The Pennsylvania State University
The Graduate School
College of Arts and Architecture
STEREOTYPES, STIGMAS, AND SUBJUGATIONS:
DESTABILIZING WHITENESS IN REPRESENTATIONS OF
THE BROTHER ON THE DOWN LOW IN BLACK VISUAL CULTURE
A Dissertation in
Art Education and African American and Diaspora Studies
by
Alphonso Walter Grant
© 2017 Alphonso Walter Grant
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
December 2017
The dissertation of Alphonso Walter Grant was reviewed and approved* by the following:
B. Stephen Carpenter, II Professor of Art Education and African American Studies Dissertation Co-Adviser Committee Co-Chair
Paul C. Taylor Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies College of Liberal Arts Dissertation Co-Adviser Committee Co-Chair
Graeme Sullivan Professor of Art Education Director of the Graduate Program of the School of Visual Arts
Ariane Cruz Associate Professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies
*Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. iii
ABSTRACT
This study relies heavily on Bordwell and Thompson’s (2000) four levels of meaning to critically interpret the television series The DL Chronicles. The term “DL”, which is short for on the down-low, is a common way to refer to men of color who live their everyday lives as heterosexuals, are often married to women, yet also engage in discreet homosexual relationships (Scott, 2010). While many more White men are on the
DL, the term DL as used today, is largely synonymous with Black men and can conjure up a whole set of culturally distinct behavioral images. Interestingly, the DL term and ascribed attributes actually came from White culture and was one way for the White community to pejoratively label a subset of the Black community in a way that would stain Black culture as a whole. This study seeks to explore the ways in which, Black male sexuality broadly, and Black DL identity specifically, has been represented in visual culture in relationship to Whiteness.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figure ...... vi
List of Tables ...... vii
Acknowledgements ...... viii
Chapter One…………………...………………………………………………………..1 Problem Statement………………...……………………………………………………1 The DL Phenomenon………………………………………………………………….1 The DL Chronicles. ………………………………….………………………….…………..6 Research Questions……………………………………………………………………9 Visual Culture …………………………………………………...... 10 Black Visual Culture..……………….…………………………………………….…16 Intersectionality -……………………………………………………………………..17 Queer Theory..…………………………………………………………….………….19 Queer of Color Critique ………………………………………………………………20 Stereotypes, Stigmas, and Subjugations: Crosscutting Issues in Black Identities…....23
Chapter Two………………………………………………………………………...….25 Literature Review………………………………………………………………………25 Historical Context: Black Sexualities and Masculinity ……………...……………….26 Bi-Sexuality and Gay identity In Black Men ……………………….……………..…30 Queer Theory: A Synopsis with Gender and Sexuality.………………………...…….32 Brother on the DL: A Synopsis ………………………………….……………………34 HIV/AIDS: DL and Black Gay Identity: A Synopsis ……………………….………..36 Racial Dialogues ……………………………………………………………..……….38 The Black Image In Television and Social Media ……………………...…...………..39 Television Criticism …………………………………………………………………..42 Summary…………………………………………………………………………...….44 Chapter Three……………….………………………………………………………….46 Methodology…………………………………………………………………………….46 Interpreting Visual, Verbal, and Symbolic Methodologies: Bordwell & Thompson’s Four Levels of Meaning……………………………………………..…………….…48 Referential Meaning ……………………………………………………………48 Explicit Meaning ……………………………………………………………….49 Implicit Meaning ……………………………………………………………….49 Symptomatic Meaning …………………………………………………………50 Limitations of Bordwell and Thompson’s Theory …………………………………… 50 v
Sample Analysis -………………………………………………………………………52 Episode 1 Wes: Background of Characters ……………………………………52 Episode 1: Wes ……………………………….………………………………..53 Analysis: ………………………………………………………….……………55 Significance of Study ………………………………………….…………………...….57 Assumptions and Limitations ……………………………………………………….…59
Chapter 4 ……………………………………………………………………………..61 Analysis of Series …………………………………………………………………….61 Episode 2, Robert: Background of Characters ………………………………………..61 Episode 2: Robert ………………………………………………………………….63 Analysis:…………………………………………………………………………... 65 Episode 3, Boo: Background of Characters …………………………………………..68 Episode 3: Boo …………………………………………………………………….70 Analysis: …………………………………………………………………………..71 Episode 4, Mark: Background of Characters …………………………………………74 Episode 4: Mark …………………………………………………………………...75 Analysis: …………………………………………………………………………..77 Hidden Meanings ……………………………………………………………………..80 Black Male Emasculation: Historical to the Contemporary…………………………..88 Discussion: Revisiting Black Masculinities ………………………………………….92 Closing………………………………………………………………………………..97 Chapter 5 ………………………………………………………………….....100 Introduction……………………………………………………………..…...100 Summary of the Study …………………………………………………..……100 Responses to the Research Questions ………………………………………..101 Implications for Art Education ……………………………………………….111 African American Studies: Re-Structuring Theoretical Concepts …………...113 Considerations, Implications, and Interventions …………………………….117 Closing Statement …………………………………………………………….120
Chaapter 6……………………………………………………………………………..123 Epilogue………………………………………………………………………..123 Learning to be Black: Unreconciled Strivings of Black Identity and Black Consciousness ………………………………………………………………….123 DL and Black Gay Men ………………………………………………………..125 Questioning Identity and Representation ………………………………………129 Closing …………………………………………………………………………130 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………..132
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 The DL Chronicles ……………………………………………………6
Figure 1.2 Lenear & Gossett ……………………………………………………...6
Figure 1.3 Chadwick ……………………………………………………………...7
Figure 3.1 Wes ……………………………………………………………………52
Figure 3.2 Sarah ……………………………………………………………….….52
Figure 3.3 Trent …………………………………………………………………..52
Figure 4.1 Robert …………………………………………………………………61
Figure 4.2 Austin …………………………………………………………………61
Figure 4.3 Shirley ………………………………………………………………...62
Figure 4.4 Rhonda ………………………………………………………………..62
Figure 4.4 Boo ……………………………………………………………………68
Figure 4.6 Keisha …………………………………………………………………69
Figure 4.7 Mark …………………………………………………………………..74
Figure 4.8 Dante ………………………………………………………………….74
Figure 4.9 Terrell …………………………………………………………………74
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Bordwell & Thompson’s Theory……………………………..……….51
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. B. Stephen Carpenter, II, my dissertation adviser, thank you for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to embark on this journey. There are not enough words to thank you for your support. Dr.
Paul C. Taylor, my dissertation advisor, every time I believed that I was about to understand a concept and thought I was “prepared” for a conversation with you, you always reminded that I am, and forever will be, in a constant state of becoming. Thank you for keeping my grounded. Dr. Graeme Sullivan, thank you for taking the time out your hectic schedule to engage with me in mapping out our theoretical conversations.
You have no idea how much I appreciate all of your help. Dr. Ariane Cruz, you consistently pushed me to present more informed, in-depth, and multifaceted research.
Thank you for guidance during this process. I have to thank my mother, Mrs. Rachel
Eleanor Logan Grant. Without her constant words of wisdom and continuously reminding me to keep my faith and trust in God, I would not have made it through life, let alone my
PhD dissertation.
1
Chapter 1
Problem Statement
The DL Phenomenon
The term “DL”, which is short for on the down-low, is a common way to refer to men of color who live their everyday lives as heterosexuals, are often married to women, yet also engage in discreet relationships with other men (Scott, 2010). While many more
White men are on the DL, the term DL as used today, is largely synonymous with Black men and can conjure up a whole set of culturally distinct behavioral images.
Interestingly, the DL term and ascribed attributes actually came from White culture and was one way for the White community to pejoratively label a subset of the Black community in a way that would stain Black culture as a whole (Scott, 2010). This study seeks to explore the ways in which, Black male sexuality broadly, and Black DL identity specifically, has been negotiated in visual culture in relationship to Whiteness. A vast amount of visual culture produced, consumed, collected, and interpreted over the centuries with regard to the image of Black society includes specific images, performances, films, and other visual artifacts in which Black people are stereotyped, stigmatized, and subjugated in a narrowly limited and negative fashion, designed to appeal to the rest of society. These examples are commonly what is considered Black visual culture.
2 To retrace its background, DL is a term with a complex history (Boykin 2005;
Phillips 2005; Scott, 2010). The first known person to use the term down low was George
Hanna, who used the phrase in the 1930 song, “Boy in the Boat”, about lesbian women.
The term was popularized in the late 1990s in the Black community, and was used to describe any kind of slick, secretive behavior, including infidelity in relationships
(Boykin, 2005). The type of Black masculinity usually associated with the image of being
DL is ultimately hyper-masculine and mirrors hip-hop culture (Gonzalez, 2007). For example, Collins (2004) suggested in her book, Issues of Black Masculinity, that the hyper-masculine image of Black men, continues to be shaped by the media, morphing into images of pimps, hustlers, and players, which is a reflection of hip-hop culture.
Collins (2004) also suggests Black DL men avoid being labeled DL and/or being characterized as being dominated by Black men, by acting and becoming hyper- masculine and hyper-aggressive. She further suggested that White dominated media’s representations of Black masculinity, positions Black men as aggressive thugs who refute being weak by being dominated by strong Black women. Collins went on to claim that
DL stereotypes serve to preserve ideological oppression and stigmatize Black men’s sexuality. For instance, Black DL men are not deemed to be truly Black because Black male sexuality, through the eyes of White dominated media, is defined through the lens of promiscuity and heterosexuality. Similar to Collins, I think the truth is this is just further re-enforcing support for the sexual promiscuity label associated with DL.
