sit through the heartbreak of cries when their slaves’ wives and children were being sold just a few feet from their eyes. It meant that they would internalize whatever they felt, and learn to “deal with it”, even when their insides were burning from agony, torture, and pure pain.
And to think, we’ve somehow adopted this mentality and made it our own, even after it held such a huge negative stigma.
Our very own oppression is tied to hypermasculinity and we’ve decided to carry this around in our pockets and purses and praise it to be true, without worry or disregard. It wasn’t until slaves began to rebel against their owners that the world started to view black men’s strength as a weapon.
Now, they were suddenly viewed as dangerous beings. We see this today with how the police handle our black men, with so much aggression and force compared to our white counterparts. To them, a black man’s strength wasn’t the only thing that made them dangerous, but it was their lack of emotion as well.
And this is something we want to agree with?
We must show society that this is not our black man’s narrative. They should not be defined by their strength, or ability to repress their emotions. So we must start to teach the opposite.
It is okay for our black boys to cry without fear of being called gay. It’s okay for our black boys to