 00:22:43.220 --> 00:22:45.640 It's leukemia. He knows he's dying. He's only 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:48.920 35 years old. And what does he do? He doesn't 00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:51.940 rest. He decides he has one last fight in him. 00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:54.779 He has to write his magnum opus. The wretched 00:22:54.779 --> 00:22:56.960 of the earth. And he didn't even have the physical 00:22:56.960 --> 00:22:59.359 strength to type it. He dictated it. Yes, he 00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:02.589 dictated to his wife, Josie Fannin. He was in 00:23:02.589 --> 00:23:04.809 a race against the clock, pacing the room or 00:23:04.809 --> 00:23:07.329 lying in bed, just pouring out all his final 00:23:07.329 --> 00:23:09.430 thoughts. He wanted to leave a manual for the 00:23:09.430 --> 00:23:12.680 revolution before he died. This book is... Well, 00:23:12.839 --> 00:23:14.940 it's been called the Bible of decolonization, 00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:18.119 but it is also, without a doubt, his most controversial 00:23:18.119 --> 00:23:20.299 work. And that's primarily because of that first 00:23:20.299 --> 00:23:22.220 chapter concerning violence. This is where we 00:23:22.220 --> 00:23:25.259 have to be very precise. Bannon is so often caricatured 00:23:25.259 --> 00:23:27.180 as this, you know, prophet of bloodlust, someone 00:23:27.180 --> 00:23:28.480 who just wanted to kill white people for the 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:30.599 sake of it. And that is a fundamental misreading 00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:32.359 of his argument. He's not celebrating violence. 00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:35.099 He's diagnosing it. He's analyzing it structurally. 00:23:35.400 --> 00:23:38.970 His argument starts from a simple premise. Colonization 00:23:38.970 --> 00:23:42.029 is violence. It is not a polite agreement. Right. 00:23:42.130 --> 00:23:44.430 He says the settler's town and the native's town 00:23:44.430 --> 00:23:46.309 are divided by barracks and police stations. 00:23:46.609 --> 00:23:48.710 The only thing holding the colony together is 00:23:48.710 --> 00:23:51.289 force. The colonizer didn't show up with flowers 00:23:51.289 --> 00:23:53.430 and debate points. He showed up with cannons 00:23:53.430 --> 00:23:57.809 and guns. So for Fanon, the colonial world is 00:23:57.809 --> 00:24:00.750 a world of violence in its natural state. It's 00:24:00.750 --> 00:24:03.460 already violent. So when the native finally fights 00:24:03.460 --> 00:24:06.059 back, it's not the introduction of violence into 00:24:06.059 --> 00:24:08.339 a peaceful situation. It's a response in the 00:24:08.339 --> 00:24:10.700 only language the colonizer has ever used, the 00:24:10.700 --> 00:24:13.660 only one he understands. Exactly. And this is 00:24:13.660 --> 00:24:16.119 where it gets psychological. He compares the 00:24:16.119 --> 00:24:18.559 colonized person to a man who is being held down, 00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:21.940 muscles constantly tense, filled with this repressed 00:24:21.940 --> 00:24:25.420 rage. Violence, for Fanon, is the release of 00:24:25.420 --> 00:24:27.960 that pressure. He calls it a cleansing force. 00:24:28.180 --> 00:24:30.079 That's the phrase that scares people, a cleansing 00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:33.069 force. It's a deeply uncomfortable phrase. But 00:24:33.069 --> 00:24:35.029 what he means is that for the colonized man, 00:24:35.210 --> 00:24:37.569 who has been told for centuries that he is weak, 00:24:37.670 --> 00:24:40.170 that he is stupid, that he is submissive by nature, 00:24:40.470 --> 00:24:43.950 the act of striking the master is a profound 00:24:43.950 --> 00:24:46.630 psychological liberation. It proves to himself 00:24:46.630 --> 00:24:49.170 that the master isn't a god. He's just a man. 00:24:49.390 --> 00:24:52.390 He's mortal. It restores the native self -respect. 