Title

Fanonian Slips: The Rhetorical Function & Field of the White Mask.

Authors

Athanasopoulos, Charles

Abstract

This essay theorizes Fanonian slips as way of describing the misfires that may occur in rhetorical gestures aimed at soothing moments of racial tension. Fanonian slips further articulate how those misfires accidentally reveal broader processes by which various individuals mobilize "Black skin" and "white masks" as guiding posts for establishing order within the interpersonal, the political, and the internal. Accordingly, the essay analyzes an eclectic mix of artifacts including the rhetoric of Atlanta rapper Killer Mike, U.S. President Barack Obama, and two auto-ethnographic accounts, to demonstrate that these slips are pervasive within, and endemic to, Western communication.

Subjects

ATLANTA (Ga.); OBAMA, Barack, 1961-; RHETORIC; RAP musicians; PSYCHOANALYSIS

Publication

Western Journal of Communication, 2023, Vol 87, Issue 3, p471

ISSN

1057-0314

Publication type

Academic Journal

DOI

10.1080/10570314.2022.2131461