Black Masculinity In Black Ain T

In Black is… Black Ain’t, the main character use this film to address issues of race, sexuality, racism, and tradition, while dealing with his own personal issue of having AIDS. Many prominent figures in the black community in the past and today have been known to address the matters of other no matter what they have going on personally. In the film, black tradition and black masculinity are two themes that stood out to me the most. Tradition and masculinity were two things in targeting the blacks that were brought over during the slavery time period, which were known to make our ancestors weak.
Big Mama, old men playing checkers, castor iron skillets, and well-seasoned food remind me of growing up back home in the south. When my big mama was in the kitchen you could smell the aroma of the food all throughout the house, this is what black is. I did not get that same feeling when I would visit friends’ homes for dinner that were not black, maybe because of our different culture and traditions in the kitchen. Watching older male figures in my life play checkers down the street with Pop Scandret and others was what I was accustomed to going over my big mamas’ house. That environment is part of what shaped me into the person I
am today.
Songs, family, and tradition are all connected to one another in the life of a black person then and now. While I watched the film it reminded me of growing up young, but also showed how times have changed for being black. I know before my ancestors came over they were pleased with who they were, and did not look at their skin color as a disgrace. Hearing the little girls jump rope and sing “jump back jack, your hands are to black” hurt me a little, because these were song that had to be created by individuals that felt that the white skin color was better. It was engraved in the minds of black people to feel that they weren’t as good as they white person, and they did not know that because their original songs and traditions were taken away.
In the past it was an offense to be called black. I heard a personal testimony from one of my older fraternity brothers at his 80/50-year celebration where he said he got into his first fight in school when someone called him a dirty black African. He went home and told his mother, and she told him he should’ve only been offended that he was called dirty not black and African, because those were two of the thousands of adjectives that described him. In the film, when people of the past would hear black is beautiful and the quote from Malcolm X, “we are a thousand and one colors,” it made them feel good, which is a trend in our society today where we are embracing the black culture. Black women are embracing their natural hair and bodies, because they are seeing that they are beautiful and it looks good.
When I hear the words black masculinity, I don’t automatically think about “dominance, power, control, and strong,” since these are things that the white man tried to take away.
When I picture black masculinity, it’s a man expressing whom he is, i.e. the dancer in the film, something that was taken away in the past. It is a man supporting his family, something that was also taken away in the past. I did not see much of a male figure in the film when Marlon would talk about him family; he talked about his mom and big mama. My father wasn’t there in my early stages of my life, but my god father was my father figure, it seems in many black families at times the mother is the person that deals with the children the most, but that’s not in all
cases.
Throughout history, black men have been looked at as weak, violent, aggressive and had no knowledge of their true identity. Black women are looked at as angry, strong, and unwomanly; a personal issue that I have had to deal with at home with my mothers’ ex-boyfriend feeling that she was that way. Those few stereotypes “ain’t” what black is. To me black is family, tradition, and music, all these things are apart of our true identity that was lost some time ago.