Final Thoughts

As I finished the last page of T. Morrison's Playing in the Dark, I could not help but return to Fanon's Black Skin White Masks. Like Fanon and Sartre, Morrison's book was an existentialist text (in my opinion) and a critique of the ways in which the Africanist presence in the classic American literary texts have constructed and represented whiteness but through the portrayal of the African (non-white). While Fanon and Sartre, have eloquently argued this in response to the history of colonialism and racism. Morrison pushes the reader to rethink the ways in which the American literary canon has in fact through the negation of the Africanist as other constructed whiteness. 

One of the arguments that raised my eyebrows pertains to the ways the writers of young America engaged, imagined, and created the images of the Africanist presence and persona. It was clear to Morrison that the images of blackness were perceived as evil and protective, rebellious and forgiving, fearful and desirable--"all of the self-contradictory features of the self (59)." While whiteness, alone, is meaningless, frozen, static, veiled, implacable. Here I think of Fanon's view of this Manichean world where the negation of the Black is dependent on the construction of whiteness.

This little book provided a deep analysis on the Africanist presence in the fiction of these young authors who are considered the literary authorities and also representative of American literature. I agree with Morrison they have much to tell us about race relations and social & political thought in the U.S. We can apply her argument to more than just American literature. This argument can extend to other disciplines, film, media, and other American institutions not mentioned here.