To prove to cishet white men that they’re “really men,” many covetous cishet black men often take masculinity to outrageous and ridiculous extremes.

To prove to cishet black men that we’re “really men,” many covetous queer black men often take masculinity to outrageous and ridiculous extremes.

In this endless cycle of viciousness, the defining feature of masculinity is violence, and many of these men don’t feel like they *can* be men unless there is someone else that they can dominate, rule over, abuse, make suffer, rape, or murder.

Even the choice of photo reflects a twisted patriarchal ideology: Smiling isn’t permitted. They made sure his musculature was front and center and that his dick print was highly visible as his physical attractiveness is a selling point for this corrupted male power. (Watch how many people will be sympathetic toward him and want to forgive him based on the fact that he represents, for them, peak masculine beauty.)

Religion plays a significant role in these men’s distorted perspectives on what it means to exist and the nature of power, as many of the gods they serve are giant projections of the very patriarchal violence they wish to embody.

I don’t believe in fairy tales, but if there is a God/Satan, he is made manifest on Earth via the danger that is toxic masculinity.

This article contains graphic descriptions of domestic violence. Discretion is advised.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
“Moments after murdering his boyfriend in a Bronx walkup, Marcus Bellamy, a Broadway dancer who once performed in ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,’ left a chilling confession on Facebook.

'Forgive me,’ the 32-year-old wrote Friday after beating and strangling his partner, Bernardo Almonte, to death. 'I did it for love. I did it because I love you. He told me love and hate are the same emotion.’

Bellamy is now facing murder and manslaughter charges for killing the 27-year-old freelance IT technician.

'I am God,’ he wrote on his Facebook page, which is rife with Scripture verses, as well as pictures of himself shirtless and striking different dance moves. 'I give life and can take it away.’”

[Photo description: Outdoors. Daytime. A man, Marcus Bellamy, is seen, bare-chested, from the chest up. He is looking into the camera with a serious expression. He is standing in front of foliage and what looks like an open garage.]

(H/T Darian Aaron)

This article contains graphic descriptions of racist and queerantagonistic violence. Discretion is advised.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
“A Brooklyn judge sentenced the two Hasidic men who admitted to participating in the vicious beating of a gay black man to 150 hours of community service on Tuesday.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun had delayed Pinchas Braver and Abraham Winkler’s sentencing by seven days so they could find an appropriate placement for their community service but they still have not.

Braver’s attorney Robert LaRusso admitted outside of Brooklyn Supreme Court on Tuesday that it is ‘not difficult’ to find the right organization.

'It’s not a problem — it’s just being able to satisfy the prosecutor that the agency that we are asking the community service to be performed is satisfactory to them,’ said LaRusso.

Sentencing of NYC Hasidic men who beat gay black man delayed

Braver and Winkler had suggested participating at Chai Lifeline, an organization located in Borough Park that caters to Jewish children with life-threatening illnesses.

The organization is located outside of Williamsburg where the December 2013 incident occurred, but does not fit the criteria prosecutors suggested as 'culturally diverse.’

Taj Patterson was beaten by a group of Hasidic men and left blind in his right eye.”

[Photo description: Indoors. Inside a courtroom. Two men, Abraham Winkler and Pinchas Braver, are seen standing behind a desk and chairs. They are seen from the waists up. They are in the left frame of the photo looking toward the right. A wood wainscoting behind them and a plain wall above it.]

(H/T Terrence Jelani Fraser)

This article contains discussions of rape and rape culture. Discretion is advised.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
I had never planned to go see The Birth of a Nation​ because Nate Parker​ was already very clear about his disdain for queer people (see here: http://www.ebony.com/news-views/nate-parker-homophobic-comment-422#axzz4HVbAwyQ0) and I’m not in the business of supporting people or companies that I am certain are bigoted and who want me to be certain of their bigotry.

I don’t fuck with Evangelical Christians like that. They don’t like me and I don’t like them and that’s the way it’s going to stay.

