In Fanon's analysis, epidermalization is the process by which colonial power inscribes racial inferiority directly onto the body, making skin colour a visible marker of subordination rather than a natural biological fact.

In Fanon's analysis, lactification refers to the colonized person's unconscious drive to whiten oneself, whether through interracial relationships, the adoption of European language and culture, or other forms of proximity to whiteness. It is not simply personal preference but a symptom of the colonial inferiority complex, an attempt to escape the stigma of Blackness by assimilating into the dominant racial order.

Fanon describes the colonial social order as a Manichaean world, a rigidly binary system divided into two irreconcilable zones of colonizer and colonized with no middle ground between them. Drawing on the ancient dualist religion of Manichaeism, Fanon argues this stark division structures every aspect of colonial life, from economics and law to selfhood and moral value.

Negritude is a literary and intellectual movement founded by Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sénghor, and others that reclaimed and celebrated Black African identity, culture, and values in direct opposition to the dehumanizing logic of French colonialism. The movement sought to reverse colonial denigration by affirming blackness as a source of pride, creativity, and shared humanity.

Racialized identity refers to the process by which colonial power structures impose racial categories onto colonized peoples, constructing identities defined primarily by skin colour and perceived racial difference.