Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

Statement to Translate:

"In an era where colonial power had made epidermalizing into a dominant principle of poltical power, Dr. Fanon used the idea of indexing the estrangement from authentic human being in the body and being in the world that colonial social relations had wrought. Epidermalized power violated the human body in its symmetrical, intersubjective, social humanity, in its species being, in its fragile relationship to other fragile bodies and in its connection to the redemptive potential inherent in its own wholesome or perhaps its suffering corporeality, our being towards death."

-Paul Gilroy, "Race Ends Here" page 255.

Definitions of Unfamiliar Words from the Oxford English Dictionary:

epidermal - Adj. Of or pertaining to the epidermis, whether in animals or plants.

epidermis - Noun. Anatomy term. The outer (non-vascular) layer of the skin of animals; the cuticle or scarf-skin.

non-vascular - Adj. Of fibers, tissue, etc.

intersubjective: Philosophical term meaning existing between conscious minds.

corporeality: Noun. The quality or state of being corporeal; bodily form or nature; materiality.

corporeal: Adj. Of the nature of the animal body as opposed to the spirit. Of the nature of matter; material. Physical; bodily; mortal.

My Translation of Gilroy's Quote:

In a period of history in which exploitative dictatorship assigned importance to the color of one's skin, Dr. Frantz Fanon pointed out the alienation people felt toward the way they were perceived in the colonial environment and the way they perceived themselves - which was as genuine human beings regardless of the shade of their skin. The process of applying significance to skin color was damaging to the human body because of the limitations, uniformity, and predictability the concept demanded from delicate, sensitive people living amongst other delicate, sensitive people. The idea that skin color alluded to something meaningful also threatened the human body's connection to the redeeming capabilities it possessed, which are fixed in its own health-preserving or possibly enduring physical form for which death is inevitable anyhow.

Example:

The idea of epidermalization relates to any form of segregation, but the one that emerged in my mind was slavery. The fact that people were split up and auctioned off by white people illustrates the technique of epidermalization at work. The respectability people working as slaves could have felt was replaced by a sense of isolation due to the actions and designations imposed on them by affluent white people.