Buller Men and Batty Bwoys: Hidden Men in Toronto and Halifax Black Communities (original) (raw)
Scripting Mature Black Masculinity In Toronto
2016
How do Black men in Toronto express their Black masculinity? How do these men develop a "mature" (Moore, 1991) Black masculinity when they have only been taught white supremacist capitalist patriarchy? In this major research paper, I will look at the ways Black masculinity and Black fathers are framed in North America as symbols of fear and hate whether it is through the media, government policy or society on a whole. I will look at what ramifications these symbols have on Black men in terms of their capacity to engage in selflove and love to others. This paper incorporates my learning from community engagement and representation of Black fatherhood and love from two community projects: What is Black Love in Toronto? (community discussion forums) and Black Men Loving: The Documentary. These two initiatives serve as initial steppingstones that have led me to writing this paper. Through this paper, I hope to gain and add new knowledge about Black masculinity and love that can be used as tools for Scripting Mature Black Masculinity in Toronto Chapter One WHAT IS BLACK MASCULINITY AND HOW IS IT PERFORMED? Since migrating to Toronto, Canada in the summer of 1990 from Kingston, Jamaica, I have been on a constant search for Black community and Black spaces reminiscent of my homelandspaces where I could feel accepted as a 6' 1", 250 lbs, darkskinned Black man. The prevalent ideas of Black masculinity in Canada relegate
The Urban Review, 1999
This article excavates the voices of urban black males as they "speak their name" (Belton, 1996) in a society that denies them this right. Based on data gathered in a large-scale ethnographic interview study of urban America, the authors traverse the spoken lives of these men, as they weave stories about neighborhood and state violence, opportunities denied and missed, and the current power of black men's groups in the church. Through their day-today lives urban black men challenge social representations about them in racist America, constructing an alternative hegemonic masculinity revolving around relationships, fatherhood, and dignity. We have traversed the soil of North America, bringing advantage to it as farmer, mule trainer, singer, shaper of wood and iron. We have picked cotton and shined shoes, we have bludgeoned the malleable parts of ourselves into new and brash identities that are shattered and bruised by the gun and the bullet. And now the only duty our young men seem ready to imagine is to their maleness with its reckless display of braggadocio, its bright intelligence, its bold and foolish embrace of hate and happenstance. If we are not our brother's keeper, then we are still our brother's witness. We are coconspirators in his story and in his future. August Wilson, Introduction to Speak My Name (1996)
Race Ethnicity and Education, 2001
This article adds to the growing literature on the Black education experience in Canada-a subject that has not been a priority in mainstream Canadian education. The author shares a signi cant part of the results of a study that investigated, documented and analysed the experiences of academically successful Black students in Alberta's secondary schools. Drawing from the experiences of these students, the article highlights the issue of systemic racism in Canadian society as a signi cant barrier that stands in the way of Black academic achievement. The article also shows how Black students cope with racism and the impact of racism on Black student academic achievement. It argues that if we are to address the chronic underachievement of Black students, the issue of racism must be tackled aggressively by educational institutions and school administrators. For too long, educators have greatly underestimated the effects of racism on Black youths in Western multiethnic societies like Canada.
