It is no secret that there is some odd energy between black male homosexuals and black cishet hetero-men. For the most part, hip-hop is a genre of music that is heavily misogynistic. We can all agree that hip-hop is a creation spawned by black culture. It wouldn’t be far fetched to say that there is a large influence of hip-hop in the urban and poor sections of black America. Modern black masculinity therefore is commonly associated with Hip-Hop. To understand the toxic relationship of black alpha-male men and black homosexuals in present-day, you must recognize the ideology of hip-hop and its role creating the modern black masculinity concept.
Many black homosexuals have a negative relationship with alpha or cishet men from the African diaspora. This is usually a result of being ostracized, assaulted, or teased during high school for being feminine in voice, gait, disposition, and so forth. In response, many young men in these situations resorted to befriending young black women. The young black woman represented sort of a maternal protector from many of these cishet alpha black men during conflict, some even willing to fight for the closeted (gay) friend. Socially these black women were mirrored images of their mothers, or sisters. Many gay black men tend to be closer to black women in friendship, in comparison to hetero-black men.
During this symbolic metaphorical sisterhood, the gay male would recognize the shortcomings and failures of many of his black female friends failed relationships. In short, it was usually the fault of hetero-black men. His play-sisters would almost always complain about the same issues many strong single black mothers would gripe about: “This nigga ain’t shit, He don’t wanna pay child support, He doesn’t respect me, He don’t take care of his kids, He trifling, He stay going in and out of jail, He can’t never get his shit together”
With this in mind, the gay black man acknowledges these flaws as a fluid characteristic that is inseparable from black masculinity. This pattern of behavior demonstrated from cishet black men starting from childhood up into adulthood is problematic. Black masculinity as a whole, if not beta, is seen as toxic.
From a straight black male or cishet perspective, protecting your image and masculinity is necessary at all costs. Never let anyone violate your manhood, because in the end, all you have is your word and your balls. If you let another man emasculate you publicly, that is reason for violence to ensue. The worst insult that another cishet black man could hear is anything questioning his sexuality. Insults such as: “Nigga, you’s a bitch, you are a fag, you pussy…”
In hip-hop, his favorite artists taught him that ideology, directly or indirectly, and these lyrics have shaped his views on life. His entourage of brothers relate to these hip-hop artists and the way he feels. His circle “don’t hang with no gay dudes”, and his squad will not be taken lightly because of that.
Another avenue of masculinity is taught the traditional route. Being effeminate in any way is cause for scolding by men who are in the family tree. These could be uncles, cousins, brothers or fathers who see weakness or vulnerability in a male relative. For example, one child decides that he won’t fight back a local bully at school. Being soft, or not seeking retaliation for this physical assault, is cause for reprimanding. The older male relative when catching wind of the situation will usually respond aggressively like “Son, if you don’t go back and find that boy that did this to you, and kick his ass, I’m gonna kick your ass! We are Jackson (last name) men, we don’t play that shit!” 😠
In weekly Sunday mass, he also is confronted by a religious leader who condemns homosexuality as a ticket to hell. To be a gay man, would be akin to suffer a punishment worst than death itself: an abomination to God. To believe in Christ, in the formal sense, is to denounce these “acts” as immoral.
In short, the alpha black man has been taught conventional masculinity. The homosexual black man has been shunned from all areas of black manhood. The gay man matures into adulthood with a caustic relationship towards alpha black men. The collective assaults and taunting during adolescence, boils to a head in adulthood. This is why I suspect many homosexual men are tightly bound to LGBTQ issues over race issues. The black homosexual men who are about racial discrimination, also conflate homosexual prejudice into the equation. “We can’t talk about white supremacy, unless we confront the bigotry of homophobia in the black community. They are ALL connected!”. Herein lies the reason for black feminists, who also may be (gay) lesbian and face similar quagmires in the black community, or black women who have been mistreated by black men, to confront alpha black masculinity as well as the fight against racism. This ideology is called “intersectionality”.
From these frustrations, the #BlackLivesMatter group arises and gets funded to become a digital revolution. By reading the #blacklivesmatter mission statement, it is apparent that this group is not solely a movement for hetero cishet black men.
The #blacklivesmatter movement can be seen as anti-alpha black male. They are against traditional black marriage, and look to re-affirm queerness as true pro-blackness, not “toxic” black masculinity.
The real reason behind this movement is white feminism, and racist gay whites who don’t wish to associate homosexuality or feminism with minority struggles. Michael Sam, the first openly gay player to be drafted by the NFL, came out earlier this year in an interview, and spoke out against racism in the lgbt community. White feminism has always been mum on racially charged issues, often writing pieces on HUFFINGTON POST that have always been centered on sexism and politics. Many cishet black men have been the scapegoat of society. We are America’s largest problem, for some reason. We are the enemies of white men, white women, black men, and black women. The only safe haven of black manhood is in the barbershop. To be alpha male in this current environment, is to risk being labeled sexist or ignorant about the black woman’s struggle, or insensitive to the plight of homosexual black men.
I don’t deny the ignorance and toxic environment of cishet black masculinity. There is a lot of misconceptions of homosexuality, most notable is that it considered a choice. “You can’t be born gay! What kinda shit is that?!” or “I don’t agree with that lifestyle my nigga, I’m straight.”
I don’t think we are born straight or gay. We honestly are just born and grow attracted to whomever we are attracted to. I happened to always have an affinity for females. My cousin who is an open gay man, has always been feminine. Most boys will grow up and like girls, but some boys just won’t. I played with teenage mutant ninja turtles and wrestling figures as a kid, some boys will play with dolls. It’s against my belief because I don’t feel like kids should be sexualized too young. A child’s mind is very impressionable at an early age. They aren’t fully capable of understanding sexuality at such a young age. A young boy may only wish to play with dolls because he is curious about a woman’s anatomy. A liberalized adult may interpret their son wanting to play with dolls the same way they would if a friend decided to reveal himself coming out of the closet. They may go into buying a child a dress and heels before he or she knows their abc’s. Give a child time to grow and decide what their identity is before convincing them its okay to be gay at 4 or 6 years old.
Here are a few examples:
I do believe that there is an agenda to make black men more docile. The new generation after me, are definitely part of a more feminine culture. The jeans young black men wear are so tight that their women’s clothes look baggy. Young Thug, a popular rapper, recently made history by breaking gender norms, wearing a dress on his album cover, despite incessantly flaunting guns and claiming heterosexuality. He constantly calls his homeboys ‘bae’ and uses homosexual behavior to confuse the masses and spread confusion among fans, which only promotes his name and music via gossip. This serves as free promotion to him, because nowadays money trumps integrity.
In my humble opinion, there is no reason to have any animosity towards homosexual men. Number one, I got love for them if they are black, and secondly we need to assimilate against the bigger issue, which is white supremacy. There is no enemy or issue bigger than that. If you don’t realize that first and foremost, than we can’t agree on anything else.
Eddie Star Blog 