tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/african-american-men-29415/articlesAfrican American men – The Conversation2020-09-21T18:57:12Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1453592020-09-21T18:57:12Z2020-09-21T18:57:12ZWhy Chadwick Boseman is more of a hero than Hollywood’s Black Panther<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357961/original/file-20200914-24-hy9eqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C84%2C4699%2C3142&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man photographs a mural of late actor Chadwick Boseman's character T'Challa (Black Panther) from the 2018 film 'Black Panther,' on Sept. 8, 2020, in Los Angeles. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The public condolences offered for Chadwick Boseman, such as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/08/chadwick-boseman/615868/">David Sims’ piece in <em>The Atlantic</em>, frequently refer to the actor as “heroic</a>.” </p>
<p>For many, Boseman crafted his personal life with the same regal comportment he used when playing the role of T’Challa, the beloved king-cum-chief-warrior and Black Panther.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘Black Panther.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>To illustrate their mirrored qualities, consider that both Boseman and Boseman’s T’Challa are not only <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/02/why-fashion-is-key-to-understanding-the-world-of-black-panther/553157/">well-dressed</a> but distinctly <a href="https://www.prestigeonline.com/th/people-events/people/chadwick-boseman-fashion/">fashionable</a>. </p>
<p>Both not only <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZwDQ2r5bf8">command international audiences</a> with their rhetorical skills, but offer speeches that are <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/sag-awards-chadwick-boseman-black-panther-acceptance-speech-goosebumps">inspiring</a>. And when both faced imminent death, they did so with uncommon bravery and grace: T’Challa in a ritual battle for Wakanda’s throne when his nemesis-cousin Erik Killmonger throws him over a cliff, vis-à-vis Boseman, as he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/08/28/chadwick-boseman-dies-after-cancer-battle/">battled colon cancer</a>.</p>
<p>But, if truth be told, Boseman’s everyday valour exceeds the heroism depicted in <em>Black Panther</em>, because Boseman’s heroism emanates from an ethical understanding of Black humanity. The same can’t be unequivocally said for Hollywood’s film, particularly in how it relied on stereotypes to both exalt a hero and demonize a villain.</p>
<h2>Enactments of Black manhood</h2>
<p>Indeed, Boseman displayed remarkable enactments of Black manhood in his personal life — enactments that honour, respect and buttress a kaleidoscope of other Black masculinities. </p>
<p>To put it another way, Boseman’s real-life Black masculine performance exceeds the gallantry of Hollywood’s attempt at a Black superhero. Representations of various other <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-hollywoods-alien-and-predator-movies-reinforce-anti-black-racism-127088">Black masculinities are either absent from or vilified within fictions emanating from Hollywood</a>; these movie portrayals are what inform perceptions of Black men.</p>
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<span class="caption">Actor Chadwick Boseman poses for a photo before the start of the NBA All-Star basketball game, February 2018, in Los Angeles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)</span></span>
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<p>Compare, for example, the masculinity of T’challa with that of <a href="https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Erik_Killmonger">Erik Killmonger</a> (portrayed by Michael B. Jordan). He is a former United States Navy SEAL and veritable modern-day Black <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/the-truth-about-viking-berserkers/">berserker</a>.</p>
<p>Killmonger offers a brand of African American manhood that calls to mind many racist stereotypes used to create and justify fear of Black men. However, Killmonger challenges these stale stereotypes with his unapologetic <a href="https://theconversation.com/it-dont-be-like-that-now-the-english-history-of-african-american-english-129611">use of African American English</a> and his exceptionally rugged swagger.</p>
<p>To illustrate, Killmonger delivers a strong denunciation — dripping with Black English and masculinity — when he defeats T’Challa: <a href="https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/black-panther-killmonger-meme/">“Is this your king?” he asks loudly</a>. “Huh? … He’s supposed to protect you! To lead Wakanda into the future! Nah, I’m your king!”</p>
<h2>Villainizing urban Black masculinity</h2>
<p>Making urban Black masculinity the extreme antagonist, the object of scorn, is too easy, perhaps expected. This is where, to my mind, <em>Black Panther</em> as a film fails in depicting Black manhood.</p>
<p>The logic of the movie renders Killmonger’s urban masculinity anomalous, deviant; for there is no other Wakandan that shares Killmonger’s masculine characteristics, displaying his same language, demeanor and style. Killmonger’s urban atypicality makes him seem more villainous. </p>
<p>What’s more, Killmonger is pitted against the other male figures because his actions are viewed as despicable, fuelled by desperate hopes to be Wakandan, the nation’s king and to root out injustice against Blacks all over the world by creating tyranny with Wakandan technology.</p>
