A government or a party gets the people it deserves and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves.
Anti-Semitism hits me on the head: I am enraged, I am bled white by an appalling battle, I am deprived of the possibility of being man. I cannot disassociate myself from the future that is proposed for my brother.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses deep anger and despair over anti-Semitism and a shared future with others affected by it.
Frantz Fanon articulates the profound impact of anti-Semitism on his identity and humanity. He conveys a sense of rage and helplessness, indicating that such discrimination not only harms individuals but also strips away their potential for a dignified existence. Moreover, he emphasizes the interconnectedness of human experiences, stating that his future is inextricably linked to that of others who suffer similar fates. This reflects a broader human struggle against oppression and signifies the need for solidarity in the face of injustice.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on social justice, you could use this quote to highlight the emotional impact of discrimination.
More from Frantz Fanon
All quotes →When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.
Certain things need to be said if one is to avoid falsifying the problem.
I want the world to recognize with me the open door of every consciousness
The gaze that the colonized subject casts at the colonist's sector is a look of lust, a look of envy. Dreams of possession. Every type of possession; of sitting at the colonist's table and sleeping in his bed, preferably with his wife. The colonized man is an envious man.
Hate demands existence, and he who hates has to show his hate in appropriate actions and behaviors; in a sense, he has to become hate. That is why the Americans have substituted discrimination for lynching.
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The greatest mistake a person can make is to be afraid of making one.
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Probably, the nature of homophobia will never be widely interrogated, while we will continue to be excluded from school curricula, subjected to vicious media distortions, or entirely ignored, denied basic civil rights while our demands are ridiculed and derided. But in the midst of all this only one thing has changed for certain. We have changed. We will never go back into the closet.
First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.