When We Become Men: The Effeminizing and Devolution of the Black Male and Culture in America
Synopsis "When We Become Men: The Effeminizing and Devolution of the Black Male and Culture in America"
This book carefully examines how racism/white supremacy perpetrated towards blacks and other people of color continues to remain the most salient and destructive social issue in American society. Also, the book indicts racism/white supremacy as the primary factor for the cultural and mainstream endeavor of engendering black male passivity, effeminacy, and homosexuality. Currently racism, as far as my analysis, dictates that if black males are going to remain a prominent part of the cultural and social landscape in American society, the less-threatening, tolerable, humorous, and marketable black male must be one who is either gay, is absent of the reproductive process, is dressed in women's clothing for either entertainment purposes or lifestyle choice, or is weakened and emasculated to a point that he is far removed from being deemed as any threat or challenge to a status quo that has and continues to benefit those who represent the dominant culture. This is despite the challenges that many black males in this society continue to have to endure. Thus, the book's title, and subtitle, posit that although institutional racism/white supremacy is still the most destructive factor that affects the lives of black and other non-white people, the difference presently is how the highly scrutinized, marketable, and well-advertised self-destructive behaviors and lifestyle choices of blacks are commensurate with negative perceptions and images-via television, film, and news media outlets-that blacks have in the past sought to eradicate and dismiss rather than embrace and celebrate. The Book theorizes that what is widely perceived as entertainment and norms in black culture are far more sinister when the surface is scratched and all that remains are racial animus and exploitation as essential motives. Therefore, if black debauchery and decadence are on par with current cultural trends more than is black liberation as a direct response to both historical and invariable racist practices, when we become Men attempts to explain how and why with plausible and accurate analyses.
