Embodying Resistance: Power as Internal Resistance in Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks

Abstract

Commonplace definitions of resistance define it as specific form of political resistance; as a process in which individuals’ band together in hopes of resisting a particular structure and achieving a common goal – but Fanon differs in this regard. For Fanon, resistance must be a twofold project: before individuals deploy higher-order methods of resistance, such as social and political resistance, he urges us, by way of demonstration, to adopt methods of internal resistance. Therefore, a philosophy of resistance must not only manifest itself in social and political practices; it must also serve as an embodied philosophy that individuals adopt in their everyday lives.
 Thus, my intention here is to investigate notions of power and resistance within Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks. More specifically, I seek to show that in Black Skin, White Masks Fanon’s conceives of those bearing power as having the capacity to resist – a capacity that is derived from within. Power, then, can manifest itself as a form of self-motivated, embodied resistance towards systems and structures that impact an individual’s internal disposition – their beliefs, lenses, and psychological temperament.
 However, in order to develop an account of self-motivated, embodied resistance, we also need to develop the proper philosophical tools that can be used to draw the boundaries between power and dominance, to combat the possibility of false self-motivation, and to provide a working definition of self-motivation, embodiment, and resistance.