The stereotypes and stigma surrounding DL Black men continue to be connected to promiscuity, untrustworthiness, weakness, Whiteness, and diseases. “Whiteness is both an identity and a structure” (Warren, 2009, p. 80); it is together with whom a White
3 person is and the system of power that benefits White people and disadvantages Black,
Brown, and Tan people (Ferguson, 2004; and Warren, 2009). Conversation about DL started in 2000, when the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), published findings speculating that surges in HIV/AIDS infection among heterosexual Black women could hypothetically be attributed to, as the CDCP termed it, a “bisexual bridge”
(Boykin, 2005, p. 85). As a result of this speculative rhetoric, the notion of DL Black men as the main carriers and spreaders of HIV/AIDS started to appear in White dominated media around February 2001 (Boykin, 2005, pp. 90, 99, 102-104).
Benoit Denizet-Lewis, columnist for the New York Times Magazine, in his article,
Double Lives On The Down Low, (2003), asserted DL men were more than a configuration of selected sexual conduct by some; DL was a methodical subculture with its own secretive “vocabulary and customs” (p. 30). Denizet-Lewis (2003) used a tone that conveyed White dominated medias’ portrayal of the pervasive behavior of Black DL men, as being covert and engaging in risky sexual practices common to DL sex, such as cruising, sex parties, and sexual promiscuity in parks, and public bathrooms. Denizet-
Lewis (2003) concluded his text with myriad strategically selected quotations from numerous public health organizations, which were focused on the myth that Black DL men almost always cause heterosexual Black women considerable health risk because of their risky and secretive sexual behavior. Denizet-Lewis (2003) also falsely asserted that
DL is solely a Black phenomenon that is distinctly connected to fixed notions of Black cultural, societal, and gender norms. In other words, DL is inextricably associated with historically racist claims of Black sexual aberration and anxieties about Black gay men’s responsibility for the spread of HIV/AIDS.
4 Therefore, Denizet-Lewis’ (2003) work backed a hegemonic racial framing of overall Black identity as marred by the figure of the DL man. For example, Feagin (2009) claimed in United States culture there is a predominant White racial framing of Black men that includes an “overarching worldview that encompasses important racial ideas, terms, images, emotions, and interpretations that are animated by narratives, characters and plotlines of White superiority and Black inferiority” (p. 3). Within four years of
Denizet-Lewis’ (2003) article, DL became predominantly and pervasively publicly associated only with Black men. In the summer 2003 queer issue of The Village Voice, contributing writer and NYU professor Jason King published Remixing the Closet: The
Down Low A Way of Knowledge. Boykin (2005) claimed, King’s controversial op-ed article questioned the relationship between HIV/AIDS and DL. Indeed, the article was the first mainstream piece to openly criticize negative mainstream media depictions of DL and put a different spin on the DL phenomenon.
Scholarly literature and research on the phenomenon of DL and the lifestyle is limited. About this, Roderick Ferguson (2004) commented that research and data pertaining to DL or African American sexuality in general is incomplete or sparse (para.
3). Similarly, Bleich and Taylor-Clark (2005) noted the lack of empirical research on the subject of Black men, who have sex with men and women, (BMSM/W) has made it difficult to fully understand the DL lifestyle and offer useful solutions. Bleich and
Taylor-Clark (2005) further noted that the limited available academic studies are often
“ungeneralizable” (p. 15). While DL in Black visual culture is developing a following with gay men and lesbians, it is still considered by many to be a low point in the history of different facets of Black communities representations of gay men.
5 I posit in United States culture, DL is an assumed problem that needs to be solved. I argue that it is false to buy into the claimed myth that Black DL men are the primary transmitters of HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Furthermore, I claim that DL is not necessarily the problem it has been made out to be. There is little evidence that Black DL men are responsible for the rise of HIV/AIDS among heterosexual Black women and others. Therefore, positing DL as a problem detracts from the underlying argument about
DL men.
Some contemporary scholars approach DL through queer theory. For example, communications scholar C.Riley Snorton (2014) extends Eve K. Sedgwick’s (1990) concept of the glass closet to grapple with race, sex, and secrecy. Sedgwick, one of the founders of queer studies, argues that standard binary oppositions limit freedom and understanding, especially in the context of sexuality. Limiting sexuality to just homosexuality or heterosexuality, in a structured binary opposition, is too simplistic. As such, Snorton (2014) built on Sedgwick’s concepts to examine the dynamics and geographies of DL. He also examined how DL links Blackness and queerness in the popular imagination and how DL is just one example of how media and popular culture surveys, label, and police Black sexuality. For example, Snorton (2014) looked at controversial DL figures such as Bishop Eddie L. Long, J. L. King, and rapper and actor
Will Smith. He ultimately contended that DL narratives reveal the limits of current understandings of Black sexuality. Additionally, queer theorist Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr.
(2014) provided an ethnographic case study that explored DL men leading heterosexual lives in public. McCune’s analysis of Black DL men showed how some facets of United
States culture pit Black women against Black men, and hetero-normative Black bodies
6 against Black queer bodies. While these scholars examined the DL lifestyle in their research, their findings directly contribute to richer and more complex understandings of
Black queer sexuality in feminist and gendered spaces, a topic that will be discussed in more detail in chapter two. However, informative these studies are, these scholars critique only the literature surrounding sexuality and gender but not visual culture. I further discuss the relationship between DL, feminist, gendered, and visual cultural spaces in chapters two and three.
The DL Chronicles
Figure 1: 1: The DL Chronicles The DL Chronicles (see figure 1:1), created by Quincy LeNear and Deondray
Gossett in 2007 (see figure, 1:2) is a hard-hitting television series based on the DL
lifestyle. The DL
Chronicles tells the stories of men of color who
live sexually secretive lifestyles. The narrator of the
series, the aspiring journalist Chadwick Williams,
Figure 1: 2: LeNear and Gossett pursues his research for a book about DL men and in
7 doing so; he enters into a provocative and intriguing world of sexual discovery. Each of the four episodes in this series delves into the different lives and experiences of DL men across social, cultural, and economic boundaries. The television series includes Black cultural, sociological, and political commentary. At the surface, the television series for
some can be explicit and at times even offensive. For
example, The DL Chronicles highlights cultural,
contemporary, historic, racialized, and societal issues in the
United States through the display of existing stereotypes of
Black people, DL men, and Black gay men, portrayed
through its characters. The research design section (see
Figure 1: 3: Chadwick chapter 3) of this dissertation provides a sample interpretation from the series, which include episode 1, “Wes.” I argue The DL
Chronicles is one representation of DL identity, within the landscape of Black visual culture and cultural behaviors. The DL Chronicles reveal the affects of oppression and disenfranchisement, which are still in effect in Black culture as exhibited through the characters’ interactions with one another in this controversial television series.
Additionally, this series provides an unapologetic view of intimacy between Black men and explores these titillating stories with honesty and integrity (here! TV Network, 2008
Chadwick (see figure 1: 3), the narrator of the series, identifies the issues the series contends with: racism, gender roles, sexual orientation, and politics of the DL in
Black visual culture. Chadwick’s introduction of The DL Chronicles reads:
“Black men very much like myself, some not. Black men whose voices are muted, swept under the carpet, silenced by secrecy. The DL man blurs the lines between an
8 otherwise supposed clear distinction between gay and straight, normal and abnormal, moral and immoral, like a child joining two blood lines, one dirty, one clean. Black men caught somewhere between a definition and a designation. Living in a grey area, living on the down low.”
Stereotype: a formulaic and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.
One that is regarded as embodying or conforming to a set image or type –
That of the black man: powerful, angry, criminal. Sexual predator.
Juxtapose to that of the gay man. Distrustful, obscene, sexually
promiscuous – Now enter into the down low. Both Black and gay – Both
misunderstood and feared.
Deeper insight into the background of the creators of The DL Chronicles might fall into the history and experience of its creators. LeNear and Gossett met through mutual friends. One of their friends was trying to link them up for creative and business reasons. He had no idea that they were DL and/or gay. They were both actors and very closeted, fearing, their sexuality would ruin their chances for success in Hollywood. Over time, they gave love a try, and for seven years they loved each other in a DL relationship.
Many of their friendships suffered because of their fear. They felt the pain of being unable to openly celebrate their love (http://www. glad. org/blog/dl-chronicles-producers- quincy-and-deondray-gossfield-speak-glaad-about-being-married-live). Chadwick goes on to say DL men are “Black men whose voices are muted” as a result of identity constructs grounded in hegemonic White culture. Black men who identify as DL are seen, according to Cathy Cohen (1999), as men with crosscutting cultural issues with
9 their erotic and sensual actions and inflict further marginalization on them within an already marginalized Black culture.
Disillusioned with the lack of people of color in LGBTQ media and growing tired of the witch-hunt for DL, LeNear and Gossett created the indie anthology series, The DL
Chronicles. LeNear and Gossett decided together that when their short film came out at its first film festival, they would come out as gay with it. The success of the series set them on a new path. LeNear and Gossett’s exposure of the DL in Black United States culture compels my research on Black DL men and their relationship to Black visual culture in a broader context. The research is important because Black visual culture remains a rich and under-explored territory that in general has been under-appreciated in the fields of art education and African American studies.
To date, there have not been any dissertations or studies using The DL Chronicles as a primary source of examination to offer critical insight into Black visual culture. My purpose in this dissertation is: (a) to assess stereotypes of DL Black male identity; (b) to identify and interpret the stigmas related to representations of DL; and (c) to examine the subjugations of DL that are interconnected to Whiteness and what are the implications for art education and African American studies. In short, this study seeks to explore the ways in which, Black male sexuality broadly, and Black DL identity specifically, has been presented in visual culture in relationship to Whiteness.
