Their Bible is Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth.5 This black psychiatrist from Martinique, who went to Algeria to work with the National Liberation Front in its fight against the French, argues in his book—a well-written book, incidentally, with many penetrating insights—that violence is a psychologically healthy and tactically sound method for the oppressed. And so, realizing that they are a part of that vast company of the “wretched of the earth,” these young American Negroes, who are predominantly involved in the Black Power movement, often quote Fanon’s belief that violence is the
...more
