Page 167 - BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASK

128 BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASKS

Over three or four years I questioned some 500 members of the
white race—French, German, English, Italian. I took advantage of
a certain air of trust, of relaxation; in each instance I waited until
my subject no longer hesitated to talk to me quite openly—that
is, until he was sure that he would not offend me. Or else, in the
midst of associational tests, I inserted the word Negro among
some twenty others. Almost 60 per cent of the replies took this
form:
Negro brought forth biology, penis, strong, athletic, potent,
boxer, Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Senegalese troops, savage, animal,
devil, sin.
Senegalese soldier, used as the stimulus, evoked dreadful,
bloody, tough, strong.
It is interesting to note that one in fi fty reacted to the word Negro
with Nazi or SS; when one knows the emotional meaning of the SS
image, one recognizes that the difference from the other answers is
negligible. Let me add that some Europeans helped me by giving
the test to their acquaintances: In such cases the proportion went
up notably. From this result one must acknowledge the effect of
my being a Negro: Unconsciously there was a certain reticence.
The Negro symbolizes the biological. First of all, he enters
puberty at the age of nine and is a father at the age of ten; he is
hot-blooded, and his blood is strong; he is tough. As a white man
remarked to me not long ago, with a certain bitterness: “You all
have strong constitutions.” What a beautiful race—look at the
Senegalese. . . . Weren’t they called our Black Devils during the
war? . . . But they must be brutal. . . I just can’t see them putting
those big hands of theirs on my shoulders. I shudder at the mere
thought of it. . . . Well aware that in certain cases one must
interpret by opposites, I understand this extra-fragile woman:
At bottom what she wants most is to have the powerful Negro
bruise her frail shoulders. Sartre says that when one speaks the
phrase “a young Jewess,” there is an imaginary reek of rape
and pillage. . . . Conversely, we might say that the expression
“a handsome Negro” contains a “possible” allusion to similar
phenomena. I have always been struck by the speed with which
“handsome young Negro” turns into “young colt” or “stallion.”

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