Research Questions
1. In what ways are brothers on the DL represented in Black visual culture?
(Specifically: behaviors, language, mannerisms, actions, dress, relationships and
10 proximity to distance from other kinds of representations).
2. In what ways can representations of brothers on the DL in Black visual culture be
used to inform and guide curriculum in art education and African American and
diaspora studies?
To begin with, Snorton (2014) provided a working theoretical definition of DL and critiqued DL identity in the literature. My study extends Snorton’s (2014) analysis into Black visual culture. Snorton’s (2014) perspectives inform my research in the fields of art education and African American and diaspora studies by providing a space to interpret DL identity within the Black visual culture; a practice not often used within either of these disciplines and thus represents a merging of art education and African
American studies through Black visual culture. For example, I argue that my study of DL in Black visual culture better informs praxis in Freireian (1970) critical pedagogy; and in turn, insights from my research will benefit critical pedagogical approaches in these interdisciplinary spaces. In short, my intention to use my study in critical pedagogy is to link historical knowledge and practices of DLs with contemporary curricular and pedagogical discourses on Black visual culture. In accomplishing these things, this dissertation also raises focused conceptual and methodological questions that require further research in Black visual culture.
Visual Culture
Previously I have argued that the visual is what we see in terms of the physical aspects of the world that we observe every day (Grant, 2013). Yet, the visual is much more than this. It is a process of vision, judgment, and perception. Similarly, my use of
11 the term visual culture has origins in anthropology, art history, critical theory, cultural studies, and philosophy. For example, Marriott (2000) stated, “our dream world is an eye fixed by someone else’s fascinations and repulsions, a distorting emanation sent to possess, to consume us” (p. 41). In other words, I contend, that visual culture focuses on culture being represented and made meaningful through what is seen; culture is manifested through visual reproduction and presentation of images, values, representations, subjective beauty, and priorities.
Visual culture “refers to a plethora of ways with which the visual is a part of social life” (Rose, 2012, p. 4). Additionally, according to Mitchell (1972), “images and language are inextricably entangled” (p. 12). Some scholars make arguments for representation and non-representation of visual culture. Art educator Kerry Freedman
(2003) argues that visual culture is an interdisciplinary subject. Rose (2012) explained that compartmentalizing “this diversity obviously makes generalizing about studies of visuality a difficult task” (p. 11), and continued to state that “the literature on (or against)
‘visual culture’ is its concern for the way in which images visualize (or render visible) social difference” (p. 11). In this context, Rose looked carefully at images and how they represent or portray distinctive separation in class, gender, race, and sexual orientation.
Therefore, images are very powerful, and the meanings they convey can be explicit or implicit depending upon the context in which they are being delivered or viewed. Writers on visual culture are concerned about how images look and how they are being looked at, a major component focused on by visual studies scholars such as Sturken and Cartwright
(2009). They argued that the importance of images is not simply the image itself, but how certain spectators see and look at it in particular ways.
12 Visual culture art education (VCAE) is steeped in critical pedagogy. VCAE gives students the pedagogical tools to destabilize Whiteness in hegemonic narratives which takes absolute power away from the teacher. Dorn (2005) stated, “What some consider most radical about the VCAE approach is its attempt to shift the Art Education field from its traditional emphasis on studio art into a dialogue about art as a socially constructed object, devoid of expressive meaning” (p. 47). Similarly, Michelle Kamhi (2010) is another scholar who believes the future of art education is in jeopardy. She argued, for example, that if students are oppressed, it is due to their own ignorance and that of their immediate family and community. She referenced the film Precious as “moving testimony to that truth” (Kamhi, 2010); however, she failed to account for the fact that the film Precious is a representation of Black visual culture that challenges the limitations of Whiteness. Nonetheless, Duncum (2003) summarized how art educators visualize what the study of visual culture could possibly mean to students in their classrooms. Duncum (2003) showed precedence in his own study to another reason why art educators should care about the information in this study. Duncum furthered argued that visual culture focuses on the ways culture can be represented through visual connotations, and he wrote about the ways in which culture is manifested through reproduction and presentation of visuality. Therefore, visual culture is the visual interpretation of culture, philosophy, and ethos by using images to communicate with society (Grant, 2013). The DL Chronicles is an example of Black visual culture that relies on this framework to examine the phenomena of Black DL men. Studying this series is important because, historically, there is a lack of critical cultural engagement with DL
13 identity. The ignorance of it has been pervasive and yet, it is embedded deeply within
United States culture. About this, Pierterse (1992) asserted:
[i]t is not that the images provide no information about [B]lacks, but that
the information is one-sided and distorted. They convey allegories of the relations
between Europe and Africa, and between [W]hites and [B]lacks, viewed from the
standpoint of Europeans and [W]hites. The relations depicted are not those of
dialogue but of domination. (p. 10)
Here, Pieterse referred to one problem with Black visual images that it is not about the visual image of Black people themselves; rather it is about how Whiteness controls visual images of Black people when, historically, “[W]hiteness is both an identity and a structure” (Warren, 2009, p. 80). Similarly, B. Alexander (2012) defined
Whiteness as a “self-reifying practice, a practice that sustains the ability to name, and conversely not to be named, and the power to speak without being chastised while in the process of chastising others” (p. 23). In essence, Whiteness influences perceptions of what a real man is to the point that when facets of United States society think of real men, they usually think of characteristics and images typically associated with the White
American man, not Black American men.
Additionally, Freedman (2003) theorized visual culture within the context of the field of art education. Freedman contends that visual culture includes, “fine arts, tribal arts, advertising, popular film and video, folk art, television and other performance, housing and apparel design, computer game and toy design and other forms of visual production and communication” (p. 1). Similar to theoretical frameworks used in African
American and diaspora studies (Andrews and Palmer, 2013; Patton, 2015), Freedman
14 (2003) positioned visual culture as a term that does not necessarily require an agreed upon definition to discuss it in the field of art education. She stated: “Visual culture is inherently interdisciplinary and increasingly multimodal” (p. 1). Just like the numerous definitions of art have changed and refreshed the field of fine art over time, so does defining and re-defining the characteristics of visual culture, visual culture does the same.
Here, Freedman (2003) went on to state, “visual arts takes place in and through the realm of visual culture, inside and outside of the school, at all education levels, through the objects, ideas, beliefs, and practices that make up the totality of human conceived visual experience; it shapes our thinking about the world and leads us to create new knowledge through visual form” (p. 2). In other words, life outside of the classroom offers rich territory for cultivating students at all levels of education. Freedman (2003) went on to stipulate, art education is a field of study that embraces “objects, meanings, purposes, and functions of what visual arts students make and see every day as much as the art in museums” (p. 2). Furthermore, there are two strains of critical theory that have particularly influenced the discourse around art and education since the 1960s: European neo-Marxist theory, and particularly the work of the critical sociologists of the Frankfurt
School, and Paulo Freire’s theory that supported the literature from John Dewey’s pragmatism, Art As Experience, (see Dewey, 1933). These two strains focused on social theory responding to political and economic oppression. Additionally, within these theories are discussions of vital connotations with respect to visual culture and its influence on identity, in terms of art making and viewing as well as what is being seen and what is perceived. Freedman (2003) cites Lacan in this regard by noting, “the creation of self is based on the subject being invested with certain characteristics through
15 symbolic representation” (p. 2). The idea is that people can be prejudiced through images that are subjective in their connotation.
Whereas, Rolling (2010) explicitly grappled with the discourse surrounding Black identity, the Black lived experience, and the human condition in the United States without stereotypical dialogue, Rolling’s (2010) work brought fresh connotation to
[re]constructing narrative Black identity within arts-based [re]search. Further, he has created a framework for future art education scholars to use in order to place their own identity and lived experiences into their own work. He is cognizant of the fact that out of chaos within, incompletion of, and uncertainty about his Black identity come order, achievement, and inevitability. Rolling (2010) stated, “certainty has been the precursor of injury to my body, injury to my sense of my body,” (and) “injury to my representation of my body” (p. 92). Through self-reflection on being a Black male in the United States, he was able to ascertain the difference between arrogance and self-confidence along with pridefulness and humility. With every word on the page, Rolling sketched a visual imagery that allowed the reader to walk hand in hand with him on his journey through
Black identity and the Black lived experience. He [re]structured the complicated conversation of Black identity and the Black lived experience in the United States in order to [re]cast them fresh. Rolling (2010) encouraged his reader to become a curious viewer and not settle for instant responses to what is seen. He argued that through
[re]interpretation and [re]casting ourselves Black men learn about the art, the artist, and the spectator through self-reflection. Indeed, Rolling’s theoretical concepts have assisted me in terms of my own awareness of my identity as my own consciousness of image is constantly evolving.
16 Additionally, Rolling (2006) argued that “representation of African American’s
[sic] in Western visual culture have been represented as less than human, less than
American, or less than statistically significant in the purpose to maintain an unequal relation of economic and political power” (p. 1). Rolling built this argument on
Foucauldian premises, contending that visual culture archaeology is developed as a methodology for discursive un-naming and renaming, and emerges from the inherence and attenuation of in-scripted meanings in the reinterpretation of identity during a postmodern confluence of ideas and images. In a similar vein, art educators (Bey, 2011;
Bey and Washington, 2013; Carpenter, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011; Darts, 2007;
Duncum, 2003, 2004; Freedman, 2003; Grant, 2013, 2014; and Rolling, 2010) discussed issues surrounding stereotypes, Black identity, multicultural visual culture, and queering the curriculum. However, none of these art educators took on representations of DL in
Black visual culture.
