Blackness

While reading “Diseased Race and Racialized Disease” by Alankaar Sharma, the section on black masculinity intrigued me. I wondered what defines black masculinity today from an African American point of view. What helped me understand black masculinity and “blackness” in general was an article in Time magazine that I read over the weekend.  The article was about the need to deconstruct conventions and be irreverent about blackness. To be more specific about the irreverent aspect, “Black irony is about people using blackness as a text to comment on and perhaps critique or reconfigure it. It’s about challenging and rejecting the notion of a hegemonic blackness” (77). We see examples of this in the Chappelle Show, in Tropic Thunder when Robert Downey Jr. plays an African American Platoon Sergeant, Nicki Minaj, and Token from South Park. One example that Time used was NBA star, Kevin Durant who promotes “nerd” as a style. Doing so deconstructs the black male imperative to always be masculine, tough and cool (77). For me whenever I think of a black male my age, I picture a guy wearing Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones over his backwards baseball cap, listening to rap music and wearing the latest Nike’s. I thought about this when I purchased Rapper Kid Cudi’s new album. Kid Cudi declares his new album a rock album. When I watched a video of Cudi performing one of his songs on Conan O’Brien it was weird watching a black drummer and keyboardist provide music for Cudi’s lyrics. Kid Cudi helps to deconstruct the stereotype that all black musicians are rappers. It is interesting to learn that modern blackness is breaking barriers and becoming complex. It is about being independently black and moving away from coherent black thought/power. It is about learning to move on from the dark past that many African Americans ancestors endured—at the same time still respecting and acknowledging that past. I will never know what it is like to be black, but if I want to become a better person it is necessary for me to change my views of black masculinity as it is necessary for African Americans to change their views of black masculinity. Such radical thinking would weaken the racial divide which is still visible today.

Toure. “Black Irony.” Time Magazine 12^th March 2012: 76-77. Print.

Domalski, Josh