Submitted by Denzel Duncan on Friday, 10/14/2011, at 1:30 PM

Assimilation- Suzanne Césaire, in “A Civilizations Discontent,” discusses the Martiniquan as someone who has failed in the world because they are not recognizing their true nature. She goes on to say that he lives a life that is not his own. This continues through her examination that, as a collective group, coloureds suffer from a massive phenomenon of self-deceit known as “pseudomorphosis.” This self-deceit partially stemmed from the fact that most white laws were setup to oppose black assimilation with whites. Thus, as a result, many coloureds began to think that they needed to assimilate because it was the key to liberation. Suzanne Césaire instead clarifies that the idea of assimilation for blacks is a misconception that sets them back. Instead, the self-deceit that she associates with assimilation has yielded repression, suffering and sterility in the current Caribbean.

Quotes:

“We can see how the essential goal for coloured people became, from that moment, assimilation. And in consequence a disastrous confusion takes effect in their mind with extraordinary force: liberation equals assimilation.

“Let us remember that above all else the slave regime forbade the assimilation of the black to the white.

“The Martiniquan has failed because, not recognizing his true nature, he tries to live a life that is not his own. This is a massive phenomenon of collective self-deceit, of “pseudomorphosis.” And the current state of civilization in the Caribbean shows us the consequences of this error. Repression, suffering, sterility.”