The Price to Freedom - Essay Example

A Way to Freedom Any political system in the world is influenced by the concept of entropy; it engages processes of self-destruction in its internal structure. Colonial societies can be compared with slow bombs that are to explode one day. At some point of colonial existence, colonized and oppressed people realize that they can take their freedom back. The price of this freedom is never cheap. It costs much power, persistence and violence to destroy the oppressive system and cope with its rudiments. Fanon and Freire show that the way to freedom has many obstacles which are connected with the pressure of colonizers together with the feeling of being incapable to change anything experienced by the oppressed. In the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire mentions that freedom cannot be just presented to the oppressed. People have “to struggle to recover their lost humanity” (28). They have to apply force to become free from their oppressors. Liberation, humanization and decolonization are aimed at making all people equal in the conditions when some of them suffer from inequality. Many people do want to be free but they do not know where to start their way. They feel miserable because they perceive themselves miserable. While white people enjoy their privilege, “Black men want to prove to white men, at all costs, the richness of their thought, the equal value of their intellect” (Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks 10). At this point the fight for freedom starts, but it is complicated by psychological and social obstacles the oppressed face on their way. In the Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon states that inferiority complex works well and prevents the majority of people from active actions. He states that increased attention to race motivates the appearance of “massive psychoexistential complex” which supports power division in their community (12). This inferiority complex motivates people to prove authoritative whites that they are the same thinking and talented creatures. They assimilate in order to be appreciated by white people. Most of all they fear to be themselves and to fight for their freedom. Freire defines the fear of freedom as “a fear which may equally lead them [the oppressed] to desire the role of oppressor or bind them to the role of the oppressed” (31). The image of the oppressor as the right one becomes a challenge for all people who are oppressed. They treat oppressive behavior models as the right ones; they fail to protect their interests. People are afraid to be different from the dominating majority; for them, “the new man is themselves become oppressors” (Freire 30). This situation happens because of the way people perceive themselves compared to their oppressor; “Good-Evil, Beauty-Ugliness, White-Black” oppositions determine how people see each other (Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks 186). Obviously, all positive characteristics are given to the oppressor, while all negative ones characterize the oppressed. This rule does not consider other options; if people are not white, they automatically become black. This cult of whiteness as the attribute of power is persuasive enough to make people desire to be white. In many cases, people put the equality sign between whiteness and freedom. Even though the age of political correctness tries to control racism and discrimination, this rule still works. Most people behave as if they are white in order to be integrated in their community. There are many cases in history when colonizers made their colonies assimilate to their culture and language because indigenous cultures and languages were considered to be primitive. If aboriginal people fail to behave like their oppressors, they automatically become primitive, incapable of thinking and uncivilized. Freire and Fanon object the idea of freedom as becoming “white”. Fanon expresses explicitly negative behavior to those people who dream to be “white”. Whiteness is not freedom; it is a way to assimilation and confusion. Behaving as white people is often treated as the proof that the person is civilized enough to be included in the “privileged” group. However, such people do not get any privileges. They have to serve others because they will never escape the oppressive looks of those who do not want them to be. The fact of blackness is not enough to be considered black; it reveals in the relations with other white people. These ideas are reasonable as people who see to assimilate to the dominating group, lose their identity and uniqueness. No social diversity is possible in setting where people are made to be the same. Liberal values support the equality for all; equality by its definition requires assimilation of one group to the other. Equality is a right not to change in order to fit ones community. Equality does not look at the skin color, identity or age. The desire to be equal is the language of freedom. In the Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon says “my freedom drives me out of myself” (135). Identity of any person is whole and unique. People who are ashamed of their identity do not want to be free. People who care about who they are cannot stand oppression. It is humiliating in any form because it considers them to be different and bad. It is especially true for identities formed in terms of blackness. Solely whiteness and blackness are not enough to make people create the relationships of power. There is a whole system of beliefs which supports the inferiority complex of the oppressed. White people are civilized while minorities and