Black Visual Culture
The intricacies and the complexities within Black visual culture in general and in the television series, The DL Chronicles, specifically have been under-reported, under- interpreted and not recognized sufficiently in relationship to curriculum theory in the fields of art education and African American studies. There are scholars who have examined Black visual culture (Pieterse, 1992; Bearden & Henderson, 1993; hooks,
1995; Doy, 2002; Lewis, 2003; Powell, 2003; Bolden, 2004). However, none of these scholars has sufficiently examined DL identity within Black visual culture. Pieterse
(1992) revealed, for example, that the omnipresence of prejudice against Black people
17 throughout the Western world is conveyed through racist imagery. Interestingly, Bearden and Henderson (1993) observed the lives and careers of some Black American artists, and simply juxtaposed their work against fundamental artistic, societal, and political trends both in the United States and throughout the world. hooks (1995) replied to the continuing discourse about constructing, unveiling, and evaluating art and aesthetics in an art world consistently concerned with social justice and Black identity politics. Doy
(2002) took a global perspective in discussing how Black artists have been and continue to be slanted by the politics, cultures, societies, economies, and histories in which they live and work. Lewis (2003) looked at the works and lives of Black artists from the eighteenth century to the present and revealed the rich legacy of work by Black American artists. Powell (2003) concentrated on the works of art themselves and on how these works, created during a time of major social disturbance and transformation, use Black culture as both subject and context. Lastly, Bolden (2004) highlighted influential and important Black American artists from the early part of the twentieth century who were actively discouraged from pursuing their artistic talent. Yet, none of the aforementioned authors tackled the impact of the DL image or the overall racial image ascribed to Black
Americans by others. Additionally, the destabilization of Black visual culture in the
United States typically comes from negative connotations about Black people reified by the concept of Whiteness.
Intersectionality
Intersectionality influences images of DL Black men by drawing multiple pre-set racial biases and images together and layering them on top of a further negative
18 homophobic concepts of the DL Black man as being a cultural danger. For Crenshaw
(1995) and Collins (2000), “‘Intersectionality’ means the examination of race, sex, national origin and sexual orientation, and how their combination plays out in various settings” (p. 57). These authors argued that the intersection, or what Collins (2000) termed “the interlocking nature of identities,” (p. 57) is inseparable, and one must consider how these multiple identities simultaneously reproduce particular sites of oppression and exclusion. Crenshaw (1995) inquired as to why and how Black people are always in multiple intersections that are always crossing. Scott (1997) along with
Crenshaw (1995) and Collins (2000), echoed de Beauvoir (1949) in suggesting that gender is not born, but made, thus providing a sociological critique not of the body, but rather of cultural specifics such as social roles, cultural functions, and representations of femininity and masculinity.
For hooks (2004), ethnic and racial differences within intersectionality and masculinity are important to diversity in African American studies, because framing these issues within the context of intersectionality provides ways in which masculinity is experienced, accepted, negotiated, and interpreted. hooks further suggested “masculinity, as practiced by Black Americans, plays upon and, at times, calls into question culturally dominant projections of Black masculinity; which these scholars define and described as restrictive interpretations” (p. 36). Additionally, to this point I argue, Black men are seen as a highly commoditized element in the cultural domains of entertainment. The certain image types are positioned as a sexual fantasy. Another factor in constructing Black male identity is social stigma and penalties, which can include community isolation, violence, and prejudice when Black men who do not conform to Whiteness in the expected
19 masculine narrative. Potoczniak (2007) posits such attempts are undermined rather than celebrated. For instance, Johnson (2008) and Alexander (2006) used intersectionality to explore how Black gay men navigate cultural and social spaces. More specifically,
Johnson (2008) focused on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality and how Black gay men situate their lives within groups and geographic regions in the United States that marginalize their ethnicity, masculinity, and sexuality. In focusing on competing notions of Black masculinity, Alexander (2006) documented how White and Black communities can differ in their interpretations of moral versus immoral embodiments of Black masculinity. For Alexander (2006), qualities of the moral Black man in solidarity with
Whiteness include being articulate, polite, and intelligent; however, such qualities can be considered bad in some facets of Black culture. Therefore, someone who embodies character traits that are moral can simultaneously be understood as immoral (Alexander,
2006) when situated in heteronormativity and homonormativity. In short, Johnson (2008) and Alexander (2006) concluded that intersectionality is constructed in heterosexism and thus is homophobic. There is little room in its construction of Black masculinity to imagine a Black man who is DL or attracted to men or both men and women.
Queer Theory
Queer theory critically analyzes social dynamics and power structures regarding sexual identity and social power by challenging and deconstructing normativity, especially as supported by essentialist notions of identity. Queer theory renders identity multiple and unstable. Queer theory celebrates difference that contributes to a non- threatening truth, but queer theory also deconstructs identity as much as it does gender
20 and its accompaniments such as power, social roles, and hierarchical locations. Informed by a constructionist agenda, queer theory has moved from explaining the modern homosexual to questions of the operation of the hetero/homosexual binary. Queer theory moves from an exclusive preoccupation with homosexuality to a focus on heterosexuality as a social and political organizing principle. And, queer theory moves from a politics of minority interest to a politics of knowledge and difference (Butler, 1999; Ferguson, 2004; and Seidman 1996). Here, my use of queer theory ends up asking questions similar to those raised in the discourse around intersectionality. That said, queer theory denounces sexuality as universal while affirming it as a social construct. Even though queer theory effectively examines the role of sexuality in the lives of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people, and other sexual and gender minorities, the research repeatedly centers on White people as subjects of inquiry to the exclusion of queers of color (Cohen,
1997; Collins, 2000; and Holland, 2012). Thus, queer theory was constructed in
Whiteness instead of including the differing racial experiences amid homonormative people and does not address issues pertaining to DL men.
Queer of Color Critique
Queer of color focuses on social formations at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class, with particular interest in how these formations correspond with and diverge from nationalist ideals and practices. However, it does not focus on the identity constructs of DL men, as a study of the most prominent writings on it indicates. This begins with Ferguson (2004), when he looked at the way heteronormative culture has functioned in constructing citizenship through Whiteness, which has historically excluded
21 people of color based on race, gender, and sexual orientation. He went against hegemonic societal norms and used sociological theory to expound on his concepts. Ferguson (2004) defined a queer of color critique as “social formations at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class, with particular interest in how these formations correspond with and diverge from nationalist ideals and practices” (p. 48). Ferguson identified the historical imbrication of discourses that must be disjointed in a queer of color critique. He further asserted that with the reliance on Whiteness in seminal queer theory texts (Butler, 1999 and Foucalt 1990, 1995), the manufacturing of coming out as a liberatory act reflects a hegemonic narrative that further instigates epistemological bias that does not necessarily represent queer subjects divided by racial distinction. This framework has a similar overarching theme for facets of the LGBT&Q community.
Moreover, Ferguson (2004) eloquently distinguished between how queers of color resist interpellation into these controlled categories of Black American identity established by canonical sociology and dominant literary representations. He questions how, in an already marginalized context, White queer narratives are placed on Black queers or queers of color and asserts that these expectations do not fully address the issues faced by these further marginalized groups. Similarly, Cohen (1997) stated, “in many instances, instead of destabilizing the assumed categories and binaries of sexuality, queer politics has served to reinforce simple dichotomies between heterosexual and everything ‘queer’” (p. 438). As a result, queers of color are asking questions that are non-conforming and seen as deviant from Whiteness. Queer is therefore not an essentialist category of identity but rather a set of critiques of White homosexuality and patriarchy. In short, queer of color critique is a heterogeneous enterprise made up of
22 women of color feminism, materialist analysis, poststructuralist theory, and queer critique. Therefore, queer of color critique does not focus on identity constructs of DL men.
Summary
Intersectionality, queer theory, and a queer of color critique question the idea of fixed sexual identities. Jagose (1996), for example, contended that queer theory's challenge is to construct fresh ways of thinking about fixed single variable conceptual ideas of sexual identities such as gender, heteronormaivity, and homonormativity.
Additionally, Johnson and Henderson (2005) stated, “lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered people of color who are committed to the demise of oppression in its various forms, cannot afford to theorize their lives based on ‘single-variable’ politics” (p.
5). In short, oppression is typically experienced on various fronts; therefore, raising one identity above others as the primary focus of analysis potentially reinforces the power of whiteness instead of destabilizing its dominance. Although research in art education,
African American studies, and queer and gender studies is improving in terms of including Black gay men beyond an implied and anecdotal comment, there is still little research with a specific focus on how DL men grasp and experience their masculinities; this, in turn, directly affects how brothers on the down low navigate the narration of their lives.
23 Stereotypes, Stigmas, and Subjugations: Crosscutting Issues in Black
Identities
As a summation to this first Chapter, I must restate, my purpose in this dissertation is (a) to examine the stereotypes of Black male identity; (b) to identify and interpret the stigmas related to representations of DL; and (c) to discuss the subjugations of DL that are interconnected to the curricular and pedagogical implications for art education and African American studies. In short, this study seeks to explore the ways in which, Black male sexuality broadly, and Black DL identity specifically, has been negotiated in visual culture in relationship to Whiteness. I argue that the hegemonic
American construction of identity and images of Black men in the United States are filled with stereotypes of hyper-sexuality, savagery, primitivism, and docility, and that these images have become infused into the Black community. As a consequence of identity constructs that result from Whiteness, Black men who classify themselves as DL or gay are seen as a crosscutting issue, which is a cultural line that creates further ostracism within an already marginalized Black community. For example, Black gay sexual identity has been seen in Black communities as mitigating one’s racial identity and deflating one’s community standing. In short, Black men, who identify as bisexual, queer, or gay are belittled because they are seen as being like women under the stereotypical White cultural positioning of White gay men as being sissies, faggots, or effeminate. Despite the similar points of view (from the racial front), Black DL men have the fear of being labeled as effeminate, which may be even stronger shaming of Black gay men from the
Black community than of White gay men in the White community, and that is part of the reason they are on the DL.