Black Masculinities Expressed Through, and Constrained by, Brotherhood
Black males face pressures to adopt dominant social roles in relationships based on expectations from family, peers, and teachers. Many stereotypes define their perceived masculinities in coeducational schools, such as different definitions of masculinity received from peers and adults. Enrollment in all-male, majority-Black schools changes nothing. This article discusses how Black males who attend the Pebbles School—an urban all-male public combined middle and high school—constructed, perceived, and negotiated their masculine identities and perceptions of brotherhood. The relationship between masculinity and brotherhood and the intersection of gender and ethnic studies draw upon studies in Progressive Black Masculinity to challenge restrictive definitions of masculinity constructions shared among some Black males, who tend to view masculinity exclusively through a heterosexual lens, which limits discussions of diversity in brotherhood and sexual orientation. Brotherhood is a bond shared between men of various backgrounds and beliefs centered on commitments or professions. Dancy (2012) writes that Black men's reference to themselves as brothers evokes a bond strengthened by shared experiences of oppression. Brotherhood also denotes a term of endearment and affirmation among Black men. This definition is extended to Black males who attend all-male schools, where they are connected through a common educational experience that fosters brotherhood
Why Didn’t They Teach That? The Untold Black History of New Brunswick
2020
Black historians matter! In 2017, after the University of New Brunswick (UNB) hosted Dr. Charmaine Nelson, a Black art historian, she encouraged me to pursue academic recognition and credentials for the research I had been doing for years on Black history in the Maritime provinces. At the time, I assumed she was being supportive of an aspiring Black historian, notwithstanding her emphatic injunction that more Black historians need to sift through the surviving sources and assemble a more complete picture of Black history in Canada. I now appreciate the need for brown eyes studying Black history with the inherent and substantial advantage over our White colleagues in that most of us have experienced what W.E.B. Dubois calls the "double consciousness." 1 Dubois explains how Black people experience a double identity, one defined by the Black cultural experience and a second identity defined by the White power structure, which perpetuates age-old stereotypes and props up White chauvinism as reality. The struggle that Black historians face is to convince the wider society that this "double narrative" exists. Despite evidence to the contrary, those indoctrinated into and benefitting from the White colonial narrative miss the other consciousness and tend to see people of colour as recipients of White benevolence, specifically the benefits resulting from the Anglo-Saxon ascent to global primacy. This narrative, of course, only makes sense when cleansed of any blemishes, no matter how historically significant these stains might be to the broader historical context. I will not belabour this point beyond a single example. Until recently, the argument that relegated the role of slavery to a tertiary cause in precipitating the American Civil War seemed to be a valid matter of opinion. Two interpretative narratives have predominated: the North invaded the South to free the slaves, or the South seceded from the Union to preserve states' rights. 2 Both of these accounts are oversimplified and thus incomplete and by turns incorrect interpretations of the nature and sources of the incompatible relationship between the Southern slave states and the Northern anti-slavery states. In Canada, we feel disconnected from this story in terms of our own history. To distance ourselves from and inoculate ourselves against that American ugliness, we have expunged the racialized aspects of our history, and as a consequence we purged Black history from public discussion for the sake of avoiding conflict. That distancing and inoculation held until the international outcry over the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd by police, and the attempted cover-ups by authorities. Those incidents forced Canadians to confront the imbalance of power that Black people face when dealing with White institutions of authority. 3 This tragic sequence of statesanctioned violence has resulted in two worldviews colliding and a chance for expanded horizons for those willing to take that journey. An unexpected fault line in historical understanding has emerged in the recent decision by Quaker Oats to rebrand their Aunt Jemima line of pancake mix and syrup and their perverse veneration of the emancipated Kentucky slave woman named Nancy Green, who first played Aunt Jemima for a public that could not get enough of happy tales of slave life. The outcry against Quaker Oats among White New Brunswickers has been noteworthy. The idea that Aunt Jemima was an "innocent image of a kindly Black woman" allows the racist parts of New Brunswick's past to remain hidden: a past that challenges an imagined era of happy slaves. Aunt Jemima represents a collective amnesia over brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk
Educational Studies, 2023
This article focuses on the college experiences of 19 Black men who attended historically white institutions (HWIs). Using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, we explore how these students articulate, make sense of, and are confronted by antiblackness during their college years. We find and detail three specific forms of anti-Black racism that challenge their higher education endeavors, which include dislocating Black men as outsiders on campus, dismissing Black men’s intellect and abilities, and manufacturing Black men’s invisibilities. Additionally, given the barrage of anti-Black racial logics that confront Black men at HWIs, we also discuss internalizing antiblackness as a fourth finding that illuminates Black men’s struggles and dilemmas within these white educational contexts. These four frames reveal how collegiate Black men can be rendered as insignificant at HWIs, which not only negatively impacts their college experiences but also can contribute to their nonbelonging and produce additional academic and personal stressors.