I came across this thread while ago, and I just rolled my eyes and ignored it. Take a look at the featured image. What thoughts cross your mind? This is the 21st century so hopefully your thoughts were something along the lines of “who cares that a group of twenty something year old males decided to rock some PINK hoodies”? Yesterday night, during my nightly pre-bed twitter scroll through ritual, I came across this picture again. I thought it was another “blue/white dress” craze or 22 Savage trying really hard to stay relevant and garner attention. Instead of the progressive mindset of why is this even news, I came across a feed twenty light years long of people arguing whether or not these guys were “gay” or if this was “socially acceptable” for black males. One guy went so far as to say:
@TheMelaninPlug Why do SO many Black women want to see us as Black men effeminate? There’s a thin line between acceptance and perpetuation.
— Jaron Taylor (@JTaylor8_) October 14, 2016
Black culture, generally, forces this hyper-masculine mentality on Black males. If you aren’t aggressive, athletic, or a stereotypical “guy” then you’re somehow less of a man. This mentality has always been a point of contention in the black community. We have the likes of Frank Ocean and Young Thug (we currently have beef with Young Thug, but that’s a topic for another article) challenging the norms of the black community.
They are forcing us to rethink what it means to be a “man” thus prompting us to address the ideals of hyper-masculinity and its intersection with homophobia that is so prevalent in the black community.
Why does Frank Ocean being gay make you think that by somehow listening to his music hoards of young black men are going to turn gay? Why does Young Thug wearing a dress bother you so much and make you think he’s any less of a man?
What really perplexes me is the fact that our society has molded our malleable minds into thinking that the clothes you wear somehow forms the cornerstone of who you are as a person. The responses to this tweet were heartbreaking because this perpetuation that black men have to be “tough” or “emotionless” or they are somehow less than a man is not true and is harming our black men. We’re bringing up a generation of black boys that aren’t allowed to show emotion or have empathy for fear of being called “soft” or a much more harmful “f-word”. We’re basically denying the masculinity of these teens because of the color of their jackets or the fact that they’re from a “girl’s” store?
What do you think this culture of hyper-masculinity does to the confidence of black guys? Their own people are degrading them because of the fabric that covers their skin or, in the case of Frank Ocean, because of their romantic preferences. Then they have the American society based on systematic racism also degrading them and telling them that their existence is a societal threat?
How do we expect black men to find that confidence and go on to be leaders in this world if they can’t turn anywhere without getting emasculated for any action that doesn’t conform to the hyper-masculinity that they’ve been indoctrinated with?
Clothes, literally aren’t that deep. Yes, the clothes you wear can show your personality to some degree, but they do not denote a person’s masculinity (or lack thereof). They don’t represent the outward display of the inward chemical and neurological workings of the being wearing the clothes. They literally are just pieces of cloth sewn together in a sweatshop and sold for a value inflated to 300% of the cost to make it.
We as a black community need to do better. How can we protest against societal hatred towards black individuals when we degrade people in our community because of the clothes they wear or even who they want to love? My favorite response was the one below:
@TheMelaninPlug masculinity needs to be defined as how well a man take care of his family and responsibilities.
— Yo I’m Donè (@donaldofficiall) October 14, 2016
The clothes someone wears or who they want to love should, as a black community, be the least of our worries. These things don’t concern anyone but that individual. We can’t expect people to embrace us, if we can’t embrace ourselves. We let petty things form fraction within our community, but now, more than ever, we need to seal those cracks and unify. Being black is beautiful and powerful, and no one has the power to tell another black individual otherwise.
