Black Masculinity And The Black Of A Black Boy 's Life

Without structural guidelines to follow, this may lead these individuals to adopt rules that may be more negative than positive. While prevalent within the African- American culture, this is experienced by many adolescent boys in the United States as stated within The Norton Sampler 8th Edition, “Boys live in a world with its own Code of Conduct, a set of values of ruthless, unspoken, and unyielding rules”( Katz 317). However, in American media and culture it is evident that African-American boys encounter more hardships and are more prone to making bad decisions. In order to combat this, implementation of rites of passage would suffice. One important aspect of African rites of passage is explicit guidance. Boys are signaled to begin their transition into manhood by first being separated from childhood roles and sometimes their parents (Baker, “Egbe Akokonrin Rites of Passage”). This activity would be the first step of the program and initiated by an adult who has undergone this rites of passage program previously. Consequently, each African-American boy is administered explicit guidelines and mentors to prepare them for manhood in proper manner. These young boys are encouraged to follow positive role models, consequently establishing a culture centered around positivity.

Recently, the media has caused many stereotypes due to portraying African American males playing feminine roles. This perspective depicts men of color wearing attire outside of the stereotypical sagging pants and oversized t-shirts. It depicts an educated man with social class and sophistication. To date, society holds African American men to rigid stereotypes and a high standard of masculinity. However, once a man of color steps outside societal stereotypes and into the perspective reflected by this new lens, far too often his own race rejects him on the grounds of not molding into the same rigid stereotypes that prevents his growth. Stripping the young man who adopts this new perspective of his ability to identify with his own race,

“Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books.” –Richard Wright, Black Boy. The author suffered and lived through an isolated society, where books were the only option for him to escape the reality of the world. Wright wrote this fictionalized book about his childhood and adulthood to portray the dark and cruel civilization and to illustrate the difficulties that blacks had, living in a world run by whites.

In her article “Gangsta Culture”, bell hooks explains the social calamities and degeneration of social attitude that has occurred as a result of the glamorization of street gangsta culture. Her purpose is to inform us of the detrimental effects of the patriarchal maleness that has plagued black culture with its violence and incarceration driven norm of supremacy. As a Distinguished Professor of English at City College in New York, hooks structures her text in a cause-and-effect procedure, utilizing a general-to-specific organization scheme to establish her claims. She begins with a biographical segment noting on the influence of Dr. King and Malcolm X in gangsta culture and its cultivation into mainstream media, which aligns her claims on gangsta culture serving as the vehicle for patriarchal manhood. Throughout the article, hooks uses repetition of the term “patriarchal” to emphasize that the prominent figures in hip-hop portraying such image are influencing and presenting a false facade for all black males.

Matthew Jones declares that black masculinity is defined in three overarching categories: perception, expectation, and representation (Jones). The stories, Fences, by August Wilson and A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest Gains, the main characters are forced to live with many hardships. Yet only a few of them can declare value of their lives, and redeem themselves, despite these hardships. The stories both of the main characters are unhappy angry men the only difference is that one of the characters progressed while the other stays the same. This paper will compare and contrast them both.

If the benchmarks of hegemonic masculinity highlight everything it takes for a Black man to be a man, “The Moynihan Report, 1965” exposes the Black man for everything he lacks. The benchmarks for hegemonic masculinity that Patricia Hill Collins discuses are eerily connected to the covertly racist allegations of the report. “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action”, also known as “The Moynihan Report,

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes is a documentary created and produced by Bryon Hurt. The documentary challenges the dominant discourses of hyper masculinity and the misogynist treatment of women in commercialized rap. Of the many mainstream phenomenons that are discussed by Bryon in the documentary, the issue of hyper masculinity in Hip Hop is questioned greatly. Throughout the film, the producer was able to show the wide acceptance of hyper masculinity not only in Hip Hop but also American culture as well. He defined America as a hyper masculine and hyper violent nation for the reason that using a gun to defend one’s family became a metaphor for masculinity and a tool for widespread violence. The issue of issue of hyper masculinity can be

In the 1960s, Black masculinity was reshaped by the newly acquired political power of the Civil Rights era. Notions of the ‘good negro’ (or obedient/deferential negro) were purposefully destroyed and replaced with a more defiant/revolutionary representation. The 1960s-70s played a pivotal role in the creation of this aggressive male identity. Specifically, the combination of the media’s portrayal of the antagonistic Black Power Movement, and record crime rates in African American neighborhoods, created feared images of African American men (Milton).”

Manhood is when a boy takes the leap from being a child to a true man. People say that leap happens at different times for every boy. People can tell it happens because they stop acting foolishly and deal with matters by themselves. The four stories The Autobiography of Malcolm X, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”, “The Man Who Killed a Shadow”, and “Almos’ a Man” all deal with African American boys and them becoming true men. The literature of Richard Wright and Malcolm X illustrate how African American males encountered much difficulty in asserting their manhood while living within the racist society of the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Growing up in a city with a lot of crime and illegal activity, it is hard to stay focused on what is important. Morehouse College is one of the top-ranked institutions in the country that focuses on the issue of black masculinity. Notable alumni, including Martin Luther King Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, and Spike Lee once sat in the same chairs and walked the same halls. Morehouse College strives to turn boys into men. Within four years of constant work, some transform and others cannot take the pressure. Even though not all black men abuse and/or look down on women, Black men in today's generation are constantly being stereotyped based upon past situations because not all black men are criminals and not all Caucasian men are preachers.

Popular culture has dictated and reinforced upon society the stereotype that African American men lack any type of higher level education, and are in their majority incarcerated. Among these stereotypes, is the one that says that African American men are not apt father figures, and that they display a tendency to be more-than-likely to walk out on their families. In fact, it is quite the opposite: while 1.7 million African American fathers are not present in their child’s lives, 2.5 million are; out of those 2.5 million, 70.4% bathed, diapered or dressed their children daily, compared to 60% percent of white fathers, and 78.2% fed and ate with their children daily, compared to 73.9% of white fathers (National Health Statistics Reports, pg.12-14).

The article that I will be examines is “Booty call sex, violence, and images of black masculinity” by Patricia Hill Collins. The author has examined the black experience and how the media misrepresents black men; these effects are still felt in the present. Collins was using different forms of media such as sport, film, and historic events. To help the readers to learn where hyper sexuality, violet, and criminal stereotypes of black male come from.

black man fights against, constantly trying to identify himself. At the same time, black men have found approaches to detach from this narrow minded image that society has created for them including; sports, education and family. The black male struggles to gain his own identity because there is already a firm image created for them that the white man visualizes the black male and the expectations of the black male. However, it isn’t just the society that plays a role in the development of the black males identity, there is also the consideration of how black males are brought up or raised in their current lifestyle situations. For example, athletes,

This is more of a personal question, but how do you define masculinity and more specifically black masculinity? What does it mean to you? In our earlier reading for black masculinity, we learned about different definitions of black masculinity through different lens. For example, authors such as Byron Hurt and Kathleen Brown state that black masculinity can be rooted in many from expressionism to violence. With every reading and every discussion in class, I consistently have to return to these questions in order to remind myself what black masculinity should look like and how it is portrayed to be in society. On that same token, do you believe masculinity and black masculinity should be separated as two different concepts.

I must say that writing this paper was an eye-opening experience for me, as it brought me closer to my interviewees—a high school friend of mine, Obinna Akpa and my father Sampson Chukwuzubelu Madu. I was given the opportunity to ask questions on topics that one would not normally ask. These questions touched on Black male masculinities and comparisons were made in order to differentiate how both characters operated through Black manhood. To begin, I will provide a background of both interviewees.