00:24:52.730 --> 00:24:56.289 It shatters that zone of non -being. If I can 00:24:56.289 --> 00:24:58.710 hit him, he is human. And if he is human, then 00:24:58.710 --> 00:25:01.599 so am I. But, and this is the part people who 00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:03.960 criticize him often skip, the wretched of the 00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:05.859 earth is not just about fighting the white man. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:08.299 The second half of the book is this desperate, 00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:10.819 passionate warning about what happens after the 00:25:10.819 --> 00:25:14.119 revolution succeeds. This is the concept of neocolonialism. 00:25:14.519 --> 00:25:16.880 and what he calls the national bourgeoisie. And 00:25:16.880 --> 00:25:19.519 this is where Fanon becomes prophetic. Absolutely 00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:21.500 prophetic. He looks at the newly independent 00:25:21.500 --> 00:25:23.900 African nations around him, and he sees a new 00:25:23.900 --> 00:25:26.160 class rising up. It's the local middle class, 00:25:26.359 --> 00:25:28.200 the lawyers, the doctors, the bureaucrats, who 00:25:28.200 --> 00:25:30.640 are educated by the colonizer. And he says they 00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:32.319 just step into the shoes of the white colonizers. 00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:34.619 They move into the governor's mansion, they drive 00:25:34.619 --> 00:25:37.019 the limousines, they wear the suits, but the 00:25:37.019 --> 00:25:40.319 oppressive system stays exactly the same. Fanon 00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:43.480 calls them the national bourgeoisie, and he is 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:46.089 scathing. He says they have no original ideas. 00:25:46.170 --> 00:25:49.089 Their only ambition is to become the business 00:25:49.089 --> 00:25:51.869 agent for the Western powers. They facilitate 00:25:51.869 --> 00:25:53.970 the extraction of their country's resources, 00:25:54.170 --> 00:25:57.069 just like the colonizers did. But now they take 00:25:57.069 --> 00:25:58.950 a cut for themselves. So for the peasant out 00:25:58.950 --> 00:26:01.269 in the village, the flag on the flagpole changes, 00:26:01.390 --> 00:26:04.289 but the poverty remains. The police are still 00:26:04.289 --> 00:26:06.690 brutal, but now the policeman looks like them. 00:26:06.829 --> 00:26:09.910 And Fanon hated this class. He called them lazy. 00:26:10.589 --> 00:26:13.670 and useless. He warned desperately that if the 00:26:13.670 --> 00:26:16.250 revolution didn't truly empower the rural masses, 00:26:16.490 --> 00:26:19.130 the actual wretched of the earth, it would all 00:26:19.130 --> 00:26:21.009 be for nothing. It would just be replacing one 00:26:21.009 --> 00:26:23.509 master with another. Which is depressingly accurate 00:26:23.509 --> 00:26:25.710 for so much of the post -colonial history of 00:26:25.710 --> 00:26:28.049 the 20th century. It is exactly what happened 00:26:28.049 --> 00:26:30.069 in country after country. And that's why the 00:26:30.069 --> 00:26:32.609 book is still read so widely today, not just 00:26:32.609 --> 00:26:34.690 for the part about revolution, but for the part 00:26:34.690 --> 00:26:37.029 that explains what went wrong afterwards. So 00:26:37.029 --> 00:26:39.789 he finishes the book. It's an incredible achievement. 