24 Until now, the considerations I have suggested are not just for understanding the question about multifaceted notions of Black DL identities or Black lived experiences.
Nor are they only about the distinctive Black masculine identities of the self from a particular perspective. Interconnected to discussions of masculinity are discussions of sexuality. Black (2000) and hooks (2004) argued that by the end of slavery “patriarchal masculinity had become an accepted ideal for most Black men, an ideal that would be reinforced by twentieth-century norms” (hooks, 2004, p. 4). Collins (2004) in a similar vein suggested that Black masculinity was negotiated through understandings of the economic and political climate during the Jim Crow era, when Black men were emasculated, yet depicted as being naturally hyper-heterosexual. The next section,
Chapter 2, is a review of the literature that surrounds key concepts and areas of importance in this study. Chapter 2 also builds and extends on the discourse in Chapter 1, surrounding destabilizing Whiteness in representations of DL in Black visual culture.
25
Chapter 2
Literature Review
This chapter is a review of the literature that surrounds the key concepts and areas of this study. This chapter also builds on the discourse in Chapter 1 surrounding destabilizing Whiteness in representation of the brother on the down low (DL) in Black visual culture. In the intersection of Black male emasculation and queer theory, I focus on the sustained interaction of these two concepts with contemporary politics of identity, masculinity, and media representation. I also reflect on categorization and institutionalization of Black men in visual culture.I discuss how knowledge and power plays of hegemonic United States culture and people are structured and regulated by means of social dynamics. I ultimately provide insights into these things by investigating them and looking closely at their social constructs. I also focus on the social critique of power and marginality in terms of United States Black male culture at the aforementioned intersection.
Using the existing literature, I identify and examine a number of important connections within the discussion of United States Black male culture in general and DL culture specifically to emphasize epistemological considerations, difference, marginality, and agency. These considerations have been instrumental in critiquing the relationships of Black masculinity and sexuality. Although some of this has been written about already, the relationships among these other aspects has not. I investigate the relationship
26 between heteronormativity, homonormativity, patriarchy, whiteness and blackness, and queerness and the DL. I focus on how the DL navigates this complex space within the
African American diaspora and also within the underexplored curricular and pedagogical implications of visual images of the DL man for art education and African American studies.
This study seeks to explore the ways in which, Black male sexuality broadly, and
Black DL identity specifically, has been negotiated in visual culture in relationship to
Whiteness. This study is inherently interested in building on this conversation. For this reason, in this study I stipulate to a plausible reading of the concepts and experiences related to intersectionality, queer theory, and a queer of color critique. The readings of these concepts and experiences are done from the specific perspective of my own lived experiences working with the CDCP and as a Black man in the United States and, as such, I will see how far these readings takes me in this inquiry. By doing it in this way, this study offers an interpretive approach that builds on—supplements rather than supplants— an established tradition of interpreting Black visual culture in the United
States.
Historical Context: Black Sexualities and Masculinity
The historical evidence of same-sex practice and desire in African American communities can be traced to pre-colonial Africa (Johnson, 2001; Thomas & Sillen
1972). As cited in Egchi, Calafell, & Files-Thompson (2014), Nero (1991) introduced a slave narrative that exposed the existence of same-sex practice during the slavery era.
Similar to Hemphill (1991) I argue, colorism and the residues of Whiteness has had a long
27 lasting impact on the psyche of Americans who are the descendants of African slaves. As such, double minded consciousness, self-Black hatred, and ignorance are the three-legged stool of homosexuality.
Further, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, and queer (LGBTQ) African
American representations in the arts and entertainment have existed within the Black community with notoriety in 1920s and 1930s (Nugent, Gates, & Wirth, 2002) such as
Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes. However, discussion of LGBTQ people within African American communities has not often been publicly discussed on a wider scale (hooks, 2004).
Interconnected to discussions of sexuality are discussions of masculinity Black
(2000). hooks (2004) argued that by the end of slavery “patriarchal masculinity had become an accepted ideal for most black men, an ideal that would be reinforced by twentieth-century norms” (hooks, 2004, p. 4). Collins (2004) in a similar vein suggested that Black masculinity was negotiated through an understanding of the economic and political climate during the Jim Crow era, when Black men were seemingly emasculated; they were also depicted as being naturally hyper-heterosexual. Such discussion is similar to what was previously found by Thomas and Sillen (1972). However, my work takes it further by discussing the intersectional contours of masculinity. And how such discussions manifest through race, class, gender, and sexuality, where hyper- heterosexuality is an expectation of Black masculinity. And how heteronormativity represents a site of reinforcement of Black masculinity in the face of emasculation.
At the height of the civil rights era, scholars, as cited in hooks (2004), began to frame White masculinity as homosexuality, purporting that White men were trained to be
28 gay or fags, depicting them as weak and effeminate. hooks (2004), like others before her, linked this attack, not on patriarchy, but on the men who failed to fulfill the primal idea of patriarchal manhood. For example, authors such as Johnson (2003), Collins (2004) and hooks (2004) suggested a connection between Black masculinity and silence, stating that such vulnerability in Black masculinity was associated with femininity. These notions, which were informed by historical and social structures of power, further made their way into problematic sexual stereotypes in the Black community. Collins (2004) suggested that counter narratives towards same-sex desires between Black men were Whitened due to the historically racist depictions of Black sexuality as hyper-heterosexual. These counter narratives to hegemonic culture become part of the Black power rhetoric. hooks
(2004), on the other hand, argued that Black men have become victimized by stereotypes produced by White elites. In an effort to engage in non-hostile spaces that counter the narrative of Black emasculated man, patriarchal rhetoric by Black militants that Whitened and feminized homosexuality acting to reinforce Black masculinity emerged (Johnson
2003). The new rhetoric sought to make White and feminine clear marker of opposition, thus identifying what Black manhood was not (Collins, 2004). Thus, contemporary Black masculinity was shaped from a defensive stance.
Furthermore, Collins (2004) suggested that the concepts of Black masculinity and the hyper-heterosexuality of Black men continued to be shaped by the media, morphing into images of pimps, hustlers, and players. Collins (2004) further suggested that the media representations of Black masculinity position Black men as aggressive thugs who contest being weak from being dominated by “strong Black women” (p. 188-190). Collins (2004) continued that these stereotypes preserve
29 ideological oppression and stigmatize Black sexuality, and as a result, Black gay men are not deemed to be truly Black because Black sexuality, through the eyes of the predominant culture in America, the White, heterosexual, racist one, has heretofore defined what Black men are, especially when it comes to sexuality. Such stereotypes, stigmas, and subjugations continue to be connected to weakness, Whiteness, and diseases. In other words, Black gay men or DL men are seen as being unacceptable in heteronormative societal norms. Black gay men are double- or triple- ostracized because the idea of gay men has been Whitewashed. So not only are Black gay men not Black men because they are not hyper-heterosexual, they are also not just gay but gay deviant, and in an ultimate blow, they are also White and diseased – for spreading HIV/AIDS to heterosexual Black women.
Connected to the struggle of Black identity is the devaluation of the feminine.
Black men who exhibit effeminate traits are demeaned, disparaged, and excluded from true authentic Black spaces or Blackness, thus linking homosexuality with effeminacy.
Such links to femininity suggests inferiority rather than empowerment (hooks, 2004;
Johnson, 2003). Collins (2004) argued that Black gay men become surrogate women. She continued to suggest that femininity as a performance of queer identity reinforces Black masculinity as an unfeminine narrative. In an effort to protect Black masculinity, the feminine performance becomes widely accepted as the identifier of homosexuality, and being effeminate excludes Black gay men from Black manhood, which in turn is an identifier of why DL men in general do not divulge their sexual identity. Additionally, hooks (2004) argued that hegemonic ideologies about gender and sexuality continue to construct an environment that condones and connects hyper-masculinity with
30 heterosexuality, while stigmatizing queerness by connecting it to emasculation and maligned femininity.
Bi-Sexuality and Gay identity In Black Men
Written specifically about bisexual and Black gay men, Essex Hemphill (1991) focuses on the social issues regarding their identity, masculinity, and sexuality in a heteronormative society. He discusses the hurdles bisexual and gay Black men come up against which make it difficult for them to have what heteronormative society deems as a normal life. He argues that these voices are muted and that some of these men do not have the self-confidence it takes to share their sexual identity with the heteronormative world because the homonormative lifestyle they engage in is considered to be a sin. He focuses on the ways in which Black masculinity and sexuality are intertwined and discusses the shattered identities of bisexual and gay Black men due to the constructed fixed notion of Black masculinity that are rooted in Whiteness (Reid-Pharr, 2001).
In 2005, McBride discussed the ways in which race and sexuality are vital components connected to the identities of bisexual and gay Black men. He discussed three different concepts related to the ways in which conversations about bisexuality and homosexuality take place (a) “Race and Sexuality on Occasion”, (b) “queer Black
Thought,” and (c) “Straight Black Talk.” In his book McBride (2005) explored intersections of gender, class, sexuality, and race issues: (a) “Race and Sexuality on
Occasion,” focuses on how gay Black men and lesbians have become part of comedy and fun rather than taken seriously for their political realities and civil rights. (b) “Queer
Black Thought,” reveals the truths of race and sexuality in the America. The essays in
31 this section point out specific flaws in Whiteness. These essays also inform how openly bisexual men and Black gay men Black Americans are disregarded at their workplaces due to racial social stigmas. (c) “Straight Black Talk,” McBride places the subject of sexuality and race into the lens of theory and intellectualism. The collection of these essays provides the tools for the awareness of inequality in the Black community and represents how bisexual and Black gay men are ostracized in Black culture due to their sexual identity (McBride, 2005). His literature offered contemporary cultural criticism of the Black community for not accepting homosexuality as a cultural norm.
