The Committed (The Sympathizer #2)

by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Césaire’s vision was like Fanon’s in The Wretched of the Earth, where the violence of the colonizer begat the violence of the colonized. Perhaps that was the only way to get rid of the colonizer, but where did it leave the colonized, infected with the parting gift of the colonizer, the venereal disease of hatred? The triumphant among the formerly colonized would turn this hatred of the colonizer into a barely disguised self-hatred for letting themselves be colonized for so long. They would not take out the self-hatred on themselves; they would take it out on the rest of the formerly colonized who were not so violent as the victorious.

While the American capitalist with his generously cut suit and expansive belly enjoyed gorging on the blood of the people, the slim and aristocratic French capitalist represented capitalism’s charming and elegant side. On the one hand, the ugly American, who did not care what he ate so long as he ate too much of it, especially gigantic slabs of still-bleeding red meat. On the other hand, the chic Frenchman, who preferred the refined cruelty of foie gras.

You know what you know. You know what you do not know. But what do you not know that you do not know? And what do you already know that you refuse to know?