00:26:40.210 --> 00:26:42.930 He even manages to travel to Rome to meet Jean 00:26:42.930 --> 00:26:45.430 -Paul Sartre. Right. And Sartre is so impressed 00:26:45.430 --> 00:26:47.849 he agrees to write the preface, which is a huge 00:26:47.849 --> 00:26:50.529 endorsement. It puts Fanon on the global intellectual 00:26:50.529 --> 00:26:53.920 map overnight. But Fanon himself is fading fast. 00:26:54.160 --> 00:26:56.339 He needs specialized treatment for the leukemia. 00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:59.279 He goes to the Soviet Union first. And they put 00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:02.720 him on some experimental drug that actually induces 00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:05.579 a brief remission. He feels better for a moment. 00:27:05.619 --> 00:27:07.920 He thinks he might have beaten it. But then he 00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:11.240 relapses hard. And his comrades in the FLN tell 00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:13.599 him, look, the best leukemia treatment in the 00:27:13.599 --> 00:27:15.799 world is in the United States. Specifically. 00:27:16.299 --> 00:27:18.660 the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, 00:27:18.660 --> 00:27:21.240 Maryland. This is the twist that just feels like 00:27:21.240 --> 00:27:23.420 it's out of a John le Carre novel. The United 00:27:23.420 --> 00:27:26.380 States, the heart of the capitalist empire he 00:27:26.380 --> 00:27:28.940 despised, is the only place that might save him. 00:27:29.079 --> 00:27:32.019 And who arranges the trip? The CIA. It is just 00:27:32.019 --> 00:27:35.160 bizarre. A CIA agent named Oliver Iceland handled 00:27:35.160 --> 00:27:38.160 the logistics. Finan was flown to the U .S., 00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:40.460 but when he got there... He wasn't admitted immediately 00:27:40.460 --> 00:27:42.460 to the hospital. And there's a huge controversy 00:27:42.460 --> 00:27:44.859 here, right? A massive one. He was kept in a 00:27:44.859 --> 00:27:46.940 hotel room in Washington, D .C. for several days. 00:27:47.220 --> 00:27:49.480 During that time, he developed pneumonia. He 00:27:49.480 --> 00:27:52.880 was weak, freezing and untreated. Some biographers 00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:55.339 and historians like Lewis Gordon note that it 00:27:55.339 --> 00:27:57.660 has become orthodoxy in some circles to suggest 00:27:57.660 --> 00:28:00.859 this was deliberate. That the CIA wanted to debrief 00:28:00.859 --> 00:28:04.519 him or maybe just let him die? Exactly. Others 00:28:04.519 --> 00:28:06.660 argue it was just bureaucratic incompetence that 00:28:06.660 --> 00:28:08.579 they were figuring out logistics. We'll probably 00:28:08.579 --> 00:28:10.900 never know the full truth. But eventually he 00:28:10.900 --> 00:28:13.160 is admitted to the hospital under a fake name. 00:28:13.500 --> 00:28:16.920 Ibrahim Omar Fanon. But by then it was too late. 00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:21.039 He died on December 6, 1961. He was 36 years 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:23.779 old. 36, that is just, it's incredibly young. 00:28:23.900 --> 00:28:26.460 And he died just months before Algeria officially 00:28:26.460 --> 00:28:30.140 won its independence in 1962. He never got to 00:28:30.140 --> 00:28:32.380 see the victory that he gave his life for. His 00:28:32.380 --> 00:28:34.799 body was flown back to Tunisia, and then the 00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:37.420 FLN smuggled him across the border into Algeria. 00:28:37.660 --> 00:28:40.579 He was buried in a martyr's graveyard on Algerian 00:28:40.579 --> 00:28:43.140 soil as he had wished. But if the man died, his 00:28:43.140 --> 00:28:45.839 ideas were just getting started. Let's talk about 00:28:45.839 --> 00:28:48.680 the legacy. Because the wretched of the earth 00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:50.740 hits the shelves right after he dies, and it 00:28:50.740 --> 00:28:53.559 just catches fire. Especially in the United States. 