Woodard (2014) discussed homoeroticism within slave culture in the United
States. His literature reveals how systemic racism and Whiteness have reinforced stereotypes of masculinity and sexuality in Black men. During slavery and continuing into present day, Black Americans dealt with the emasculation of Black men, sexual assault against Black men and women, and being brutally murdered. In short, Black men were and continued to be victims of institutionalized racism and psychological torture.
Neal (2013) argued that Black men bodies were often thought to be in need of policing or seen as a criminal body. He emphasized that Black bodies were not actually how they were portrayed in Whiteness. Rather stereotypes of Black bodies have been playing out in every institutional arena from art education to Black visual culture (Neal, 2013). He also wrote about Black masculinity in, “Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinity,” in which he discussed how true Black masculinity and sexuality were mainly seen in relationship to hip-hop thugs, petty criminals, and pimps. He questioned the ways in which television and media interpret queer Black bodies and compared queerness to
Black masculinity.
32
Queer Theory: A Synopsis with Gender and Sexuality
Those who identify as LGBTQ are oftentimes hesitant to adopt the label queer, and to some extent even gay, due to these terms’ association with Whiteness (Cohen,
1997; Johnson, 2001). Furthermore, “In many instances, instead of destabilizing the assumed categories and binaries of sexuality, queer politics has served to reinforce simple dichotomies between heterosexual and everything ‘queer’” (Cohen, 1997, p. 438). In essence, queer was stabilized as White instead of including the differing racial experiences amongst queer people. Several White queer scholars’ works (e.g., Butler,
1999; Foucault, 1990; Sedgwick, 1990/2008) indicated that they did not commonly take into account that people of color might experience sexual oppression differently than
White people (Johnson, 2001; Holland, 2012).
By exploring identity through a singular focus, an opportunity is missed to examine how intersections of various identities speak to and shape the lives of people who are on the margins of society. For instance, Butler (1999) treated race as if it were separate from gender and sexuality in the United States culture. Using motherhood as her vehicle, she does an excellent job of disrupting the gendered discourse, which position the regulatory rules of motherhood as “pre-paternal and pre-cultural” (Butler, 1999, p.
118). However, in doing so, she assumed that those rules were implemented in the same way for every woman.
Holland (2012) argued, Because of this history, White and Black women produce similar but also different viewpoints on motherhood, with the former often viewing motherhood as oppressive and the latter often-viewing motherhood as liberating. Holland
33 (20102) continues with, noting that intersectional work is needed because homogenizing those on the margins creates a hierarchy even within marginal spaces (Holland, 2012).
This is not to say that Butler (1999) intentionally renders racial identity invisible in her deconstruction of the sex/gender binary. Rather, it is to highlight that race was not explicitly considered in how the sex/gender binary is produced and enforced. Also, while
I acknowledge that one author cannot attend to all of the intersections of all identities at once, when multiple authors and fields of study consistently exclude race, this troubling pattern results in the systematic exclusion of racial minorities within queer communities.
Many use Foucault’s (1990) History of Sexuality Vol. 1, to establish how sexual orientation was historically and socially constructed. In a brilliant explication of the hidden meanings in Foucault’s (1990) theorization of homosexuality, Holland (2012) pointed out that his historical account was steeped in Whiteness: “While Foucault’s historical trajectory for the invention of the homosexual in the mid-nineteenth century is path breaking, it glides over signal events in the Americas such as transatlantic slavery or
Indian removal as if these events bear no mark upon our sexual proclivities” (p. 11).
Another exclusionary example emanates from how some Black studies scholars use heteronormativity to marginalize those on the DL and in the LGBTQ community
(Collins, 2000). Even though hooks (2004) addressed how the hypermasculine Black man is constructed in part by homophobia, she leaves little room in her construction to imagine a Black man who is attracted to men or both men and women.
34 Brother on the DL: A Synopsis
Narratives of the brother on the DL are one example of contemporary representations of DL Black manhood, which can provide compelling insight into their secretive world. Narratives are powerful social folklore that construct identities, reflect and disseminate cultural values, and configure individual, structural, and institutional movements. When utilized, narratives either reify hegemonic norms or rally in opposition to the prevailing societal norms. But most importantly, either implicitly or explicitly, narratives locate and situate muted voices within a larger framework that can assist the marginalized to comprehend who he or she is. Narratives provide access to those that are marginalized and their complex experiences in ways that can implicate the ubiquitous underlying systems of inequality that shape social life and allow us to grasp how DL men more specially understand and negotiate omnipresent systems on a daily basis, potentially highlighting the multi-dimensionality of a formerly perceived fixed social experience.
Boykin (2005) posited that public conversation about the DL began in 2000 when the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) published findings speculating that surges in HIV infection among heterosexual Black women could be attributed to a
“bisexual bridge” (Boykin, 2005, p. 90). As a result of this speculatory rhetoric, the notion of Black men on the DL as the main carriers and spreaders of HIV started to appear in mainstream mass media around February 2001 (see Boykin 2005, p. 90, 99, and
102-104). Shortly thereafter, Denizet-Lewis (2003) assisted in bringing DL men into nationalized attention through his platform of being a journalist for The New York Times.
During the Spring of 2004, Oprah Winfrey dedicated an entire episode to a conversation about the brother on the DL on the Oprah Winfrey Show (“A Secret World:
35 Living On The Down Low,” 2004). Oprah’s featured guest, J. L. King, was a self- proclaimed former DL man and author of the book, The Down Low. This episode dramatized DL issues and lifestyle. Using her wit and interrogative skills, Oprah outlined
DL men as guarded and mysterious, disowning their actual sexuality, and perpetuating the myth of being infected with HIV because they engage in unsafe sexual practices.
However, she was not commending King for coming out about his sexual identity.
Rather, she chastised him for his potential risk to Black women’s health. Oprah conceivably handed DL its biggest and highest mainstream audience at that point. Since then, DL men have emerged on other nationally syndicated television shows, in popular press books, in social science research, and in urban music lyrics (Boykin 2002, 2005;
Freeman 2006; J. L. King 2003; J. L. King 2005; Kregloe 2006). Despite the omnipresent landscape of the discussion, these stereotypical narratives do not capture the real lived experiences of DL men. The narrative associated with DL behavior and with gay Black male identity is based on contentious presumptions. It is this essential concept that connects to the two research questions in this dissertation, (a) In what ways are brothers on the DL represented in The DL Chronicles? (Specifically: behaviors, language, mannerisms, actions, dress, relationships and proximity to distance from other kinds of representations?) and (b) In what ways can representations of brothers on the DL in The
DL Chronicles be used to inform and guide curriculum in art education and African
American and diaspora studies?
36 HIV/AIDS: DL and Black Gay Identity: A Synopsis
Central to Black masculinity is spiritual and religious performance and practice
(Cohen, 1999). Enslaved people found refuge in spiritual and religious spaces (Woodard,
2014). Such spaces provided an escape from the arduous life of a slave. Such refuge from the oppressor became a tool of encouragement in the face of devastation, hardships, and death (Levine, 2007). Crawford, Allison, Zamboni, and Soto, (2002) suggested that
Christianity provided spaces and tools for enslaved people to cope with racism and their socio-economic circumstances, oppression, and mistreatment. As such, religion became a foundational aspect of Black culture and the legacy of Black religion maintains high importance within Black communities. Johnson (1998) stated, “spirituality, history, and identity are intimately connected in ways that make coming out of the closet difficult for many Black queers” (p. 180). As a result of this significance, the belief systems of the church are ingrained in facets of the Black community.
Throughout history, dating back to slavery, Black people have been confronted with economic, political, and social subjugation while living in the United States. The church, for example, served as the catalyst for the civil rights movement. Organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy, worked tirelessly to tear down the barriers of inequality.
However, Black religion has, arguably, failed to provide the same type of leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome). The HIV/AIDS virus has created a dilemma for the Black church. Because HIV/AIDS is closely associated with two culturally and historically
37 taboo behaviors, homosexuality and intravenous drug use, Black religion has taken a socially conservative position on the issue. A number of studies have concluded that the majority of Black people oppose homosexuality, primarily due to their religious beliefs
(Cohen 1999; Fullilove and Fullilove III, 1999; Griffin 2000; and McDaniel 2004).
Current research argues that this position can best be explained by individualistic attributions, which blame HIV/AIDS victims for their ailment, as opposed to structuralist attributions, which point to the various social barriers that confront those at-risk populations. The research takes both an individual and institutional approach to understanding the politics of HIV/AIDS in the Black community. From the individual perspective, the logic is that the parishioners receive messages from the clergy and these messages shape their political behaviors and attitudes (Djupe, Olson, & Gilbert, 2006).
From the institution side, the notion is that by ascribing to a socially conservative ideology, specifically on the issue of homosexuality, some members of the Black community have failed to pressure elected officials to adequately address the HIV/AIDS dilemma that currently exists within the Black community (Cohen, 1999).
Specifically, it has been argued that the HIV/AIDS issue has not gained traction in the Black community because it serves as a crosscutting issue (Cohen, 1999). Despite the strong racial identity possessed by many Black people, HIV/AIDS is not seen to be a consensus issue for which a large segment of Black people would benefit. In other words,
HIV/AIDS is not perceived to be an issue for which Black people should take ownership.
