Racio-Misogyny in the Black Community - Part 2

Continued By Angelo Pinto

Addressing the root of why Black men and women look upon each other is a step in the direction of recreating Black Relationships and Black Intimacy. Our issues are not as a result of Black men desiring to hate Black women or the converse. It is a result of conditioning that cause us to devalue ourselves and one another coupled with western standards of relationships, intimacy, beauty, consumerism, individualism and success driving our behaviors and mind. Creating another disease to diagnosis the Black Community may be as important as creating another diagnosis in the DSM manual, which to my recollection has yet to place white supremacy or sexism among the various mental aliments that plague the population. However, in the spirit of transformation I welcome a new approach to addressing the particular dilemma which faces my mother, sister and wife “The Black Women”. However as we create and recognize this new area of thought we must also develop one which recognizes and supports the unique struggles of the Black man. I will not spend time naming, or addressing the importance or necessity of such a thing because I know it may be deemed as the refocusing on Black men that “we” do. However I will say as a collective we must reclaim the holistic approach which neither negates nor separates the Black man from the Black women when presenting solutions. We must be equally invested in our collective healing. As Bell Hooks has stated their must be a space in feminism where Black men and productive masculinity can be honored and used as and ally which illustrates our collective investment in restructuring Black male female relationships.

With that said Black women face a unique struggle and weight within the context of our community. Single family households are often headed by Black women who must provide financially, socially, emotionally, and mentally for their children and extended family members. Black women have increasingly faced difficulty in finding a suitable mate. Additionally, white feminism neglects and ignores the unique struggles of Black women. It should be noted that many Black men and women throughout the course of the feminist movement and today have said feminism is not Black women struggle. It is interesting because had found myself grappling with this ideological quagmire. Overstanding the necessity of Black women to identify and recognize the importance of their unique struggle that feminism offers a venue for. While at the same time recognizing that feminism has not provided Black women with an adequate seat at the table. I believe this is the same vein of many Black men and women who disregard feminism as a space for Black women because it did not truly honor the complexity of their position as Black women. Racio-misogyny appears to be the beginning of a brilliant conceptualization of a way in which Black women can more accurately identify and understand their struggles. I will become an ally in this paradigm shift, both in analysis and redemption. However, it is of extreme importance to strategically address the ways in which Racio-misogyny will we a place where Black men have a space different and distinct from all other men. It must also be critically analyzed the appropriate course in which Black men who are participating in the defiling of Black women (holding the gun) are treated in contrast to white men. Although the gun may be the same and the lethal consequences may be the same the collective outcome is quite different. Imagine for a moment if your father killed your mother or vice versa. Although a death will have occurred the collateral damage will be monumental. The family will likely be at odds even though the collective understands the depth of the death. Surrounding circumstances, a historical understanding, and personal familial relationships will all have to be taken into account. This is not simply this or that answer that western society has come to use to answer its problem through linear analysis. We must be more critical, innovative, and divorce ourselves from the practices and ideologies of separatism and individual problems and solutions.

The Black community currently has developed a hybrid culture of Western and African origins. Although this mixing of culture is not in-it-of itself destructive, there must be a centrality of ideology which guides this mixing to become a cultural gumbo and not a cultural slop of ingredients that simply are incompatible and not complementing. I do not believe Pan-Africanism, Culture Nationalism, Liberation Theology, Feminism and the likes are the ideological point of centrality that we must adopt however I believe they are all reference points in developing a new ideology, along with Racio-misogyny, that will ultimately bring forth the continued liberation of Black people and humanity.