00:28:53.859 --> 00:28:57.359 Oh, you cannot tell the story of the Black Power 00:28:57.359 --> 00:29:00.839 movement in America without Frantz Fennel. It's 00:29:00.839 --> 00:29:03.990 impossible. The notes we have mention that Bobby 00:29:03.990 --> 00:29:05.890 Seale, the chairman of the Black Panther Party, 00:29:06.069 --> 00:29:08.430 specifically brought the book to Huey P. Newton 00:29:08.430 --> 00:29:11.109 when he was in jail. It became their handbook. 00:29:11.289 --> 00:29:14.009 Yeah. The Panthers made it required reading for 00:29:14.009 --> 00:29:16.569 all new members. If you wanted to join the party, 00:29:16.690 --> 00:29:19.029 you had to read Phenom. So how did it shape them? 00:29:19.089 --> 00:29:20.849 Was it just the concerning violence chapter? 00:29:21.170 --> 00:29:23.349 No, I think that's a simplification. It was the 00:29:23.349 --> 00:29:25.950 whole analysis. It was the community part. Look 00:29:25.950 --> 00:29:28.519 at the Panthers' Ten Point Program. They demanded 00:29:28.519 --> 00:29:30.799 an education that taught their true history. 00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:34.779 They demanded an end to the robbery by the white 00:29:34.779 --> 00:29:37.960 capitalists. This is pure Fanon's language. And 00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:39.940 the community programs, like the Free Breakfast 00:29:39.940 --> 00:29:42.259 for Children program, that connects back to Fanon's 00:29:42.259 --> 00:29:45.140 sociotherapy, doesn't it? Absolutely. Fannin 00:29:45.140 --> 00:29:47.200 taught that you have to restore the humanity 00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:49.920 and dignity of the people first, feeding children, 00:29:50.099 --> 00:29:52.440 providing free medical clinics. This was about 00:29:52.440 --> 00:29:54.640 showing the black community that they were worthy 00:29:54.640 --> 00:29:57.460 of care. It was about building that new man that 00:29:57.460 --> 00:29:59.420 Fannin was always talking about. And his influence 00:29:59.420 --> 00:30:01.319 wasn't just in the U .S., Steve Biko in South 00:30:01.319 --> 00:30:04.099 Africa. Biko's black consciousness movement is 00:30:04.099 --> 00:30:07.349 deeply, deeply indebted to Fannin. You know that 00:30:07.349 --> 00:30:09.789 famous Biko quote, the most potent weapon in 00:30:09.789 --> 00:30:11.630 the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the 00:30:11.630 --> 00:30:14.650 oppressed. That is a direct riff on Fanon. Right. 00:30:14.769 --> 00:30:17.369 Biko understood that before you can fight apartheid 00:30:17.369 --> 00:30:19.970 laws on the books, you have to fight the inferiority 00:30:19.970 --> 00:30:22.089 complex that apartheid puts in the black mind. 00:30:22.250 --> 00:30:25.549 And Che Guevara. Che was a fan. He was particularly 00:30:25.549 --> 00:30:28.190 interested in Fanon's theories on the peasantry 00:30:28.190 --> 00:30:31.589 being the true revolutionary class, not the urban 00:30:31.589 --> 00:30:34.509 proletariat like in classical Marxism. Even in 00:30:34.509 --> 00:30:37.829 Iran. An intellectual named Ali Shariati used 00:30:37.829 --> 00:30:40.329 Fanon's ideas to help frame the Islamic revolution. 00:30:40.430 --> 00:30:43.589 The idea of rejecting Western cultural intoxication 00:30:43.589 --> 00:30:47.109 and creating a new authentic man. That is amazing. 00:30:47.349 --> 00:30:50.109 A secular atheist psychiatrist from the Caribbean 00:30:50.109 --> 00:30:53.269 is influencing Islamist revolutionaries in Tehran. 00:30:53.390 --> 00:30:56.430 That just shows you the power and universality 00:30:56.430 --> 00:30:58.849 of his diagnosis of the colonial condition. It 00:30:58.849 --> 00:31:01.630 does. And that legacy continues right up to today. 