Rather, Black culture perceives HIV/AIDS to be an issue that could possibly exacerbate the negative image of African Americans because of its connotations associated with disease; culturally, they believe that understanding it or taking on the cause would benefit
38 only a small group of undeserving Black people. In other words, seemingly because
HIV/AIDS is contracted from irresponsible and immoral behavior, some Black people believe they should not take ownership of the matter, given the already high level of negative racial dialogues related to Black people.
Racial Dialogues
In recent years, theoretical frameworks that supplement Crenshaws’ (1995) theory of intersectionality, such as queer of color critique, have emerged and shaped liminal places and spaces where discourses on Black masculinity and sexuality can be discussed.
These discussions take place without homonormative racial stereotypes and have a resistance to gazing into the world of queer people of color through a master narrative.
Therefore, celebrating heteronormative masculinity as progressive among gay men undermines queer efforts to resist dominant ideologies. The term masculinities is intentionally used throughout this study to acknowledge how Black gay men and DLs narrate and situate their masculinities. I agree with Neale (2013) and Nero’s (1991) definition of the term masculinities; masculinities indicate an opposition to fixed, stable, and unchanging masculinity. Therefore, this study frames DLs and Black gay men as a distinct group of people who embody numerous masculinities and sexualities despite the singular identity that predominant White heteronormative culture wants to ascribe to them.
I am not alone in characterizing DLs in this less restrictive way. Mutua (2006), for example, addressed the tension between the progressive masculinities project and
Afrocentrism, which has a history of constructing a singular and exclusionary Black
39 masculinity that is dependent on sexism and homophobia. Additionally, Collins (2004) focused on both men’s and women’s experiences as deeply racialized in a colonized, gender-specific narrative. According to Collins (2000), “talking about gender does not mean focusing solely on women’s issues, as gender ideology must encompass ideas about both Black masculinity and femininity” (p. 6). The ways in which television negotiates the existence of multiple masculinities, the lives of DLs, and Black gay men are not only acknowledged, but also legitimized (Fleetwood, 2011; Mutua, 2006; Neale, 2006, 2013; and Scott, 2010). For example, the normalization of sexual violence in prisons that comes back to the reproduction of prison rape culture, using popular culture and television and cable series such as OZ, The Boondocks, and The Wire treat deeply rooted racial issues within Black visual culture and television with fixed notions of identity constructed in
Whiteness.
Black’s Image In Television and Social Media
This section focuses on critiques of television and media in the U.S. Due to technological advancements in the 20th and the 21st century, media and television are considered a vital instrument for societies insight into Black American culture (Hawk,
1992). Media and television can be used to develop positive or negative views of DL and gay Black men depending upon who is delivering the message. Wallace (2005) found most of the United States media portray Black American culture as primitive and living in desolate impoverished areas. These perceptions of Black culture in the United States are reified in television and film due to a lack of awareness about Black American culture and values. In some facets of the United States television and media, Black American
40 characters are purposely selected to negatively portray Black culture (see, The Real
Housewives of Atlanta). These actions have prohibited the growth and advancement in positive representations in Black American culture (Davis & Gandy, 1999).
Gorney and Loye (1978) enforced the idea that the ways in which the United
States culture is viewed is guided with the help of television and social media. Social media evolves as changes and advancement occur in American culture. Starting with the theater, expanding to television, and now the Internet, the United States is continuously expanding upon its position of presenting visual images to the world. Due to the widespread use of television, live streaming, and social media it is estimated that the single most activity of United States citizens is watching television and using social media, along with working and taking naps (Gorney & Loye, 1978 and Ferguson, 2004).
Television is serving as an educationalist, entertainer, a baby-sitter, and as a companion.
The control that television programs have on society is troublesome (Blystone & Ryan,
1978 and Gray, 2004).
Fujioka (2010) conducted a study with the help of about two hundred Black
American participants, which determined the link between negative images of Black
American culture portrayed by the media and public view about these images. He described the threats to the cultural identity of Black Americans due to intimidating representations in television and media. Fujioka (2010) declared that the majority of
Black people in the study want to eradicate these negative images.
Turner (1994) focused on the different ways in which cultural condemnation was used to evaluate the image of Black American entertainers in television and social media.
His study focused on the probable links between the limited, fixed, biased, and
41 misleading images of Black Americans and how racism and ignorance to Black culture was influencing the daily life of American populations. Especially those who are dominant in the American television industry consistently reify these negative images.
Turner (1994) argued that a vast majority of representations of Black Americans were presented as a masked image in Black culture by television and media. With respect to television, film and music industry regardless of how positive the performances were by
Black entertainers, they were unable to clear the stereotypes, stigmas, and subjugated images of Black culture (Turner, 1994). For example, cultural and stereotypical images of
Black American entertainers were judged by society. Specifically, he focused on images related to crime related stereotypes and found these images have a deep impact on the audience and in society. This, he further suggested, reinforced bias, hatred, and derogatory representations explicitly towards Black culture (Mastro, 2003).
Wilson (1999) discussed how adolescents reacted to media portrayals of Black entertainers, how they were seemingly role models for adolescents and their use of Black culture. Wilson (1999) found that due to the impact of negative images of Black entertainers, counter narratives need to be developed to focus a more truistic image of
Black American culture and society. In short, more awareness should focus on issues of stereotypes with race, gender, masculinity, sexuality, and racial discrimination in media
(Wilson, 1999).
The dangerous perceptions related to the sexual culture of Back men propagated by social media leave DL men facing a rough and trying life. On a daily basis, the United
States culture talks about race, masculinity, sexuality, and gender. Which consistently informs the prevailing and unfair outlooks in the sexuality and vulgarity of DL and Black
42 gay men. In short, images of DL and Black gay men on television are greatly damaged due to the unwarranted negative representation of them, mainly due to stereotypical assorted sexual activities.
Television Criticism
Television critic Herman Gray (2004) “mapped the institutional and discursive history of commercial network television representations of [B]lackness” (p. 84). He has broken it down into three concepts: (a) assimilation and the discourse of invisibility (b) separate-but-equal discourses and (c) multiculturalism/diversity. According to Gray’s
(2004) three concepts, “these practices are historically and discursively related to one another and to contemporary social discourses about race” (p. 84). Or, in layman’s terms, his concepts on representations of Blackness in television link the historical to the contemporary. The descriptions of Gray’s (2004) categories include:
(a) Assimilation and the discourse of invisibility – treat the social and
political issues of Black presence in particular and racism in general as individual
problems. As complex social and political issues, questions of race, gender, class,
and power are addressed through the treatment of racism and racial inequality as
the results of prejudice (attitudes), and through the foregrounding of the
individual ego as the site of social change and transformation (p. 85).
(b) Separate-but-equal discourses – situate [B]lack characters in
domestically centered [B]lack worlds and circumstances that essentially parallel
those of [W]hites. Like their [W]hite counterparts, these shows are anchored by
the normative ideals of individual equality and social inclusion. In other words,
43 they maintain a commitment to universal acceptance into the transparent
‘normative’ middle class. However, it is a separate-but-equal inclusion (p. 87).
(c) Multiculturalism/ diversity – are television programs operating within
[the] discursive space [of multiculturalism] position viewers, regardless of race,
class, or gender locations, to participate in [B]lack experiences from multiple
subject positions. In these, viewers encounter complex even contradictory
perspectives and representations of [B]lack life in America. The guiding
sensibility is neither integrationist nor pluralist, though elements of both may turn
up. Unlike in assimilationist discourses, there are Black Subjects (as oppose to
black Subjects), and unlike in pluralist discourses, these Black Subjects are not so
total and monolithic that they become THE BLACK SUBJECT (p. 90, emphasis
in original).
Gray’s point is that the act of putting the controversial production directly in front of the spectator requires an instant confrontation of complex, contradictory perspectives, and doing so confronts preconceived notions of the Black lived experience in the United
States. Additionally, in his multiculturalism and diversity concept, Gray assumes that the reader understands his manipulation of words to make his point. The implications of this didactic engagement with Black identity actively disrupt any rational, unwavering, or even fragmented view of Black identity. As such, DL identities and their place within the social hierarchy are organized by interlocking systems of race, sexuality, gender, and class (Scott, 2010).
For example, conversations about contemporary images of Black men on the DL in television shows, social media, movies, film, and numerous other types of Black visual
44 culture continue to characterize them as not genuinely Black, struggling with their identities, embarrassed to openly live, engaged in secret sexual relationships with men while having open heterosexual relationships, and guilty of spreading HIV to heterosexual Black women. However, from collected field research data the CDCP maintains, there is not any supported empirical evidence to support this claim (See
Questions and answers: Men on the down low. at CDCP website: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/resources/qa/downlow.htm). When united, these narratives of DL and Black gay men share a conflicted and shattered identity. An identity that is incapable of finding peace, validation, or emancipation in their separate socially constructed identities. As a result, their sexual selves vie within their racial selves, and
Black gay men and DL men suffer the problem of having to choose a salient identity and then select inclusion within one cultural identity or the other. It is important to point out that such depictions of Black gay men tend to rely on a number of prominent, structural arrangements (Whiteness, heteronormativity, Black authenticity, and gay identity), which position DLs and Black gays as iniquitous and abnormal. Also, within these dominant cultures, Black homosexuality has a White-influenced ethos that is nonetheless silent about the normative Whiteness typical to contemporary gay identity (Cohen, 1997;
Collins 2004; Crawford et al. 2002; Reid-Pharr 2001; and Riggs, 1991).
