It turns out young black men have a better chance of getting made fun of for reading books than for playing sports. Not news, I know, but the commentary on how that fact intersects with gender is:
John Thomas, superintendent of the Aliquippa School District, said the notion that black men who read books are less masculine is one that should be dispelled in the African-American community. “It’s just as powerful to carry a book as it is to carry a football or a basketball, because the power of knowledge is in the books,” he said. “If we prepare our bodies for the gridiron or the basketball court, to me it’s just as important to prepare your mind to survive in society. The body will soon wear out for athletic competition, but knowledge you have will carry you through life.”
What’s interesting to me is that the cultural forces that would discourage black men from learning – because being brainy isn’t considered “masculine” or “strong” – are exactly the opposite of the ones at play that have historically kept women from learning, who are/were told that being too brainy makes a woman “unfeminine.”
& When cultural forces say being smart isn’t masculine to one group, & too masculine to another, you know there’s something rotten in Denmark.
That’s because the powers do not want the masses to be educated. If you have read Ms. Kate’s “My Gender Workbook” – http://www.amazon.com/My-Gende.....amp;sr=1-1 – you will remember hir comparasons of the USDA food group pyrimids and how they can be applied to societal hierachies and social structures; just substitute different race, class, religious, sexual orientations, or whatever for the different food groups. The top of the food pyrimid she illustrates in the book are the fats and sweets, those groups that are not good for you in large quantities. Likewise, on the top of the gender pyrimid sits the highly educated, hetrosexual, christian protestant fundimentalist, white male. The next level down on the pyrimid are those who the highly educated, hetrosexual, christian fundimentalist protestant, white male finds to be of value, such as their wives and in-laws. The next level down is the white het blue-collar worker, and at the bottom is everyone else; including non-white, non-christian fundie, GLBT, and anyone else who D. James Kennedy would not approve of.
The more educated the people at the bottom become, the less power those at the top of the pyrimid have to wield. Why else would there be such a push to reinstitute racial segragation in the public school sphere along with a push to keep diversity education and protections for GLBT, religious, and racial minorities out as well? All that one needs to do is take a good hard look at post-Katrina New Orleans to see what the GOP thinks about educating America’s youth. And if a child is bullied for being gay, trans, or a member of a specific racial/religious minority, that child will have a hard time learning anything in school. And that sits quite well with those in power, or something would be done about it at the federal level. They don’t want educated blacks, educated women, or educated GLBT persons.
Kanye West was spot on with his comment “George Bush doesn’t like black people.” You can insert gays, trannies, and/or non-christians into that statement and it still holds true. But it’s not just the prez, but the whole top-tier power structure as illustrated in Ms. Kate’s gender/class/race pyrimid that doesn’t like any of us who are at the bottom.
There is also a phenomenon in the Black (and some segments of the Puerto Rican community, at least with some “Nuyoricans”) that reading (and academic achievement) is considered “acting white,” whatever the hell that means.
Now, I’d be one of the first to jump on the “blame the neo-con” bandwagon, but one needs to look within the communities first. This stuff was happening way before The Shrub came around.
[...] Black Men Can’t Read? Excerpt: It turns out young black men have a better chance of getting made fun of for reading books [...]