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<img alt="Characters Killmonger and Black Panther face each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The character Killmonger’s urban Black masculinity is depicted as deviant, and he’s pitted against the other male figures because his actions are viewed as despicable. Here, Killmonger (Michael T. Jordan) faces T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Disney/Marvel Studios)</span></span>
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<p>The practice of negatively comparing African American men to their African brothers, with the effort to devalue the African American, is not <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/woke/#:%7E:text=Woke%20means%20being%20conscious%20of,as%20being%20%22with%20it.%22">lost on the “woke”</a> consumer. </p>
<p>There are long-standing distinctions amplified in cultural practices or sentiments that pit one kind of acceptable brown or Black person against another type that’s despised. During legal segregation in America (circa 1896 to 1954) Africans and other dark-hued men were not subject to the same level of discrimination and racism in America as their African American brothers: As I have previously argued, <a href="https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/bourgeois-boojie">in order to benefit from the rights guaranteed them as citizens and to be treated fairly, some dark-skinned African Americans passed, ironically, as dark-skinned <em>non-citizens</em></a>. These individuals, of course, also had to disassociate themselves from other American Blacks. </p>
<h2>Despising the Black underclass</h2>
<p>Booker T. Washington provides examples of this circumstance in his critical 1901 memoir <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2376/2376-h/2376-h.htm"><em>Up From Slavery</em></a>. Washington reports that an angry white mob set to hang an African from Morocco because the Moroccan was lodging at a racially exclusive hotel. The man escaped the lynching by speaking Arabic and proving he was not an American-born Black man. </p>
<p>Distinctions of pitting one kind of “acceptable” brown or Black person against another did not end with desegregation. Currently it’s the Black urban underclass that’s despised.</p>
<p>Thus, notwithstanding the pyrotechnics within the Hollywood blockbuster, Black Panther is a rather flat hero, even if he is also the kind Hollywood audiences want to love. The character is flat and probably beloved because he fully participates in the mundane narrative that urban Black masculinities are in need of saving, and their saviours are either white or romanticized African or both, as depicted in the movie.</p>
<h2>Boseman advanced real stories</h2>
<p>Where Black Panther fails, however, on Black masculinities, Boseman himself prevails. Boseman did not pit and privilege one type of masculine performance against and over another. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/08/29/chadwick-boseman-praised-student-protesters-2018-commencement-speech-howard-university-watch-video/">In his 2018 commencement address at Howard University</a>, Boseman recalls playing an urban “young man in his formative years with a violent streak pulled into the allure of gang involvement.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Chadwick Boseman’s Howard University 2018 commencement address.</span></figcaption>
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<p>But Boseman asked the producers for more about the character’s background. He says: “That’s somebody’s real story. Never judge the characters you play. That’s what we were always taught.… [B]ut I was conflicted because this role seemed to be wrapped up in assumptions about us as Black folk.” Boseman <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chadwick-boseman-fired-tv-show-question-black-stereotypes-2018-5">was fired for asking questions about the humanity of his character</a>, his agents telling him there was now a stigma and he was seen as “difficult.”</p>
<p>And who could forget Boseman giving away the MTV award he received for his role in <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4282816/chadwick-boseman-waffle-house-hero-james-shaw-jr-mtv-awards/">Black Panther to James Shaw Jr., a Black man who took down a shooter at a Waffle House</a>. Boseman said, “Receiving an award for playing a superhero is amazing, but it’s even greater to acknowledge the heroes that we have in real life.”</p>
<p>For me, the lesson of Boseman’s legacy isn’t how similar he was to Black Panther the superhero, but rather how much better he was than T'Challa of Hollywood, especially in creating positive space for other black masculinities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145359/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vershawn Ashanti Young does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Unlike the Hollywood hero he portrayed, Boseman created space for a kaleidoscope of Black masculinities and challenged the narrative that urban Black men are in need of saving.Vershawn Ashanti Young, Professor, Department of Drama and Speech Communication, University of WaterlooLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/830232017-09-27T00:56:17Z2017-09-27T00:56:17ZWhat it’s like to be gay and in a gang<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187455/original/file-20170925-21172-1gjqald.