“Black masculinity and respectability are not synonymous, nor do we need/want them to be,” writes the Crunk Feminist Collective
NBA star Jason Collins made history, but is his career history because of it?
Earlier this year, NBA free agent Jason Collins made history when he broke his silence by Collins was the first active player to ever declare his homosexuality in the Big Three U.S. sports leagues.
He was praised by teammates, officials in the league and the general population, but still remains unemployed.
But now just for being himself, after a career as the epitome of a “team player”, he has been labeled “a distraction” and finds himself on the outside looking in at the start of the NBA season. I attempted to reach out to Jason Collins and ask him about his status as a man without a team, but, as I heard from several people close to the veteran seven-footer, he is not talking.
[T]here’s Daddy
Two requests: 1. Forgive me for writing about basketball two weeks in a row, and 2. Allow me to wonder aloud for a bit.
Last week, one of the most disappointing articles I read was about the rise and fall of Allen Iverson, the first overall pick of the 1996 NBA draft (to the Philadelphia 76ers) and the star of David Stern’s nightmares for well over a decade. Although he was an incredible player–a first ballot hall of famer–Iverson’s greatest impact is still felt off the court: the braids, the baggie clothes, his refusal to wear a suit and practice?! heavily affected the NBA we see today. Iverson’s brash swagger is (part of the) reason why the NBA has a dress code. In some ways, there is no Lil Wayne the public figure without Iverson. The article about Iverson today is heartbreaking. He’s lost most of the money he made. The folks he spent most of that money on have seemingly disappeared. By many accounts he’s an alcoholic. And without basketball, Iverson is unmoored, to say the least. He’s also alone and estranged from his family, including his ex-wife and childhood sweetheart, their children, and the children Iverson had with other women during their marriage. 
She Got Game: On The W’s Rookie Class
I was wrong. Really wrong. Wrong as LL and Brad Paisley’s solution for solving racism (aka Obama’s Race Speech: The Musical). Wrong as my desire to hear Stacey Dash on that remix. I got it wrong. Really wrong. Last year around this time, I predicted that Notre Dame’s Skylar Diggins would more than likely be the face of the WNBA. I suggested that the comparatively more traditionally feminine Diggins would prove a more desireable and sellable image for the WNBA than Baylor’s Brittney Griner, whose height, natural hair, voice, and sexuality might prove less tenable for a league aiming for a bigger piece of the sports watching pie, even though I can unequivocally confirm that WNBA games are in some ways more entertaining than NBA contests.
I swung. I missed.
REPORT: Black Gay Youth Face Unique Challenges Coming Out To Families
The report – authored by Michael C. LaSala, director of the Master of Social Work program at Rutgers University School of Social Work – asserts that these young men face rigid and exaggerated conceptions of masculinity, making it more difficult for them to find acceptance or accept themselves.
Furthermore, black gay men face a myriad of intersecting oppressions (i.e. racism, homophobia, sexism), and elicit a particular kind of disdain and worry from within their communities and families.
Rhythm, Blue, Social Disorder
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3cFVlKO8gA&feature=fvst
The conscious humyn evaluates and integrates various influences of style regardless of race, gender or and social divisions. If “male” has a significance, you could receive the conscious male and his personality as influenced by Sade or Nina Simone. He, or better the humyn, could express a masculinity/femininity that is too distinct for either/or. Manifesting the Sade in him, he’s not afraid to express his experience of the sweetest taboo. Nothing’s loss of his power to create in the world, though he may tell you that he wants to feel an intense love like no other.
13 Year-Old Gangsta Rapper Lil’ Mouse’s ‘Get Smoked’ Video Sparks Outrage
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSgpwhF8Dbc
Hailing from Chicago’s South Side, 13 year-old rapper Lil’ Mouse’s music video “Get Smoked” has racked up nearly half a million views on youtube.
But his profanity-laced gangsta rap lyrics – rife with references to drugs, sex, and guns – has sparked outrage on and offline.
Many are pointing to the song’s content, it’s writer’s age, and the surging murder rate in his hometown as serious cause for alarm. But in an interview with NewsOne, P. Noble – the video’s producer – argues Mouse is simply “keeping it real;” detailing the goings on in his community, while making a little money in the process.
The Hood on Four Wheels
Since when has skateboarding become a standard by which we judge black masculinity? Prior to Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell Williams, you would not see skate culture—promotion of local skate shops, perfection of kick flips and ollies, etc.—in music videos. Back then, the culture had an explicit expression whether it was Mr. “Skateboard P” himself or Lupe’s “Kick, Push” video—featuring a series of images of Chicago’s skate spots.
Style Wars: Not Graffiti But Hipster Takeover
Style, or the way we construct our dress, seems capable to achieve political goals—equal to the power of protests. Speaking from experience, I did not know that my clothes upset the authority figures. Since my professor claimed that I was funny-looking last night, I’ve found a complement in my teacher’s words. Where he was speaking from started at a position, of a certain way of looking at the body. Each new generation violates the laws for presenting the body of the previous generation. This historical function should reveal another strategy for change, another method of power.
I killed my Black Mother and Now I am a Real Black Man: 14 year-old Black Boy Kills Mother?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNI58Qc8pRY
14 year old black boy says: “I want to be one of the big black boys.”
14 year old black boy says: “So, I killed my black mother with a twelve gauge shot gun.”
Since when does killing your black mother make you a big boy? I know this is the Black Youth Project and we are advocates for black youth, but sometimes you have to pause and say, “Who told you son that killing your black mother would make you a man?” Have we cheapened . . . completely extinguished the experiences and voices of black boyhood that now to enter into black manhood, our sons must kill their mothers. Yes, kill their black mothers. Since when did killing black mothers become a Rites of Passage program? As a bone-a-fide black feminist who often writes about black women and black girlhood, we need to develop a national Rites of Passage program for young black men. And, yes, I know the issue is not simply behavioral that systems of oppression—racism, sexism, heterosexism, class, and many others—shape access to resources and definitions of manhood. But, when a black boy says, “I want to be one of the big black boys, So, I killed my black mother with a twelve gauge shot gun because she told me I could not play with them,” we need to develop quickly ways and outlets for young black men to know they have become men.
