Black fatherhood on the agenda – Challenges and perspectives
By Luciano Ramos
“It is very difficult to be a black father, because in addition to all the challenges that a father normally encounters, I still need to educate my children to live with racism.” (report from a father participating in a workshop on Fatherhood and Care in 2019)
I catch myself here looking at Laura (my 5-month-old daughter) and thinking that many black men won't have the chance to be fathers. I understand that I am privileged. A privilege threatened every minute, because I am a black man. And every 23 minutes a black child is left without a father or every 23 minutes a young black man will not become a father, according to the 2017 Violence Map.
According to the facts that will be presented below, this text explains the almost impossibility of black men to father a father in Brazil due to social and historical contexts. Structural racism does not allow black men to exercise fatherhood because they were kidnapped to the West to only be an enslaved workforce and not to fatherhood.
Thus, it is important to conceptualize Structural Racism, which according to Carl E. James (1996), is, therefore, the formalization of a set of institutional, historical, cultural and interpersonal practices within a society that often places a social group or ethnic group in a better position to succeed and at the same time disadvantages other groups consistently and constantly causing disparities that develop between groups over a period of time.
The philosopher Silvio de Almeida explains in his book “Structural Racism” that racism is far from being an anomaly. Racism is “normal”: “Regardless of whether we accept racism or not, it constitutes relationships in their standard of normality” . I have been saying for some time that if black men survive to fatherhood, they have other challenges in experiencing this fatherhood, such as, for example, being forced to create a larger repertoire compared to white fathers in order to empower their sons and daughters to develop in a society. which is based on racism.
When we talk about fatherhood, what fatherhood are we talking about? Where do black fatherhoods connect with the model of socially approached fatherhood? What elements of black fatherhood are found in the fatherhoods studied and approached socially?
I do not intend to answer these questions in these following lines, but to question them further.
About part of the history of the enslavement of black men in Brazil:
It is important to think about a timeline that helps us understand the organization of racism in Brazil, starting from the enslavement of men and women coming from different territories on the African Continent. Countless times, philosopher Marilena Chauí points out, in her speeches, that Brazilian society, mistakenly, transforms differences into inequalities. This is a fundamental point in this text for understanding racism in such a plural scenario, just like the Brazilian reality.
1500 – the Portuguese arrived in Brazil. There is no discovery process for something that had already been discovered by those who lived in these lands. There is an invading arrival.
1550 – slave ship traffic. Laurentino Gomes (2019) in the book Escravidão reports that “The slave ships caused the fish sharks to change their migratory routes, starting to accompany the vessels as they crossed the ocean, waiting for the bodies that would be thrown onto the waves”.
What justifies this trafficking in black bodies and the enslavement of bodies of the same color?
Scientifically, it was believed that black people were inferior because they were black. They remove from black people any and all capacity for thought, reflection and even feelings.
Frantz Fanon, in the book Peles Negras Máscaras Brancas (1952), addresses this white kidnapping of the black man's capacity for reflection and intelligence. Thus, we could make a second claim in this text that white masculinity dehumanizes black men. We can portray this by talking about Hegemony x Subalternity. Further on, our text will address this element.
About the legal framework, according to the timeline:
1824 – Law that prohibits black people from studying – socially reinforces the fact that black people are intellectually inferior, devoid of intelligence and are objectified.
1850 – Land Law – which prohibits black and indigenous people from acquiring land in the country – legally creates the impossibility for black people to acquire property.
Here, I open a parenthesis, to say that one of the founding elements of fatherhood, white and hegemonic, is providing. Not providing, in the context of virility – which is an essential virtue in the organization of rigid masculinity commonly called toxic – mischaracterizes the black man's masculinity. Therefore, it is clear that the white man creates a series of norms to delegitimize the masculinity of the black man. Sociologist and historian Georges Vigarello (2013) addresses virility as follows:
“…virility is marked by an immemorial tradition: not simply the masculine, but in its very nature, and its noblest part, if not the most perfect. Virility would be a virtue, compliments. The Roman virilitas, from which the term originates, remains a model, with its qualities clearly stated: sexual, those of the active husband, powerfully constituted, procreative, but also thoughtful, vigorous and restrained, courageous and measured. Vir is not simply homo; virile is not simply man: he is an ideal of strength of virtue, security and maturity, certainty and domination. Hence this traditional situation of challenge: seeking perfection, excellence, as well as self-control. Numerous qualities, in short, intertwined: sexual ascendancy mixed with psychological ascendancy, physical strength with moral strength, courage and greatness accompanying strength and vigor.” (Vigarello 2013, p.7)
We need to think of virility here as a series of requirements, understood as virtues, that must be constantly practiced for the exercise of masculinity, as socially defined. Once this black man does not reach this place of purchasing power, his masculinity does not exist.
Following the timeline
1871 – Free Womb Law – the children of slave women in Brazil from the date of approval of the law were free
1885 – Sexagenarian Law – determined that from its approval all slaves over 60 years old were free
1888 – Signing of the Lei Áurea – Abolition of Slavery – Brazil is the last American country to abolish slavery
All these laws are organized to ratify the racism that, over time, has become structured in Brazilian society. In any case, in different aspects of the Brazilian organization (laws, signs, Brazilian aesthetics and ethics), society was organized based on racism, making it a natural practice and taught transgenerationally.
What place do black masculinities occupy in Brazil?
The purpose of this text is not to talk about masculinities, but to question the structures that prevent black men from fathering fathers. However, it is very difficult to talk about black fatherhood without talking about masculinities, since they are related.
Here, in this part of the text, we can return to the confrontation between Hegemony x Subalternity. Raewyn Connell (1983) portrays the term Hegemonic Masculinity considering that, first of all, it is an ideal, like a set of actions that would define a real man. Which is combined with the virtues, previously mentioned in this text. These are actually a small group of men, who organize the way men in general need to be categorized. These define subordinates as everyone who is not part of this select group.
