BLACK MASCULINITY AND COLONIZATION: Echoes of the past in the present

Abstract

This article proposes a concise analysis of racist and stereotyped constructions about black men and black masculinity, just as their impacts on the experience of black men in the context of a colonial society. For this, we search for an interdisciplinary dialogue to analyze both racist constructions and some of their meanings — as well as the most chosen path by black men to claim themselves positive image: a patriarchal and sexist masculinity as white masculinity. Therefore, it’s through the social history and psychoanalytic theory of Frantz Fanon, combined with the perspective of black feminism and its inquiries about masculinity, that is found a theoretical and methodological paths to think about how these racist representations imprison the black man in colonial structures. In conclusion, it is necessary a process of decolonization and rupture of the black man from the moorings and the colonial mask, in order to be able to build a new path for yourself. Furthermore, this path has to be built alongside the black feminist movement, to enable new black male identities to be conceived, promoting the decolonization not only of the black people of the diaspora, but also of Brazilian society.

Keywords: black man, black masculinity, racism, stereotypes, colonialism.