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some gay gang members are open about their sexuality, but others remain in the closet, fearing they could endanger themselves or the status of their gang. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://static.pexels.com/photos/331391/pexels-photo-331391.jpeg">Devin/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are many stereotypes of and assumptions about <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=street+gangster&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJlZCw2MHWAhUP02MKHV8tBRgQ_AUICigB&biw=1212&bih=747">street gangs</a>, just as there are many stereotypes and assumptions about <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=gay+man&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSvfv42MHWAhVG6WMKHfkFAPYQ_AUICigB&biw=1212&bih=747">gay men</a>. Pretty much none of those stereotypes overlap. </p>
<p>In movies and television, some of the most recognizable gay characters have been <a href="https://myhyperreality.com/2014/09/23/the-rejection-of-jack-mcfarland-the-perception-and-identity-of-gay-men-in-media/">portrayed as effeminate or weak</a>; they’re “fashionistas” or “gay best friends.” Street gang members, on the other hand, are often depicted as hypermasculine, heterosexual and tough. </p>
<p>This obvious contradiction was one of the main reasons I was drawn to the subject of gay gang members. </p>
<p>For my book “<a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9781479870028/">The Gang’s All Queer</a>,” I interviewed and spent time with 48 gay or bisexual male gang members. All were between the ages of 18 and 28; the majority were men of color; and all lived in or near Columbus, Ohio, which has been <a href="http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/hello-columbus/?mcubz=0">referred to</a> as a “Midwestern gay mecca.” </p>
<p>The experience, which took place over the course of more than two years, allowed me to explore the tensions they felt between gang life and gay manhood. </p>
<p>Some of the gang members were in gangs made up of primarily gay, lesbian or bisexual people. Others were the only gay man (or one of a few) in an otherwise “straight” gang. Then there were what I call “hybrid” gangs, which featured a mix of straight, gay, lesbian and bisexual members, but with straight people still in the majority. Most of these gangs were primarily male.</p>
<p>Because even the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10612-013-9227-y">idea</a> of a gay man being in a gang flies in the face of conventional thought, the gang members I spoke with had to constantly resist or subvert a range of stereotypes and expectations.</p>
<h2>Getting in by being out</h2>
<p>Male spaces can be difficult for women to enter, whether it’s <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/women-in-the-boardroom_n_7714318.html">boardrooms</a>, <a href="http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/women-us-congress-2017">legislative bodies</a> or <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/28/sports/patriots-and-3-players-fined-in-olson-incident.html">locker rooms</a>.</p>
<p>How could I – a white, middle-class woman with no prior gang involvement – gain access to these gangs in the first place? </p>
<p>It helped that the initial group of men whom I spoke to knew me from years earlier, when we became friends at a drop-in center for LGBTQ youth. They vouched for me to their friends. I was openly gay – part of the “family,” as some of them put it – and because I was a student conducting research for a book, they were confident that I stood a better chance of accurately representing them than any “straight novelist” or journalist. </p>
<p>But I also suspect that my own masculine presentation allowed them to feel more at ease; I speak directly, have very short hair and usually leave the house in plaid, slacks and Adidas shoes.</p>
<p>While my race and gender did make for some awkward interactions (some folks we encountered assumed I was a police officer or a business owner), with time I gained their trust, started getting introduced to more members and began to learn about how each type of gang presented its own set of challenges.</p>
<h2>Pressure to act the part</h2>
<p>The gay men in straight gangs I spoke with knew precisely what was expected of them: be willing to fight with rival gangs, demonstrate toughness, date or have sex with women and be financially independent. </p>
<p>Being effeminate was a nonstarter; they were all careful to present a uniformly masculine persona, lest they lose status and respect. Likewise, coming out was a huge risk. Being openly gay could threaten their status as well as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/nyregion/09bias.html">their safety</a>. Only a handful of them came out to their traditional gangs, and this sometimes resulted in serious consequences, such as being “bled out” of the gang (forced out through a fight).</p>
<p>Despite the dangers, some wanted to come out. But a number of fears held them back. Would their fellow gang members start to distrust them? What if the other members got preoccupied about being sexually approached? Would the status of the gang be compromised, with other gangs seeing them as “soft” for having openly gay guys in it? </p>
<p>So most stayed in the closet, continuing to project heterosexuality, while discreetly meeting other gay men in underground gay scenes or over the internet. </p>