Black men, in turn, occupy the spaces of subaltern masculinity. It is important to understand that these hegemonic and subaltern masculinities are directly related, and that one only exists through the existence of the other. According to Kimmel 1998, the hegemonic and the subaltern emerged in a mutual but unequal interaction in a gender-divided social and economic order.” He also states that inequalities are built within masculinities. Which states that white men dehumanize black men's masculinities. Fanon (1952) constantly addresses the inferiority relationship of the black man compared to the white man.
Within this scenario, the black body is not seen as a valued body, but rather as an object (from the perspective of objectification) without historical and social recognition. Thus, the historical racism mentioned above gains a place of legitimacy for the State here. The black man is seen as a suspect, as a potential criminal by the armed power of the State. In this constant struggle between hegemony and subalternity, where this black man is asked, daily, to fight for a place in this chair that for him is non-existent, he is given the false hope of reaching hegemony, through the possibility of killing his brothers of color. In this scenario, the “faithful squire” is presented (a virile, strong man, with a large penis. A threat to the white man due to his irresistible sensuality to white women, but asexual.) who is one of the representations of black people, according to Souza (2009) or the figure of the captain of the forest .
In this duel, there is no space for the black man to be a man. He cannot occupy this place in this current model of masculinity and society.
What is the black father's place?
Black fatherhood cannot be analyzed from the same place as white fatherhood. If you've made it this far in this text, there are several elements that have shown you this. The first step is to deconstruct fatherhood as a singular movement. Fatherhoods occupy different places in this arena. Analyzing fatherhood without considering race, class and gender is an empty and unnecessary movement. Intersectionality is an important concept as a starting point for understanding the different exercises of fatherhood.
Who is this father? What understanding does he have of parenting? What does being a father mean to this man? What experience of being a son did he have? What network does this man have for the exercise of fatherhood?
All of these are fundamental questions to understand black masculinities and support them in this important movement to build black men.
In the book “ Contemporary dialogues on black men and masculinities”, the organizer Henrique Restier reminds us that the memory of fatherhood of the black man is very recent. If we return to the timeline of this text, we will realize that the black man was only able to “exercise” fatherhood, with all the social difficulties associated with this, after the Abolition of Slavery. Therefore, this memory has less than 150 years in the history of black Brazilian men, which in the organization of a society is little. This man is socially charged even more harshly with the exercise of fatherhood than it is charged with the white man. This is due to the white, heteronormative and cis hegemonic organization of Brazilian society. Some attitudes are demanded from this man without considering the basics: which is his fear of dying or that his black sons will die or that his daughters, because they are black, will have their bodies violated, since the black woman's body is not respected within this model of society. The right to life is the fundamental and basic right for social coexistence, but these men are still fighting for it. These parents are still trying to survive. This black fatherhood care movement needs to exist, collectively, but based on a living condition promoted by the State and society.
“It takes a village to raise a child.” This African proverb reminds us of the fact that quilombos have collective movements. Villages have collective movements. White society has individualist movements and demands from men and women who, traditionally, come from community movements, individual attitudes of care and protection. In this aspect, it is important to respect the quilombamento as an experience of care. Think about a movement where the responsibility for care belongs to everyone without taking away what belongs to each person. And fatherhood finds its place of care in this community, which has caring for life as its starting point. The black man, in the illusory quest to achieve hegemonic masculinity, which is also linked to his physical and social survival, has moved away from this collective care movement. It is necessary to call this man to this abandonment of care at the same time that it is necessary for the non-black community to respect and understand this process, in addition to disseminating this practice among its own. This would be an important anti-racist attitude. Thinking about public policies that consider the community as an important space for caring for black fathers, without removing their individual responsibility, is urgent.
Finally, it is not possible to think about black fatherhood apart from the characteristics that organize this black man in a racist world and without making an intersectional reading (gender, class, race).
In this community of black fatherhood, I will only start to dream when my brothers can dream too.
References:
James, Carl E. – Perspectives on racism and the human services sector: A case for change 2nd revised – University Of Toronto Press p.27
Silvio de Almeida is a lawyer, philosopher and university professor
Marilena Chauí is a Brazilian writer and philosopher, specialist in the work of Baruch Espinoza
Laurentino Gomes is a Brazilian journalist and writer
Frantz Fanon was a French Marxist psychiatrist, philosopher and essayist from Martinique, of French and African descent.
Bell Hooks – American author, teacher, feminist theorist, artist and social activist
Glossary:
Racism – set of theories and beliefs that establish a hierarchy between races
Privilege – rights, advantages, prerogatives valid for an individual or group, to the detriment of the majority;
Paternal – exercise paternity
Hegemony – supremacy, preponderant influence exercised by a city, people, country, etc. over others;
Subalternity – state or feeling of dependence, inferiority, subordination, subservience, subordination;
Toxic masculinity – stereotypical characteristics, which presents violent attitudes, aggressiveness and other elements of machismo, attributed to men;
Intersectionality – is the study of the overlap or intersection of social identities and related systems of oppression, domination and discrimination;
Heteronormativity – is a term used to describe situations in which sexual orientations other than heterosexual are marginalized, ignored or persecuted by social practices, beliefs or policies.
Cis – a cis person is a person in whom the sex assigned at birth + internal/subjective feeling of sex + gender assigned at birth + internal/subjective feeling of gender, are 'aligned' or 'on this same side' – the prefix cis in Latin means “on this side” (not the other).
Aquilombamento – meeting in a quilombo
Text by Luciano Ramos
Consultant in Masculinities; Paternities; Gender-based violence; Black Masculinities and Paternities
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