Désordre Absolu: Proposing Black Iconoclasm

Chapter 3 “Désordre Absolu: Proposing Black Iconoclasm” unpacks Black iconoclasm as a ritual mode of transgression and Black radical discernment by meditating on Frantz Fanon’s claim that decolonization is a “program of complete disorder.” In doing so, this chapter unsettles dominant forms of Fanonism by re-reading his notion of “new humanism” and “tabula rasa.” Across each iteration of Fanonism, this chapter is concerned with the lessons that can be gleaned concerning the ostensible cycle of icons/iconoclasm, white mask/Black skin. Meditating on the Black iconoclasm within Fanonian thought means reading the Black radical excess and the residues of racial icons within each form of Fanonism. Such a meditation performatively demonstrates how Black iconoclasm eschews philosophical certainty and purity. Against readings of Fanon’s tabula rasa as a temporal space of purity yet-to-come, I read tabula rasa as denoting a critical practice of discernment where we are constantly scraping clean the tablet containing established commandments of Black liberation. In this way, Black iconoclasm emphasizes Fanon’s program of complete disorder toward unsettling dominant readings of Fanonism and the relationship between icons/iconoclasm.