<p>As one man told me, he was glad cellphones had been invented because he could keep his private sexual life with men just that: private. </p>
<p>One particularly striking story came from a member of a straight gang who made a date for sex over the internet, only to discover that it was two fellow gang members who had arranged the date with him. He hadn’t known the others were gay, and they didn’t know about him, either. </p>
<h2>Becoming ‘known’</h2>
<p>In “hybrid” gangs (those with a sizable minority of gay, lesbian or bisexual people) or all-gay gangs, the men I interviewed were held to many of the same standards. But they had more flexibility. </p>
<p>In the hybrid gangs, members felt far more comfortable coming out than those in purely straight gangs. In their words, they were able to be “the real me.” </p>
<p>Men in gay gangs were expected to be able to build a public reputation as a gay man – what they called becoming “known.” Being “known” means you’re able to achieve many masculine ideals – making money, being taken seriously, gaining status, looking good – but as an openly gay man. </p>
<p>It was also more acceptable for them to project femininity, whether it was making flamboyant gestures, using effeminate mannerisms, or wearing certain styles of clothing, like skinny jeans. </p>
<p>They were still in a gang. This meant they needed to clash with rival gay crews, so they valued toughness and fighting prowess. </p>
<p>Men in gay gangs especially expressed genuine and heartfelt connections to their fellow gang members. They didn’t just think of them as associates. These were their friends, their <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/press-releases/gay-bisexual-men-rely-on-chosen-families-more-than-lesbians-bisexual-women-for-major-needs-study-shows/">chosen families</a> – their pillars of emotional support. </p>
<h2>Confronting contradictions</h2>
<p>But sometimes these gang members would vacillate about certain expectations.</p>
<p>They questioned if being tough or eager to fight constituted what it should mean to be a man. Although they viewed these norms with a critical eye, across the board they tended to prefer having “masculine” men as sexual partners or friends. Some would also patrol each other’s masculinity, insulting other gay men who were flamboyant or feminine. </p>
<p>Caught between not wanting themselves or others to be pressured to act masculine all the time, but also not wanting to be read as visibly gay or weak (which could invite challenges), resistance to being seen as a “punk” or a pushover was critical. </p>
<p>It all seemed to come from a desire to upend damaging cultural stereotypes of gay men as weak, of black men as “deadbeats” and offenders, and of gang members as violent thugs. </p>
<p>But this created its own tricky terrain. In order to not be financial deadbeats, they resorted to sometimes selling drugs or sex; in order to not be seen as weak, they sometimes fought back, perhaps getting hurt in the process. Their social worlds and definitions of acceptable identity were constantly changing and being challenged. </p>
<h2>Fighting back</h2>
<p>One of the most compelling findings of my study was what happened when these gay gang members were derisively called “fag” or “faggot” by straight men in bars, on buses, in schools or on the streets. Many responded with their fists. </p>
<p>Some fought back even if they weren’t openly gay. Sure, the slur was explicitly meant to attack their masculinity and sexuality in ways they didn’t appreciate. But it was important to them to be able to construct an identity as a man who wasn’t going to be messed with – a man who also happened to be gay.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-9188-0_7/fulltext.html">Their responses</a> were revealing: “I will fight you like I’m straight”; “I’m gonna show you what this faggot can do.” They were also willing to defend others derided as “fags” in public, even though this could signal that they were gay themselves. </p>
<p>These comebacks challenge many of the assumptions made about gay men – that they lack nerve, that they’re unwilling to physically fight. </p>
<p>It also communicated a belief that was clearly nonnegotiable: a fundamental right to not be bothered simply for being gay.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83023/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanessa R. Panfil does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A sociologist spent two years interviewing gay gang members. While some were in the closet and others were openly gay, all were forced to reckon with an environment of hypermasculinity.Vanessa R. Panfil, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Old Dominion UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/714552017-02-08T04:24:12Z2017-02-08T04:24:12ZHow Obama’s presidential campaign changed how Americans view black candidates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155997/original/image-20170208-9113-p3590h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Barack Obama at a campaign stop in 2007.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Nati Harnik</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The relationship between black presidential candidates and potential voters is more complex than it is for their white opponents. My <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/historic-firsts-9780199314188?q=evelyn%20simien&lang=en&cc=us">research</a> on historic “firsts” shows that white voters tend to ascribe characteristics to black candidates that place them at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>That’s why Barack Obama’s presidency became synonymous with an end goal of the civil rights movement and a source of pride for so many Americans. His campaign experience, like that of predecessors Shirley Chisholm and Jesse Jackson, suggests something about the extent to which African-Americans have gained acceptance as legitimate political actors.</p>
