I just finished reading this book called We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity by feminist author bell hooks. It was a fascinating read and an insight to a concept that is not my own despite how I felt before.
Being a Black male (with multiracial heritage obviously) my eyes were opened by reading a book on Black Masculinity. It touched two of my identities, my target identity, being Black, and the agent, being male. As a result of reading We Real Cool I have reexamined what it means to be a Black male in the contemporary early 21st century. Most of my ideas, and other Black males as well, of masculinity are not our own, but rather influenced by a largely White racist, sexist, and capitalistic society. Black masculinity has never been our own since the time of slavery. Aspects of masculinity that are not our own include being violent, sexist, and patriarchal. As a result of this, we add to our oppression and aid a racist society in their effort to subjugate us.
Perhaps the most important thing I can share about We Real Cool is how I perpetuate oppression to members of the opposite sex. I add to oppression as a cisgender male because I benefit from male privilege, which puts down cisgender and transgender females. However as a Black Male I add to the oppression of females and my own. I do not allow myself to exhibit and display certain emotions that are conceived as feminine. I seek to gain power through profit at any and all costs.
Over the past few weeks I have critically examined the music I have listened to: Hip-Hop. Mainstream Hip-Hop music, despite its evolution over the past decade, is largely sexist due to its sexual objectification of women and its misogynist lyrics. I have been listening to Hip-Hop and Rap Music for as long as I can remember and I did not truly grasp the extent of the misogyny until I went to a Snoop Dogg concert at Occidental College. Before and after the concert, I realized how uncomfortable some women felt about Snoop's appearance. Many of the lyrics are sexist towards females, yet that is a prevailing attitude deep in my subconscious thoughts because I have been exposed to them for so long. However, I will be clear when I say this, I do not personally blame Snoop Dogg for rapping such attitudes towards women; instead I want to examine why he has such ideals.
Black men have been taught by our racist society that in order to be "men" we must have domination and control over our women and children. These ideals were not evident in the cultures of which we came from originally. In most cultures from Africa prior to colonization, women and men had equal control over the households. Unfortunately, we lost most of our culture as a result of being stolen from Africa and brought over to America. Whoever we were prior to slavery was erased and wiped from history, which the White Man controls. Henceforth, during and after slavery we have been taught largely Eurocentric models of masculinity and patriarchy, which is harmful to females.
The most important thing I want for people, especially young Black males like myself, after reading this blog post is this: as a Black person I lack power in racial relations even as a male. Our masculinity has been constructed by a sexist, racist, and capitalist society and thus we are still slaves especially when we hurt ourselves and Black females. We have to shift our values as Black men in an effort to help ourselves truly be free.