And now I’m doubly not going to see the film–for the same reasons I wouldn’t go to see a Woody Allen or Roman Polanski film. I’m not here for rape.

And before you rape defenders start suddenly having faith in the same justice system that let Aiyana Stanley-Jones’, Tamir Rice’s, Sandra Bland’s, and Eric Garner’s murderers off the hook, talmbout “But Nate was found not guilty!”–remember that George Zimmerman was also found not guilty, and the court of law and the court of public opinion are two entirely different spheres.

If you read Parker’s response to this situation, it doesn’t sound like someone who is denying a crime. It sounds like someone admitting to one.

He sounds like he’s blaming the situation on his “youth.”

In one breath, he claims the sex was “entirely consensual,” then in another he doesn’t dispute that the woman was drunk out of her mind.

Dear rapists:

Drunk people can’t consent. A drunk or otherwise impaired, coerced, or forced “yes” is a giant, indisputable NO.

If you have sex with someone under the influence of anything that impairs their judgment–IT. IS. NOT. SEX.

IT. IS. RAPE.

LEARN THAT.

That you don’t want it to be rape because you’re used to getting people drunk before you have sex with them because you think the sex “is better that way,” or because you think “We were both drunk though so it’s okay,” or because “Well, they came on to me first,” or because you think all these rules around sex and consent makes it hard for you to get what you want and spoils “the buzz”–none of that shit matters.

If you do it, it’s rape.

And you’re a rapist.

PERIOD.

“Fox Searchlight has reached the point in their promotional campaign for Nate Parker’s film, Birth of a Nation, where they try to convince the American people and OSCAR voters that the fact that Parker might have participated in what many would consider to be a gang rape does not preclude us from buying a movie ticket or nominating Parker for an OSCAR.

To be honest, OSCAR voters don’t have a problem voting for sexual predators. They’ve done it repeatedly in the past.

The problem is that the marketing for Birth of a Nation relies almost entirely on sanctimony and Parker’s moral authority. — He has no moral authority-not only because of what he did 17 years ago, but how he has decided to tap dance around the allegations as part of this public relations campaign TODAY. He has no moral authority because is CO-Writer was convicted for his part.”

- Gina McCauley​, “No. I’m Not Going to See Nate Parker’s Birth of a Nation. Yes, His Past Rape Allegations Matter. Yes, Fox Searchlight Should be Embarrassed”

ADDITIONAL READING:

1. It has been revealed that the victim was so tormented by what happened to her and so distraught about the perpetrators getting away with it that she committed suicide back in 2012: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/birth-a-nation-director-nate-920043

2. http://www.jetmag.com/talk-back-2/nate-parker-hypocrisy/

3. http://verysmartbrothas.com/why-nate-parkers-college-rape-accusation-resurfacing-isnt-because-of-some-conspiracy-explained/

4. http://blacknerdproblems.com/from-the-editor-why-we-wont-be-reviewing-a-birth-of-a-nation-upon-its-release/

5. http://variety.com/2016/film/news/the-birth-of-a-nation-nate-parker-rape-trial-1201836624/

6. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/opinion/sunday/nate-parker-and-the-limits-of-empathy.html?_r=0

7. https://www.colorlines.com/articles/nate-parker-rape-and-perils-double-consciousness-opinion

8. http://documents.latimes.com/complaint-against-penn-state-university-regarding-nate-parker-rape-case/

9. http://www.ifnoonehastoldyou.com/2016/08/for-women-who-have-to-watch-their.html

10. https://medium.com/@nilegirl/dear-black-men-nate-parker-isnt-being-screwed-by-the-system-it-s-the-other-way-around-47f62d1eb3d0#.65qs1ws3z

[Photo description: The word “NOPE!” written in white on a black background.]

(H/T Mychal Denzel Smith/Kevin Dwayne​/La Tricia Ransom/Josie Pickens​/Kirsten Kirsten West Savali​/Michael J Dumas/ Chanda Hsu Prescod-Weinstein​)