<p>Obama more easily mobilized white voters because he was less interested in challenging “the system,” and more ideologically liberal than his predecessors. He also adapted to the political environment, recognizing key voting constituencies. Obama pulled together the type of coalition that Chisholm and Jackson had aspired to lead, composed of college students, hard-core progressives, organized labor and independents.</p>
<p>His candidacy and victory continue to be celebrated as historic achievements to this day.</p>
<h2>Undeniably black</h2>
<p>Presidential <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/jesse-jackson-1984_b_4793293.html">campaigns</a> launched by Shirley Chisholm in 1972 and Jesse Jackson in 1984 were aimed at forging interracial alliances. However, each of these candidates failed to build a coalition of historically marginalized groups. Instead, their <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?325324-2/1972-shirley-chisholm-presidential-campaign-announcement">rhetoric</a> primarily appealed to African-American voters in locales where they comprised a majority, or near majority, of the population.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Jackson speaking at a rally during his 1984 run for president.</span></figcaption>
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<p>As a result, they drew limited support from white voters. For example, by large margins, white voters <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/13/us/jackson-share-of-votes-by-whites-triples-in-88.html">viewed Jackson</a> as less knowledgeable, less fair, less likely to care about people like them and more prejudiced than his white opponents Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis.</p>
<p>Like Chisholm and Jackson, Obama’s candidacy in 2008 aroused fears, resentments and prejudices. </p>
<p>He was falsely accused of being a Muslim. Stereotypes were <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/13/yikes-controversial-emnew_n_112429.html">reinvented</a> and popular images reanimated and parodied in blogs, email, tweets and other social media outlets. T-shirts were printed with an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/feb/18/new-york-post-cartoon-race">image</a> of Curious George, a monkey from a well-known children’s book, inscribed with the words “Obama ’08,” comparing African-Americans to apes.</p>
<p>The Tea Party Movement, a conservative wing of the Republican Party, also <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/tea+party+obama/">orchestrated</a> a number of attacks on Obama’s patriotism, religious beliefs and citizenship status through protest rallies and social media. Obama’s racial iden tity and other personal traits remained a matter of public debate long after the general election.</p>
<p>Like his predecessors, Obama was perceived as <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/22326360/ns/politics/t/mccain-assails-obama-lack-experience/#.WJkqFG8rKUk">lacking</a> leadership <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-01-16-obama-experience-cover_x.htm">experience</a>. He was viewed as less competent, less knowledgeable of foreign affairs and more concerned with racial issues like affirmative action and immigration reform.</p>
<p>Because he was undeniably black, he was seen as an “authentic” representative of the African-American electorate, not the entire American electorate. His campaign had to overcome this notion.</p>
<h2>Overcoming race</h2>
<p>Obama employed a race-neutral approach during his first presidential campaign. In his hallmark <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19751-2004Jul27.html">speech</a> at the 2004 DNC he said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America, there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America, there is the United States of America.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His rhetoric aimed to satisfy diverse constituents across racial and ethnic groups. Obama used universal, color-blind language that appealed to most Americans.</p>
<p>He focused on quality-of-life issues, such as universal health care, equal educational opportunities and full employment for the lower and middle classes. Doing so increased the likelihood that more Americans would support his campaign. He was less interested in race-specific overtures that directly appealed to African-American voters. As I argue in <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/historic-firsts-9780199314188?q=evelyn%20simien&lang=en&cc=us">my book</a>, “Historic Firsts: How Symbolic Empowerment Changes U.S. Politics,” Obama unified liberal white voters. </p>
<p>Still, pundits pondered whether a black man, elected by a white majority with support of African-American voters, represented a psychological, but not necessarily a substantive, triumph over race. </p>
<p>His predecessors Chisholm and Jackson had heavily relied on racial bloc voting and the stylistic influence of a Black Power tradition – “speaking truth to power,” dramatic confrontation and public spectacle – for electoral success. Obama was a successful candidate because he was neither righteous nor indignant. He ran a campaign that was racially and culturally inclusive.</p>
