The Fear of Black Men? A Fanonian Cartography of Anti-Black Misandry as Psycho-Sexual Pathology

Abstract

In contemporary discourse across disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, it is common to see descriptions and narratives about Black males framed in the negative categories of hypermasculinity, hypersexuality, hegemony, patriarchy, and misogyny (Oparanozie, Sales, DiClemente, & Braxton 2012; Smiley & Fakunle, 2016; Littles, 2020; Logan, 2020 and Moore, 2021). For instance, Moore (2021) describes Black males as individuals who demonstrate toxic behavioral traits such as aggression, patriarchal thoughts and dominance, and hegemonic masculinity. Similarly, Collins (2005) describes Black men as possessing the combination of hyper-sexuality and proclivity towards committing a crime which makes them inherently violent. Similarly, hooks (2004) describe Black males as dangerous because their pursuit of social and political power has led them to completely embrace patriarchal (hegemonic or toxic) masculinity. Black men in America have historically been depicted as violent and threatening (Hackman, 2013). All these negative ascriptions contribute to the general view of Black males as dangerous and socially deviant beings that deserves to be "feared." As such, many whites in the United States have grown up fearing Black male bodies, fraternizing about their sexuality as well as framing their natural corporeal movements as menacing. This is now even more apparent with the frequency with which many white members of law enforcement, as well as white vigilantes, are not legally held accountable for the frequent blatant murder of Black men and boys in America today, especially when "fear" is offered as the justification for such cold-blooded murderous acts. Thus, the Black male body is subjected to the white gaze as something to be feared, a site of terror and threat, which often results in violent forms of aggression, discrimination, and in extreme cases, death. In this paper, I use Fanon's notion of phobogenics and the Subordinate Male Target Hypothesis (SMTH) under Social Dominance Theory, as theoretical frameworks to expose the notion of "the fear of Black men" as an irrationally fabricated rhetorical trope. Unveiling this trope as part of the psychology of oppression deployed by dominant white males to maintain power and perpetuate both racialized and gendered discrimination against Black males. This paper concludes that "the fear of Black males" in America should be understood as the upshot of a form of antiblack misandry that specifically targets Black males and overdetermines their existence.