00:31:02.039 --> 00:31:04.519 In academia, you have a whole field called Afro 00:31:04.519 --> 00:31:07.619 -pessimism thinkers like Frank B. Wilderson III. 00:31:07.880 --> 00:31:11.079 They take Fanon's zone of non -being and they 00:31:11.079 --> 00:31:13.000 argue that it wasn't just a feature of colonialism. 00:31:13.039 --> 00:31:15.799 They argue it's still the basic operating system 00:31:15.799 --> 00:31:18.859 of the world. That civil society itself is structured 00:31:18.859 --> 00:31:22.200 around anti -blackness. So Fanon is not just 00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:24.759 some historical figure. He's a lens for understanding 00:31:24.759 --> 00:31:28.019 our world right now in 2026. He absolutely is. 00:31:28.140 --> 00:31:30.539 And that really brings us to the big so what. 00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:32.140 Why should someone listening to this right now, 00:31:32.220 --> 00:31:33.539 maybe you're driving to work, maybe you're at 00:31:33.539 --> 00:31:35.980 the gym, why should you care about Franz Fanon? 00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:37.819 For me, it brings us right back to the beginning. 00:31:37.859 --> 00:31:41.200 It brings us back to the masks. It does. Fanon 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:43.740 asks us to look at the performances we all put 00:31:43.740 --> 00:31:45.599 on. I mean, we might not be living in a formal 00:31:45.599 --> 00:31:48.039 colony, but we all live in a world of hierarchies, 00:31:48.039 --> 00:31:51.640 economic, racial, social. How often do we code 00:31:51.640 --> 00:31:53.799 switch? How often do you change your voice, your 00:31:53.799 --> 00:31:56.640 clothes, your opinions, just to fit into a zone 00:31:56.640 --> 00:31:59.880 of being that has been defined by someone else? 00:32:00.329 --> 00:32:02.650 And that warning he gave about neocolonialism 00:32:02.650 --> 00:32:05.529 is just haunting. We see it play out every time 00:32:05.529 --> 00:32:08.089 a man of the people gets elected and then proceeds 00:32:08.089 --> 00:32:10.450 to sell out his country to the highest corporate 00:32:10.450 --> 00:32:13.430 bidder. The national bourgeoisie is alive and 00:32:13.430 --> 00:32:16.269 well. And Fanon's ultimate question remains completely 00:32:16.269 --> 00:32:19.650 unanswered. Once you defeat the monster, how 00:32:19.650 --> 00:32:21.470 do you make sure you don't become the monster? 00:32:21.630 --> 00:32:23.150 That is the heavy thought we're going to leave 00:32:23.150 --> 00:32:25.609 you with. On his deathbed, dictating his final 00:32:25.609 --> 00:32:28.170 words, Bannon said this, Let us not pay tribute 00:32:28.170 --> 00:32:30.609 to Europe by creating states, institutions, and 00:32:30.609 --> 00:32:32.829 societies which draw their inspiration from her. 00:32:33.029 --> 00:32:35.569 For Europe, for ourselves, and for humanity, 00:32:35.809 --> 00:32:38.369 comrades, we must turn over a new leaf, we must 00:32:38.369 --> 00:32:40.950 work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a 00:32:40.950 --> 00:32:43.529 new man. He wanted us to invent something new. 00:32:43.630 --> 00:32:46.630 Not to copy the West, not to just react against 00:32:46.630 --> 00:32:49.829 the past, but to create a completely new definition 00:32:49.829 --> 00:32:52.759 of what it means to be human. And looking around 00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:54.819 the world today, I think it's safe to say we 00:32:54.819 --> 00:32:57.140 are all still working on that assignment. We 00:32:57.140 --> 00:32:59.599 definitely are. Thank you for diving deep with 00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:02.660 us into the revolutionary fire of Frantz Fanon. 00:33:03.259 --> 00:33:05.559 It's a heavy topic, for sure, but an essential 00:33:05.559 --> 00:33:07.599 one. It was a pleasure, as always. We'll catch 00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:09.440 you on the next deep dive. Keep thinking.