On Masculinity and Homophobia, Part 1: A Reflection on Hip Hop, Malcolm and More

Homophobia and transphobia was at the forefront of much public discussion this week: legendary DJ Mister Cee was arrested for allegedly having sex with a transwoman. And in Manning Marable's new biography of Malcolm X, the author hints that Malcolm was in a homosexual relationship.

This allegation is especially significant when thinking about all that Malcolm represents. Ossie Davis eulogizes Malcolm as "our manhood. our living Black manhood.. our own Black shining prince." Malcolm represented a specific paradigm of Black masculinity for those who know what it is to struggle.

Early hip hop groups have run with this renewed sense of what it is to be a Black man in amerika: powerful, aggressive, lawless, threatening to the white establishment. This NWA identity (and a few others) was deeply ingrained in the public consciousness of mainstream amerika until Barack Obama flipped the script - making it cool for Black men strive for lifestyles previously reserved for white folk and Uncle Toms.

As usual, reader comments are the real story in the reaction to the Mister Cee and Malcolm X. Many (if not most) comments were rooted in conservative and oppressive views of gender and sexuality. Reader comments either protected their martyr or ridiculed anyone who could possibly have sex with a trans person. Either way, publicly revealing much discomfort with challenging traditional views of gender and sexuality. (A new biography claiming Mahatma Gandhi was in a homosexual relationship evoked similar responses.)

Kanye West once profoundly stated that "being gay" is the opposite of "being hip hop." He points to hip hop being a hyper-masculine culture - where in violence and misogyny are normalized. In this culture, challenging one's "manhood" is a diss. And accusing someone of being gay is the ultimate form of disrespect. So the hip hop community's response to Mister Cee's arrest sadly should not be surprising.

Jay Smooth on The Gay Hip Hop Book:

While rap music is notorious for misogyny and homophobia, it is a symptom of a much larger problem. Several archetypes have emerged for men in hip hop: the drug dealer, the pimp, the gangster.. hardly uplifting or positive. The deeper truth is that little space is made for Black men who fall somewhere between Barack Obama and 50 Cent - a dichotomy the Baracka Flocka Flames video satirically points at.

The more we are able to deconstruct what it is to be "a man", the closer we are towards ending homophobia and misogyny. In the context of hip hop, that means defying the paradigms of manhood in the culture. That means men must redefine themselves internally and in relation to others. Men must be comfortable being their human selves, rather than playing a character. They must stop asserting violence to signify power and women to signify virility. And they must must must stop with the "no homo" and "pause" stuff.