wild. White people live in society when black people live in tribes. White people are good and blacks are bad. According to Fanon, “In the collective unconscious, black = ugliness, sin, darkness, immorality. In other words, he is Negro who is immoral” (Black Skin, White Masks 192) All these dichotomies trace the white power point of view and give no chance for people to be themselves and keep to their traditions and beliefs. A way to freedom, as it is stated by Fanon, requires people to destroy two concepts which structure their society. If whiteness is destroyed, blackness disappears either. If white people are not superior, minority groups are not inferior to them. A way to freedom is facilitated by violence which remains the language of power and the most available tool the oppressed can use to state their interests in the community of people who oppress them. Violence and persistence give people a chance to destroy the categories that lead to oppression. Applying violence is a sacrifice for the sake of next generations; at the same time violence is the statement of own value and dignity. As Fanon says, people exist when they speak; “To speak means to be in a position to use a certain syntax, to grasp the morphology of this or that language, but it means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization” (Black Skin, White Masks 17-18). The oppressed speak in two dimensions; they use one language and culture in communication between each other, but they need to assimilate to the culture of the oppressor in they want to be heard by them. Violence and persistence are said to be effective; however, they cannot be treated as the only possible option. Adapted to the discriminating society, the oppressed find it appropriate. The language of silence is never effective for those who want to be free. Freedom presupposes equality, which is impossible when people accept their inferiority compared to other social groups or classes. Diplomacy is the language of intellectual which is not understood by common people. Diplomacy, which is applied in the conditions where violence is the main means of communication, is not effective. On the contrary, practice of violence binds people together while the opposition to this violence “throws them in one way and in one direction” (Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth 93). Individual efforts to cope with oppressing society usually become ineffective. The spirit of freedom is born when people are dehumanized; they develop an intense desire to be vindicated in their community and get more rights. Western societies are individualistic; they lack the unity which is present in the community of the oppressed. Countries which experience real fight got freedom and decolonization develop their consciousness. Fanon lists North Africa, Indonesia and Indo-China as the examples of open struggle between the colonists and the oppressed (The Wretched of the Earth 83). These examples show that people understand violence as the only option to get their freedom and rights. The last challenge to on the way to freedom is the desire to adopt the same behavior as the oppressor. Freire states that even successfully organized revolutions can fail to survive when they win. The explanation becomes simple; people who receive power are tempted by the ability to revenge. By these actions they support the categories which motivated the revolution identified as whiteness and blackness by Fanon. Post-revolutionary period is vital for the creation of new world where inequality is impossible. Freire states that people need to find their way to “life-affirming humanization” and they do not have to stop when they have “enough to it” (55). Fanon and Freire raise a vital question of the price people have to pay for their freedom as well as their sacrifice they make every day being oppressed. It is their dignity and confidence which suffer first. They are expected to accept the position of weakness and inferiority which damages their self-perception and understanding of their community. They exist in their system where their life has a price which tends to be cheap. Such a system dehumanizes people making them objects. When people decide to challenge the system, they support their fighting spirit or the spirit of humanization. Opposition and resistance is painful for all people both physically and psychologically, but it remains the only available tool for the change in their society. At the same time, the disbelief in diplomacy is not properly reasoned by Fanon. Even if people are not well-educated, they are not necessarily under-developed. Representatives of community interests and peaceful activists often make progressive steps in the process of liberalization. Minorities create peaceful organizations with major representative functions to lobby their interests in organized and acceptable way. To conclude, a way to freedom is never easy. People can experience suffering, pain and rejection. They can be humiliated and oppressed, but they agree to pay this high price to be free. A way to freedom dwells on equity as the main concept which manifests that all people are the same. Even if they have some differences in their appearance or culture, they cannot be treated as better and worse people. A way to freedom is driven by values of humanization which meets the demands of all people in self-respect and dignity provided to them. Works Cited Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. Grove press, 1967. Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Vol. 390. Grove Press, 1965. Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The Seabury Press, 1970. Read More