Racial Objectification in 4 Easy Steps

You want to learn, right? Of course you do, and I’m sure that you want the learning to be easy. Well, look no further because I can teach you how to accomplish something that can be learned in four easy steps! No need to thank me, thank Frantz Fanon’s The Fact of Blackness. Really, they were his ideas.

And here they are folks, your Four Steps to Racial Objectification! (What, were you expecting a whole speech beforehand? This isn’t the Oscars, mind you, but that topic’s for a different day.)

1. The hail: This is when someone calls upon you using your race, and you respond, therefore becoming nothing more than that race . For example: ”Look, a Negro!” The person being hailed here is nothing more than a “Negro” now. You’re off to a good start!
2. Being-for-others: Now this is where you no longer exist as an individual. Remember that label you were given? You are that race, but only in opposition to someone else, usually whites. For example, someone who is hailed as a “Negro” is not just an individual Negro, but a Negro/black in comparison with whites. Got it? You’re halfway there!
3. Third Person Consciousness: You’ll be observing and even objectifying yourself as you become a third person viewer. After being objectified by others, you’ll do it to yourself, and your own actions will seem unnatural to you. I know it’s weird, but you’re almost done!
4. Fixing: This is where the stereotypes and the archetypes come into play, as well as essentialism, in which an individual who is identified a particular way must fit all of the characteristics that are expected. Frantz Fanon brings up that he himself was expected to act like a “nigger” would. Well, at least he, like you, completed all the necessary steps of racial objectification!

Now that you know all the steps of objectification, let’s see it in action. We’ll focus on the fixing, where all the steps of objectification come together. In Americanah, Ifemelu is looking to become a babysitter for a white woman named Kimberly. While Kimberly means well, she does objectify Ifemelu, with phrases such as: “wonderful rich cultures” and “I’m sure back home you ate a lot of wonderful organic food.” Even from the moment Kimberly and Ifemelu meet, Kimberly makes assumptions about Ifemelu’s name, asking whether it means anything and declaring her appreciation for multicultural names for their supposed beauty, as if any culture is richer than another, as though any name is more beautiful because of its culture. She considers all members of the poor to be “wonderful,” as though their lack of material belongings make them better people. To Kimberly, the objectifier, this attitude comes naturally to her. But to the objectified, it simply makes no sense. And it shouldn’t.

A name shouldn’t have to mean anything because of where it comes from. A person doesn’t have to be considered beautiful just because their skin color is different. Just because one member of a group exhibits characteristic A does not mean another member of that group will be the same. The creation of a world of expectations leads to and is a byproduct of objectification, but it does not excuse its existence. Let go of what you think you see, and take the world as it should be: uncensored, unexpected, and unobjectified.