THE "FACT OF BLACKNESS" DOES NOT EXIST: AN EVOCATIVE CRITICISM OF RESISTANCE RHETORIC IN ACADEMIC POLICY DEBATE AND ITS (MIS)USE OF FRANTZ FANON'S BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASKS

Scholars of black/white social relations often cite Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks for its psychological analysis of the "Fact of Blackness." Attributing this supposed facticity to a fundamental mistranslation of the original French text, this thesis explores the implications of scholar's adherence to Fanon within elements of resistance rhetoric. Moreover, through evocative criticism, this thesis examines Black Skin, White Masks as a phenomenological text whose findings establish communication as a first step to dismantling forms of language that reify social alienation. Alongside rhetorical theories of disalienation, voice, and authentic communication, this thesis applies Fanon's thought to popular understandings of resistance in the academic policy debate community as forwarded by Dr. Shanara Reid-Brinkley. In doing so, it challenges her conception of whiteness, black aesthetic performance, and signifyin(g) as antithetical to Fanon's goal for communication. While examples of resistance rhetoric demonstrated by Reid-Brinkley have achieved increasing competitive success in spaces of policy debate, it remains to be seen these strategies can escape the suffocating reification brought about by our collective adherence to the inhuman voices of the past.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Bankey, Brendon Herbert

• disalienation

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/39020

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/39020