Read on Twitter
The more I’ve been learning about intersectionality the more I’ve really had to grapple with my perceptions of The Black male experience. It’s much more complicated than what I think a lot of people like to believe.
Black men, particularly cishet Black men, have a distinct privilege within our community. They are the faces of our movements and are given a level of respect and deference that no other group in our community has.
But as a Black woman I’ve come realize that for Black men, manhood is not always a privilege for them as they move through the world, especially outside of our community.
Blackness in and of itself is already perceived as hypermasculine and overly aggressive. When you add manhood to the perceived masculinity and threat of Blackness, it galvanizes fear. As a Black woman I can relate to that to an extent, but not fully.
I say all this to say that I think sometimes people oversimplify the relationship between the Black male experience and the Black female and nb experience. It’s not the same dynamic as the one between white men and white women and nb people.
Cishet Black men definitely have privilege,but I think we’re sometimes too quick to assume their manhood is always an advantage for them like it is for white men. Honestly,I think the plight of cishet Black men&women is more equivalent than what Twitter says (still not 100%= tho)
