THE STATE AND THE COLONIAL UNCONSCIOUS

[ahmed veri]

Hi 

Peter sent this. I think there will be a better version of it published soon, but i figured i'd pass it onto the list as it speaks directly to our 'current' thematic and takes us from Fanon to Murray

Teaser:

Zapiro and Murray think they’re telling us something about Zuma. No, they’re telling us something about themselves and their audience. They’re displaying the white unconscious, they’re not telling us anything whatsoever about Zuma; they’re enjoying their own unconscious fantasy even if, as they maintain, nothing could be further from their conscious intentions. They maintain they don’t think about blacks in this way – but here it is, the white colonial imago of the black, this just is – no two ways about it – how colonialism represents blacks. They never intended to stage ‘this’ but there it is - its a bit like the racist joke which isn’t consciously planned but which just occurs to one, spontaneously one finds the word in one’s mouth. And here it is, the black man and his penis, rather, the penis and the black man – once again. It’s hard to believe in a way – that they could not see what they were doing while they were doing it – but what this shows is that this really is the white unconscious- they didn’t think about it but this is what they’ve done.