Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Excerpt from my forthcomng book, States of Being, Discourses on the Divine Black Transgender Feminine and the Sacred Black Masculine out this summer


The election of 2012, even more so than the election of 2008, exemplifies the state of race and power in the United States.   My God, the formally enslaved have run amuck, they have lost their way and their position in the social and cultural order.   The position of a black man as the most powerful man in the United States, i.e. the head of the house, is antithetical in a society grounded in white supremacy.  It is a scandal, an affront, consequentially causing white supremacy and its agents to double or even triple down on the oppressions which are strategies toward a narrative of dehumanization.  This situation is real, a core narrative strategy within a grand narrative of American society. 

A treatment then of sacred black masculinities is necessary because in a real sense the Black man, regardless of place of power, along with the black transgender woman, is one of the least appreciated, and least understood in the context of U.S. racial patriarchy.  Considered a threat, sacred black masculinities as a whole, historically, have suffered various regimes of dehumanization, i.e.,  frameworks and structures of interlocking oppressions which deny his legitimacy and in this his sense of humanity.   This sets up the black man for various forms and processes of marginalization which are meant to assist in the maintenance of a structure created and developed by and for white supremacy. 

That said, sacred black masculinities have significant stratifications and intersections of oppressions to work through which have been developed specifically for them.  This is primarily because white supremacy considers sacred black masculinities to be a primary challenge to its totalitarian regime.  Clearly the sacred and the truth must be separated from the hyper-myth established to support the interests of white supremacy.  I suggest here that this is one reason why most of the black militant/ intelligencia were slaughtered both physically and politically in 1960’s and a reason today why music industry hiphop in particular spew lyrics that maintain the dehumanization of those sacred black masculinities, the black feminist/womanist and their community as a whole.  This is a strategy produced in concert with programmes such as “Stand Your ground” in Florida and Stop and Frisk in New York City which maintains a myth first imposed by the plantation owners in the days of southern slaveocracy. 

No secret here that a concerted effort, structured and strategized through various racist sexist frameworks, oriented hyper-myths, on the part of the U.S. government, the corporate community, media complex and their agents continue to marginalize any stirrings of Black Power and black men simply because the only authorized power in the U.S. was and still is white supremacy, even in its so-called social and political diversity and inclusion in a mindset of whiteness.[1]  This is also a reason for various political discourses on poverty, education, HIV/Aids, economy and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare to become proxies for a civil war.   Reflecting on this unfortunate circumstance I find that sacred black masculinities can present a different moral vision of humanity.  Even with the layers and layers of oppression meant to marginalize, even destroy their humanity overall sacred black masculinities have been able to survive, overcome, even thrive within those interlocking oppressions. 

Sacred black masculinities have been that critical difference causing their nemesis to reckon with their totalitarian colonial ambitions of patriarchy and historical discourses on racial superiority.  Most notably this has been evidenced in black men such as President Barack Obama, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Malcolm X, General Colin Powell, senator Corey Booker, 100 black men, community activist Bayard Rustin, professors Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson, and, in their deaths, Oscar Grant and Trayvon Martin, just to name a few.  These black men and their particular masculinities, and many like them not mentioned here, represent a different moral vision, one very much influenced by the black experience in diaspora, yet able to mediate their particular masculinity with a structure that was not developed or created to reflect their vision of the masculine. 

As evidenced by the reaction to the election of Barack Obama as the first black president, for some, these men represent a clear and present danger to the ideas of the totalitarian regime.   In a weird sense these black men, and others like them, become a compelling reason for white supremacy to invest in a prison industrial complex.   Surviving in a context of racial patriarchy the black man must focus on building movements of sustainability, i.e. movements that change the racial and economic terrain imposed as a matter of collective privilege and power.  The black man, cognizant of the unfortunate situation must see and experience their particular sacred black masculinity as transformative within the culture and society through the creation and development of ideas which emerge out of their collective experiences.   

I suggest here that as the black man experiences his sacred masculinity as the critical difference he will gradually shift a narrative which has been ingrained by the oppressor but will also liberate his mind regarding more diverse genders and sexualities even within the black community.   That said, sacred black masculinities are called, in concert with the divine black transgender feminine to make a space for a new and different space of gender, sexual and racial legitimacy.   I suggest that the ground of this new legitimacy should be a ground that reflects notions of a postcolonial imagination in which the black man is distinct from the imagination of white supremacy and its desire and by definition racial patriarchy.   What I mean here is that the black man similar to the black transgender woman, must create and develop his own space of being, even his own legitimacy; they must be their social revolution.   This requires what Kwame Nkrumah, one of Africa’s most renowned philosophers and political leaders, calls an intellectual revolution.  He writes, in his book Consciencism, Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonization and Development with particular reference to the African Revolution, “Social Revolution must have, standing firmly behind it, an intellectual revolution in which our thinking and philosophy are directed at the redemption of our society.”[2]  Decolonization of sacred black masculinities must have as their primary purpose the decolonization of the black mind.




[1] Bell Hooks.  Don’t Make me hurt you, Black Male Violence in We Real Cool, Black Men and Masculinity (New York, NY:  Routledge, 2004), 44 – 66.
[2]Kwame Nkrumah.  Consciencism.  Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization and Development with particular reference to the Africa Revolution (New York, NY:  Monthly Review Press, 2009), 78.




Copyright © 2014 Monica Joy Cross.  All Rights Reserved.  No part of this book may used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.




Thursday, February 13, 2014

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Something needs to change, the need for a more diverse congress

When President Obama gave his State of the Union Address to congress I looked throughout congress and what did I see but 100's of white guys sitting everywhere.  Now of course there were a few people who looked like me but not so much.  So I asked where are the black folks, people of color, well for the most part they were sitting at home, some unemployed and some without medical insurance living in fear that some of those white guys in congress would repeal a black man's, oh yea, a white guys idea or in prison for getting angry at the elementary school teacher.  Is this right, hmm.

And this post emerges out of this interesting experience.  It is also a call for black folks, folks of color to get up and change the color of congress.  Congress should have more color, yes, more vibrant colors.  But when I look all I see is a sea of white with a few dark patches to give it "diversity". You know like a white kid with suntan lotion.  This is a problem sense I have some doubt that the experiences of some of those white guys actually reflect the experiences of people like me or any other black person or person of color.  We need people in congress who actually reflect the changing demographics of the United States of America. 

We don't, we really don't and this is the problem.  The needs of the country don't rest with people like me and you but with people who look like the fortune 500.  While this is not a blanket statement it sure is a reality present in the U.S. Capitol.  White guys and a few "others" make decisions for us and we, as obedient slaves to the white voice, adhere and obey.  This may be simplistic but you know I am sick and tired of seeing so many white faces in congress when the demographics are changing fast.  You know, one day we are going to wake up and find that the majority of the country are black and of color and congress, then what.  We need to prepare now to have a party that actually reflects realities of color.

So I ask black, brown, and/or any other color or identity to raise up and run for office, vote, claim the future.  Don't wait until the last minute.

I do realize that this might be somewhat harsh, yet, hell, if you see something that needs to change call it out.  Hey I am a beautiful black transgender woman and queer so somebody in that crowd needs to look like me.  I heard it said that if you are not at the table then you're on the menu and this is not good. 

Thanks for reading my rant I just got sick and tired of certain white folks making decisions for the rest of us.,