<p>Today, there is little question as to whether a black male politician at the top of a major party’s presidential ticket can transform beliefs about African-American men in politics. The outcome of the 2008 American presidential election shows that the majority of American voters are willing to vote for a black Democratic presidential candidate.</p>
<p>However, it is a certain type of black presidential candidate who will find it easier, and others more difficult, to gain white support.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evelyn M. Simien does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Black politicians throughout US history have struggled to overcome deep, negative stereotypes held against them by white Americans. Obama succeeded at the highest level. Here’s how.Evelyn M. Simien, Associate Professor of Political Science and Africana Studies, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/658472016-09-21T20:32:46Z2016-09-21T20:32:46ZPolice shootings and race in America: Five essential reads<p><em>Editor’s note: The following is a roundup of stories related to policing and the Black Lives Matter movement.</em></p>
<p>Police and protesters clashed last night in Charlotte after Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old African-American man, was <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/09/keith-lamont-scott-protests-erupt-police-killing-160921045737483.html">shot and killed</a> by a police officer.</p>
<p>Lamont’s death followed a shooting last week in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where another African-American man, Terrence Crutcher, 40, was <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/20/us/oklahoma-tulsa-police-shooting/index.html">also killed</a> by a police officer.</p>
<p>Police brutality, and the response of groups such as Black Lives Matter, have drawn renewed national attention to issues of race and policing in America. Here are highlights of The Conversation’s coverage of these issues.</p>
<h2>Violence takes a toll</h2>
<p>Through social media, millions of Americans witness images of the death of African-Americans. For African-Americans, the repeated experience of watching these events can have profound impact on their well-being. As pediatrician <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/nia-heard-garris-283549">Nea Heard-Garris</a>, researcher at the University of Michigan, writes about <a href="https://theconversation.com/protecting-our-children-after-the-wounds-of-racism-divide-us-even-more-62471">the impact on black children</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Children can be impacted by traumatic events if they identify with the victim regardless of geography. Think of how youth of color everywhere may identify with these events, based on the ages and races of the victims… we need to protect our children from being the indirect victims of these events as well.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Addressing the problem of anti-black police violence also requires taking into account <a href="https://theconversation.com/slow-death-is-the-trauma-of-police-violence-killing-black-women-62264">the traumatic and long-term deadly effects on the living,</a> who are often women. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/christen-a-smith-282479">Christen Smith</a>, professor of Anthropology and African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We know from the stories of black mothers who have lost their children to state violence that the lingering anguish of living in the aftermath of police violence kills black women gradually. Depression, suicide, PTSD, heart attacks, strokes and other debilitating mental and physical illnesses are just some of the diseases black women develop as they try to put their lives back together after they lose a child.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nor are police immune from the effects of violence. A study by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-violanti-282415">John Violanti</a> of the University of Buffalo, State University of New York found that police have a 69 percent greater risk of committing suicide <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tragic-reminder-that-policing-takes-a-toll-on-officers-too-62256">than other working populations</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The top five most stressful events that police reported were, in this order: exposure to battered or dead children, killing someone in the line of duty, fellow officer killed in the line of duty, situations requiring the use of force and physical attack on one’s person.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Searching for solutions</h2>
