At the center of the way, black male selfhood is constructed in white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy is the image of the brute-untamed, uncivilized, unthinking and feeling.
Plantation patriarchy
The most important problem of black male life is patriarchal masculinity but in the mainstream, the only way to advocate for a reshape of black masculinity, is heading towards the notion that all black men need to do to survive is to become better patriarchs.
1. SLAVERY
From autobiographical writings of free and enslaved black men, black males did not see themselves as sharing the same standpoint as white men about the nature of masculinity.
They had to be taught that is was acceptable to use violence to establish patriarchal power
The process of finding its own manhood didn’t go through as the progress for white folks: in freedom enabled by the unslavering process, black folks could become « men ».
Enslaved black were socialized by white folks to believe that they should envy to become patriarchs by seeking attain the freedom they would provide.
> BUT: black men took the domination model exercised by the whites as a standard to become patriarchs > thus lead to them exercising violence on black women.
—> the enshrinement of patriarchal masculinity
The complex thing to understand is that black people who fought for the end of the slavery were against those patriarchal norms endured by the whites. Their will was to invent new forms of lives for themselves and freedom for women.
2. 19TH CENTURY
—> gender equity black leaders were concerned by gender equity
F. DOUGLASS/ DELANEY - the national negro convention (1848) : gender equity is a tool to strengthen the race
B. HOOKS Reconstructing Black Masculinity: acknowledgement of women playing a great role into the abolishment of slavery BUT black folks wanted them to confort into the patriarchal norms as sexist gender norms set by whites which would mean subordination.
> contradictory position from women: they didn’t want to revive the patriarchal domination they went through during slavery BUT at the same time they wanted black men to providers and protectors.
—> eventually lead to tension and misunderstanding from both sides
3. 20TH CENTURY
debate around issues of gender equity as black women becoming part of the working force: while social critics looking at black life continuously affirmed the notion of black men being castrated because black women would be the main breadwinners in the household, they have called attention to the reality of black women giving their earnings to their husbands.
—> control: proven point that they are not emasculated // diversity of gender roles in the black community because some men would turn away from the role set by patriarchal norms.
> civils right gained > acceptation of patriarchy by black people + acknowledgment of contributions of black women no longer necessary > critique of black female by white supremacist institution.
ex: early 20th century US CENSUS BUREAU warning about the nature of black families: African American women were disproportionally abandoned by their husbands or not married but had children > response of E. FRANKLIN FAZER 1939 The Negro Family in the U.S : attention upon the diversity of marital and partnership arrangements in the black community.
—> The imperialist white supremacist institution was the voice of authority who spread this notion that black women had emasculated black men being matriarchs and joining the military force.
> the discourse of emasculation shifted from white supremacy and accountability for black male oppression to blaming black women.
WHAT CAN BE SAID
The intense gender war that is happening since the 19th century is almost destroying the work of the black community as collaborative between men and women + the image of an alternative black male seeking for his own identity creating his own environment with love.
—> this image of black male has to be restored, as an example of revolutionary manhood.
II. Gangsta Culture
1. 60’s/70’s : Capitalism brought a new version of patriarchy
A raisin in the sun by Hansberry: the popular notion of manhood ‘the possession of money and the things it can buy will make him a man in the eyes of his family and society.
—> a struggle between « human values and integrity »
—> a struggle between an older version of patriarchy (the worker as the provider) and a new version (the worker as the cheap laborer) informed by advanced capitalism.
—> work into the mainstream black folks no chance beating the odds BUT money becoming the goal, black men could enter in the game: a shift in class values: money = primary marker of individual success not how > shift in the dynamics of work in black communities.
—> creation of a new class ‘the hustlers who gambles, runs numbers, pushes drugs, lives off women (…) it is dangerous (…) but it has compensation: a modicum of self respect and the respect of a good segment of the community is gained. ’ (Look Out, Whitey, J.LESTER)
2. Professional sports have constituted an alternative work arena for black men
The first location for critical consciousness act the politics of race and black male bodies therefore a work arena to assess patriarchal manhood and make money > today no alternative masculinity rooted in dignity because tainted by the politics of materialist greed
ex: Muhammad Ali exposing patriarchal masculinity as empty pose and posturing: if patriarchal standard for manhood = silent and unemotional - Ali dared to speak out, be bold, express emotions.
—> alternative masculine identity
3. World of music : a site of possibility, alternative masculinity
Jazz and blues culture
4. The gangsta culture
Mass media screens mainstream work as irrelevant - in patriarchal culture mass media has already prepared them to seek themselves in the streets, to find their manhood in the streets, by the time they 6. Propaganda work best when the male mind’s young.
—> few studies link btw black male fascination with gangsta culture and early consumption of unchecked television/movies that glamorize brute patriarchal maleness.
—> a biased imperialist white supremacist patriarchal mass media teaches young blackmailed that the street will be their own home.
—> gangsta culture is the essence of patriarchal masculinity
III. Schooling black males
Black males perceived as lacking intellectual skills
19th- early 20th: education as a way out BUT lack of material resources leading to sending girls to school and push girls to find work. > now most boys from poor and underprivilieged classes socialized via mass media and class-biased education to believe that all is required for their survival survival = the ability to do physical labor. > unteachable
—> curiosity = trouble making
IV. Black male violence
Racist sexist iconography in western culture during the 18th-19th centuries depicted black males as uncivilized brutes without the capacity to feel complex emotions or the ability to experience either fear or remorse.
—> make manhood = domination and control of others
Black Macho and the Myth of Superwoman by Michele Wallace
Kevin Powell - hip hop the most explicit form of mysogyny around today. Hwvr, hip hop was created on the heels of civil rights by impoverished black men and Latinos, who made something out of nothing. But in the making that something out of nothing, many of us men of color have held tightly to white patriarchal notions of manhood - the way to be is to have power
—> nonviolence comes with a love ethic
V. Beyond the sexual acting out
It is always difficult for westerners to remember that places exist in the world where the ongoing obsession with sexuality that characterizes life in Europe and the Americas is simply not present: since sexuality in the West linked to fantasies of domination from its inception (domination of nature/women), African people in the so-called new world were automatically entering a setting where the sexual script was encoded with sadomasochistic rituals of domination, power and play.
20th: formation of segregated communities - freedom to explore their sexuality and identities and redefine it far from the white pornographic gaze.
—> creation of an alternative sexuality rooted in eros and sensual pleasure
BUT: much of the subculture of blackness created in reaction and resistance to the culture whites sought to impose on black folks: since repression on black sexuality - sexual desire expressed with degrees of abandon
—> a form of power that thm only can control
—> Iconography of black sexuality: the player, erotic hero leading this life of endless pleasure masking a reality of suffering = lack of satisfaction /powerlessness
60’s sexual liberation movement allowing black males to establish a public discourse about their sexuality > bragged as being « pussy gangstas » revealing their mysogyny and woman-hating.
A racialized patriarchal script about sexuality - a sexual dezhumanisation because their own awareness often via sexual abuse/emotional abuse.
—> a trauma that the black community is not willing to open a convo for.
« Notion of rites of initiation » - foundation of emotional abuse that prepares black boys for sexual victimization
—> reclaim the body/feelings refusing narratives of domination and submission
