In every society, in every collectivity, exists - must exist - a channel, an outlet through which the forces accumulated in the form of aggression can be released. This is the purpose of games in childrens institutions, of psychodramas in group therapy, and, in a more general way, of illustrated magazines for children - each type of society, of course, requiring its own specific type of catharsis. The Tarzan stories, the sagas of twelve-year-old explorers, the adventures of Mickey Mouse, and all those comic books serve actually as a release for collective aggression. The magazines are put together by white men for little white men. This is the heart of the problem. In the same magazines the Wolf, the Devil, the Evil Spirit, the Bad Man, the Savage are always symbolized by Negroes or Indians; since their is always identification with the victor, the little Negro, quite as easily as the little white boy, becomes an explorer, an adventurer, a missionary who faces the danger of being eaten by the wicked Negroes. I shall be told that this is hardly important; but only because those who say it have not given much thought to the role of magazines - Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, pp.145-146.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 12:03:05 +0000
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