'It was hate; I was hated, despised, detested, not by the neighbor across the street or my cousin on my mother's side, but by an entire race. I was up against something unreasoned'. (Fanon 1986: 118). Whilst looking at issues of difference, identity, authenticity and language I will turn to Frantz Fanon's critical work, Black skin White Masks (BSWM) and Eugene Palcy's movie Rue Cases Negres to try and explain the effects of racism and colonization reflected in the black subject's consciousness.

Frantz Fanon, an outstanding contributor to post-colonial studies, observes and criticizes the mistreatment of black people in Martinique and Algeria, countries ruled at that time by French colonizers. BSWM represents Fanon's personal experience of a young black child educated to think like a white person in a white world. Following his encounters with French racism, Fanon felt the need to resist.

In Black Skin White Masks, Fanon defines the colonial relationship as the psychological non-recognition of the subjec

natives and as the movie progresses the friendship between Jose and Leopold is threatened by his own family denying him to have any kind of relationship with black people.

The concept of the westernisation of the world in colonial times is perceived in the movie in the scene where in Leopold's house, a phonograph is playing music from France and all of his house is very well furnished, contrasting with Jose's dirty shack. In addition, we may also turn to Spivak and mention the notion of the subaltern as a women in the scene where the other girl who was chosen to go to study at Fort-de-France is faced with the impossibility to go due to the denial to go study by her father. This clearly portrays the idea of the inability of the subaltern as a woman to speak out for herself.

Whilst turning to Jose's identity, it might have been seen as shaped by the environment that surrounds him. We may think that Jose, like most of his culture will be driven to the depersonalisation of self, the loss of self to non self, the need to gain a sense of the other, a double consciousness. However as a result of Mr. Medouze's teachings, Amantine's support, Leopold's tragedy and all of his encounters, he is able to strengthen his character, resist, and create his own unique identity, becoming an autonomous entity in himself.

The importance education had at that time is clearly seen when Jose is assisting a class and on the black board the teacher had wrote: 'teaching is the key that opens the second door to freedom'. Indeed, education was the key for survival for any black person trying to speak out his thoughts. We can also see that Jose is a very ambitious child since he has the ability and enjoys teaching Carmen how to write. This appears twice in the movie, once on the boat at the beginning of the film and a second time one night while Jose does his homework, he congratulates Carmen who finally managed to write.

Fanon's view on the white culture imposing itself on the black subject can be seen mainly in one of the scenes at the sugar can fields. There, the white boss approaches one of the black workers and speaks to him in a very degrading tone without getting down from his horse. Hence portraying the idea of a false superiority created by the white man, the other imposed by the dominant, the association of 'us' with the white man and 'them' with the black man, a sense of inclusion and exclusion.

Jose, the main character of Rue Cases Negres, grew up in a French colonized country as well and faced very similar conditions to those experienced

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1719
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)