<p>Those seeking solutions have scrutinized police departments for their training, practices and culture. Addressing the masculine, aggressive disposition promoted in many departments may be key to reducing police violence, <a href="https://theconversation.com/training-to-reduce-cop-macho-and-contempt-of-cop-could-reduce-police-violence-51983">according to research</a> from <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/frank-rudy-cooper-211706">Frank Roody Cooper</a>, a professor of law at Suffolk University.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“An awareness of the way cop macho leads to "contempt of cop” punishments will not prevent all police uses of force. Training machismo out of police officers’ habits would be worth the effort, though, because it would allow the deescalation of many potential police-civilian conflicts.“</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Police brutality against blacks in the civil rights era, as is the case today, is effective in <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-black-lives-matter-means-beyond-policing-reform-62332">galvanizing minorities around other core issues</a> facing their communities, writes <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/garrett-felber-282957">Garrett Felber</a>, a scholar of 20th-century African-American history and social movements at the University of Michigan:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"The issue at stake, then, is how to take this opening and not only begin to secure justice for the lives lost to police violence, but also to expand on questions about what it means to value black life.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65847/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Protests erupted against the killing of black men by police in Tulsa and Charlotte. This roundup looks at research on racial violence and explains where there might be potential solutions.Danielle Douez, Associate Editor, Politics + SocietyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/626662016-07-19T10:07:04Z2016-07-19T10:07:04ZAmerica’s police culture has a masculinity problem<p><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/baton-rouge-police-officers-shot-wounded-airline-highway/">Three police officers</a> were killed and three wounded in a shooting early on Sunday, July 17 in Baton Rouge. Ten days earlier – on July 7 – a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/09/us/dallas-police-shooting.html">sniper gunned down</a> five police officers in Dallas. </p>
<p>I know many strong critics of the police. Many of them are affiliated with the
<a href="http://blacklivesmatter.com/">Black Lives Matter movement</a>. None of them stand for ambushing police officers. I also know a few police officers and many prosecutors. Most of them are against racial profiling.</p>
<p>Now, it would be a false equivalence to say that Black Lives Matter activists and defenders of the police are in the same position. </p>
<p>Black Lives Matter activists are seeking changes in an institution – the criminal justice system – that has <a href="http://www.civilrights.org/publications/justice-on-trial/race.html">disproportionately targeted</a> and killed people of color. These activists are disproportionately drawn from communities that <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/black-lives-matter-queer-trans-issues/">have been marginalized</a> based on their race, gender identity, sexual orientation and related issues. </p>
<p>In contrast, police officers are sworn to protect the public, even when they are the subject of criticism and protest. Police officers are also disproportionately drawn from <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/09/03/us/the-race-gap-in-americas-police-departments.html?_r=0">relatively privileged</a> segments of society: men and whites. </p>
<p>The recent controversy over policing has often been traced to racial bias, but it may stem in equal part from gender. I have spent a decade researching ways that race and gender intersect in policing and found that hidden police officer machismo is exacerbating the more commonly noticed problem of racial profiling. </p>
<h2>Issues around masculinity</h2>
<p>To bring about peace, we must first acknowledge that we have a problem. </p>
<p>The evidence that police officers target racial minority men for stops on suspicion of crime is overwhelming. This has been statistically proven in New York City <a href="http://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/assets/files/Floyd-Liability-Opinion-8-12-13.pdf">racial profiling litigation</a>. In a recent study, <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/home">Harvard professor Roland G. Fryer Jr.</a> also found <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/upshot/surprising-new-evidence-shows-bias-in-police-use-of-force-but-not-in-shootings.html">racial bias</a> in police uses of force. Additionally, in New York, as elsewhere, <a href="http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/students/groups/osjcl/files/2015/01/11-Richardson-and-Goff.pdf">racial profiling</a> of these types mostly happens to men. </p>
<p>Having seen such gender patterns before, my colleague <a href="https://law.unlv.edu/faculty/ann-mcginley">Ann C. McGinley</a>, a professor of law at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and I have <a href="https://law.unlv.edu/event/monday-law-talk-whats-masculinity-got-do-it-gender-pop-culture-and-law">often asked</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What’s masculinity got to do with it?” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>By masculinity, I simply mean popular assumptions about what is manly behavior. For instance, men do not wear dresses, do not ask for directions and do not dance. Or so we are told. </p>
<p>If one is a man, or just wants to perform masculinity, one will be drawn toward the behaviors that are popularly understood to be manly. An important tendency of masculine behavior in the United States is to <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1257183">confront disrespect</a> with violence. </p>
