Black men (www.wcmt.org.uk)

7 black men sit in a room; a community activist, sociologist, a criminologist, a philosopher, a scientist, an educationalist, and a social worker. They are all there to discuss one thing how can black men become better fathers. After 4 hours of tense debate, analysis, and discussion, they cannot find common agreement as to the solution. The meeting ends. No solution but each man thinks he is right and goes away feeling happy with their contribution. A week later a young man is shot, several fathers go to prison, several women are victims of domestic violence, a range of young people are suspended from school, and the community begins to fragment and implode on itself. The same 7 black men meet again to discuss what can be done. For the first time in a long time they are forced to confront a painful truth. Namely, don’t hide behind professional labels.

Kevin Powell’s new book of essays by various writers has a chapter that focuses on ‘Redefining black manhood’. The continuing need to address who we are as men, fathers, and sons should be on-going, constantly looked at and worked upon. One size does not fit all, but the desire to feel well, useful, have a role in community, raise the family, and so on are common goals for all of us to attain. However, black men have been defined on so many levels by the gaze of other people’s expectations that we have forgotten who we are and who we want to be. We spend so much time telling others ‘who not to be’ ‘what not to do’, that we miss out on promoting what we could be, should be and in many cases are. We’ve become so used to having conferences, seminars, workshops, and a host of interactive spaces to debate black men’s identity, ways of being, and so forth, that we seldom validate each other for just being able to smile, have fun, and live a normal life. Black men encounter problems, but we ourselves should not define our reality as being ‘problem men’. Clyde Forde when writing in ‘The Hero with an African face’ uses terms to describe contemporary black life such as ‘painful’ ‘despairing’ ‘scary’ ‘difficult’ ‘harsh’. He then goes on to show that the ability to overcome and survive in the face of adversity and oppression is heroic and should be celebrated. So my call is not for every black man to become the same, but to recognise you have the power within you not only to do great things, but to define things according to your needs, not those of other vested interests.


Peace