<p>In policing, this has meant punishing the “noncrime” of “contempt of cop” (offending a police officer) with trumped up charges of law-breaking or physical violence. </p>
<p>The killing of Philando Castile serves as one example of the way racial bias and police officer machismo work together. </p>
<p>Racial profiling was evident in the fact that police officers had stopped Castile at the borders between black and white neighborhoods in and around St. Paul, Minnesota. Castile was stopped <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/stopped-52-times-by-police-was-it-racial-profiling/2016/07/09/81fe882a-4595-11e6-a76d-3550dba926ac_story.html">at least 52 times</a> over the course of a few years. Yet at least half of his citations were dismissed. That is an extraordinary number of stops, and an even more surprising number of dismissals.</p>
<p>Implicit in these excessive race-based stops is a macho stance that is <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/19/us/oakland-police-scandals/">especially prevalent</a> amongst those who go into policing. First, perhaps because police forces <a href="http://www.militarytimes.com/story/veterans/2014/12/08/enlisted-police-officer/20102901/">often give preference</a> to former members of the military, police officers are prone to <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1257183">bullying the suspects.</a> It should be no surprise that more masculine men thrown into police forces patterned on the military are more prone to aggressive behavior.</p>
<h2>Here are the consequences of this culture</h2>
<p>To maintain face in the culture that prevails in many police departments, officers must meet any physical threat or even disobedience with violence. As the “<a href="http://www.aapf.org/sayhername/">Say Her Name” movement</a> has pointed out, when police officers get macho, women of color may also become victims of their violence. </p>
<p>Police bullying of women can come in the forms of false charges, physical violence, or sexual assaults. For instance, former Oklahoma City police officer <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/10/us/oklahoma-daniel-holtzclaw-trial/">Daniel Holtzclaw</a> was convicted of 18 counts of sexual offenses against African-American women.</p>
<p>Second, masculinity exacerbates racial profiling because young men of color are the boogeyman. They are the personification of danger in the eyes of much of the public and the police. That status stems from the U.S.’ long history of white supremacy and apartheid. Police officers may be both seeking to maintain their place in the male pecking order and genuinely afraid of men of color.</p>
<p>That is why the mention of a gun by a black man can lead a police officer to shoot first and question later. In the case of Castile, as an audio recording of the events later revealed, Castile’s <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/philando-castile-police-scanner-audio_us_5783a3a2e4b0c590f7ea0d4d">“wide-set nose”</a> got him pulled over. And being the subject of heightened fear – a black man with a gun – got him killed.</p>
<p>Of course, police officers are not a monolithic group. White police officers are not all explicitly, or even implicitly, biased against men of color. Many police officers are racial minorities themselves. Moreover, <a href="http://womenandpolicing.com/PDF/2002_Excessive_Force.pdf">increasing percentages</a> of police officers are women, whose presence has been connected to lessened police brutality. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, acknowledging that racial profiling and police officer machismo travel together is important, as it will require a different approach to fixing policing. </p>
<h2>Way forward: deescalate</h2>
<p>We cannot just observe the police through body cameras, for that will not stop police officers from feeling more threatened by men of color in the first place. Instead, we need to train police officers to acknowledge both that many of them have implicit biases against racial minorities and that they may feel more fearful of men of color than any other group.</p>
<p>As I think about how this proposal might become reality, I have the same advice for each side of the policing divide: deescalate.</p>
<p>To protesters against the police I say this: After Baton Rouge, rightly or wrongly, you will have to go first. Do not stop criticizing racial profiling and police officer machismo, but do unequivocally disavow shooting police officers. </p>
<p>To police officers I say this: You rightfully feel vulnerable, but do not ratchet up this conflict. Do not condone the idea <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/author/heather-mac-donald">advanced in some conservative quarters</a> that the slaying of police officers means you must allow crime to rise. Honor your fallen comrades by doing your job even better. </p>
<p>In the day-to-day job, that means using deescalation techniques to turn potential conflicts into peaceful resolutions. Deescalating the overall conflict between police officers and protesters will not be easy, but it will be worth the effort.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62666/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Rudy Cooper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A macho culture prevails in police departments in America. The recent killing of Philando Castile serves as one example of the way racial bias and police officer machismo work together.Frank Rudy Cooper, Professor of Law, Suffolk UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.