Summary
According to hooks (2004), ethnic and racial differences within masculinity are important to diversifying men’s studies. Framing these issues within the context of intersectionality provides ways to understand how masculinity is experienced,
45 accepted, negotiated, and interpreted. She further suggested that masculinity, as practiced by African Americans, plays upon and, at times, calls into question culturally dominant projections of Black masculinity, which are restrictive. In this way, in highly commodified cultural domains such as sports, entertainment, music, and sexual fantasy
(Mandingo), previously marginalized groups face difficulty in attempting to reconstruct racialized manhood. As a cultural penalty for the attempt the marginalized are shunned or taken away (emasculated) publicly. Similarly, social stigma and penalties, as suggested by Potoczniak (2007), include community isolation, violence, and prejudice when Black men do not conform to the expected masculine performance narrative. Such attempts are undermined rather than celebrated. There is a need to overhaul the ongoing systemic oppression of Black people in Black visual culture in the United States. More specifically, informed by the concepts above, this study seeks to explore the ways in which Black DL identity specifically, and Black male sexuality broadly, has been negotiated in visual culture in relationship to Whiteness. In general, there is a fluid nature of masculine and sexual identity.
46
Chapter 3
Methodology
I center this chapter on the research methods used to analyze The DL Chronicles in this study. The purpose of this study is to examine stereotypes, stigmas, and subjugations in representations of DL in Black visual culture. Primary samples for this study are taken from episodes of the television series The DL Chronicles
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493229/). Narrated by Chadwick Williams, this series tells the stories of DL men who enter into a provocative and intriguing world of the duality in symbolic expression and sexual discovery. I observe and interpret the visual aspects and the behaviors of the characters in The DL Chronicles to critique DL identity in Black visual culture. Interrogating the multifaceted symbolic expressions in constructions of DL identity is one way to explore how Black visual culture can be used in the academic disciplines of art education and African American studies.
Philosopher Arthur Danto (1992) insisted that “symbolic expressions…are communications and they presuppose a code that is supposed accessible to those whom the communication is addressed” (p. 68). I argue that while Danto’s (1992) is a White male, when the veil is lifted, his hypothesis parallels with stereotypes of DL identity being, hypersexual, immoral, and diseased. Furthermore, Danto (1992) explained,
“symbolic expressions, as communications, in general define communities of implicit understanders–individuals whose feelings and thoughts will be modified upon grasping
47 the meanings conveyed or transformed by the expression” (p. 70). In short, I modify
Danto’s theory by saying, while there are symbolic expressions of understanding in visual imagery of DL; they have been formulated and made to be symbols of Whiteness.
However, I re-claim these images and re-interpret them under a visual framework for
Black visual culture. Then these images become signs that until this study have been objectified in Black culture due to the Whiteness within which they were constructed.
Danto (1992) also stated, “To distinguish symbolic expressions from manifestations requires that we recognize how the former demands an interpretation” (p.
58). With that, a manifestation simply necessitates an explanation. Danto’s (1992) formula of interpretation is: “find the world in which an expression in this world would be a sign in that one. Then the expression is a symbol of that world” (p. 59). In other words, perceptions from the dominant culture of White America become signs to Black people and reinforce stereotypes of Black people. Danto (1992) went on to state “a sign stands for its cause, as a footprint stands forensically for a footstep, or a sigh for sadness, or a scar for a lesion, or clouds for rain” (p. 62). Ultimately, DL men learn what they mean culturally (and especially visual culturally) when they know what they are effects of.
The DL Chronicles is comprised of four episodes to date: “Wes,” “Robert,”
“Boo,” and “Mark.” The first episode aired in 2007. I watched all four episodes of The
DL Chronicles fifteen times each between May and September 2016. I documented and observed the interactions of the characters in The DL Chronicles in each of these four episodes. In addition to close studies of The DL Chronicles, I also analyzed data pertaining to the DL and Black visual culture within scholarly texts, images, websites,
48 and videos to understand how others had documented this history. I provide an interpretation of episode 1 Wes, in chapter 3. In Chapter 4, I interpret the remaining 3 episodes, Robert, Boo, and Mark. While there is some information on the DL in these sources, there is limited discussion of destabilizing Whiteness in representations of the
DL through a Black visual culture lens.
Interpreting Visual, Verbal, and Symbolic Methodologies:
Bordwell and Thompson’s Four Levels of Meaning
Film critics Bordwell and Thompson (2000) introduced four levels of meaning, which are useful with the interpretation of films and movies. This study relies heavily on the four levels of meaning to critically interpret movies and films: (a) referential, (b) explicit, (c) implicit, and (d) symptomatic which are essential for interpreting films and movies. In what follows I explain what these four levels of meaning are, what value they provide, and how I use them. Then I demonstrate the kind of work I propose to do with them by reading a scene from an episode of the show.
Referential Meaning
Referential meaning helps to interpret the world of film, which means it helps to decipher the environment defined in the movie. For instance, with reference to The DL
Chronicles the term DL is short for on the down low. This is one way to refer to men of color who live their everyday lives as heterosexuals, often married to women, but also engage in discreet homosexual relationships. That said it also helps to understand the diegesis of the film, which defines the fictions and the spatial coordinates created by the
49 film. The referential meaning also provides the knowledge of film conventions and the conceptions of time, space, and causality, such as cultural literacy. Therefore, with the referential meaning one can understand how the films belong to which city, or country, or culture and how the people are living in that time, place, and culture. It provides information about the weather, living style, and thinking of a particular place. In short, it provides information on the political, environmental, and cultural climate of the film
(Animals, 2016).
Explicit Meaning
The explicit meaning interprets the ways in which what messages the movie has conveyed to society. So, if the film moves in a particular direction, then it requires a solid message or theme, and that theme is understood by the explicit meaning of the film. For example, in The DL Chronicles, DL identity is seen as iniquitous and Black DL men are the primary transmitters of HIV/AIDS and other diseases to Black heterosexual women.
Explicit meaning also refers to the core conceptual or conjectural connotations of a film.
Implicit Meaning
Implicit meanings are the covert or symbolic meaning of the film. When the explicit and referential meaning defines the purpose and theme of the film, then implicit meanings help to understand the hidden meaning of the film. For instance in The DL
Chronicles, is a television series that is focuses lives of DL men and their issues of sexual identity. With this, the referential meaning will emphasize the stereotypical culture of the
DL men embedded in Whiteness, which is being interpreted in the movie. The explicit
50 meaning will help the viewer to understand the main objective of the film, such as the ways in which DL culture is presented and how they navigate their sexual identity.
However, the implicit meaning will actually address issues beyond what the directors of the series did not address. It is most difficult to understand the implicit meaning of a movie because it requires great attention and a deep knowledge of the referential and explicit meanings related to stereotypes of DL men.
Symptomatic Meaning
Symptomatic meaning refers to any symbolic word, or expression in a film or movie that carry hidden implications. Symptomatic meanings are sometimes, difficult to understand. An example would be in The DL Chronicles episode 3 Boo, while watching the news his mother says to him, those gays are always protesting and wanting equal rights. Do they not realize that what they do is a sin and an abomination in the eyes of
God? At least my son is not gay. From what the mother has said, Boo understands that he can never reveal his DL identity to his mother. He is fearful of being labeled as emasculated. Black men are in a constant fight to prove their manhood. The emasculation of Black men is the hidden thread in this series. The symptomatic meaning not only provides insight beyond what the filmmakers tell you they are doing but also specifically focuses on the hidden relations to social context.
Limitations of Bordwell and Thompson’s Theory
Bordwell and Thompson’s theory is helpful with the interpretation of films. It helps to understand the interpretations of main objectives, hidden themes, and symbolic
51 meanings in films. However, there are some limitations to this theory too. When someone watches a film to critique it then they will make their own implicit, explicit, thematic, and symbolic meanings. It is plausible that while examining a film it may be possible to ignore or to be unaware of other important connotations within the movie.
When films are designed to focus on societal misgivings, important implications may be subverted in the film. More time then not, it becomes difficult to interpret exactly what hidden themes a film carries. In this case, it all depends on what the viewer sees and how their awareness of social issues informs their interpretation, while watching a film.
This means that individuals have a distinct way of interpreting meanings in a film. Which is usually related to their own lived experiences. That said critiques of each individual might differ from one person to the other. This proves that it all depends on the perception of the viewer and their approach towards Bordwell and Thompson’s four level of meaning. An example of my approach is listed in the table below.
Bordwell and Thompson’s Theory
(a) Referential meaning How brothers on the down low work out issues with their sexual identity. (b) Explicit meaning How brothers on the down provide a counter narrative so that their voices can be heard. (c) Implicit Provides insight beyond what the filmmakers tell you they are doing. (d) Symptomatic Not only provides insight beyond what the filmmakers tell you they are doing but specifically focuses on the hidden relations to social context. Table 3: 1: Bordwell and Thompson’s Theory (revised)
52 Sample Analysis
I posit that The DL Chronicles is just one representation of DL identity within the landscape of Black visual culture. The purpose of this study is to analyze The DL
Chronicles and to interpret how visual representations of DL are used in this television series. Below, I present a sample analysis of a selection from one episode of DL
Chronicles, using the four levels of meaning, which will help with the interpretation of
DL in Black visual culture. I have selected episode 1 “Wes,” of volume 1 of The DL
Chronicles.
Episode 1 Wes: Background of Characters
Wes (see figure 3: 1) is a brown skin brother with a
baldhead. He is about 5’8” tall with a slim muscular build. His
character is what would be considered a nerdy Black Ivy
League yuppie. In short, looking at Wes’s character it would
not be hard to believe that he is on the DL. Figure 3: 1: Wes
Sarah (see figure 3: 1) is a light skin woman that looks
mulatto. She is 5’6” with a thin small body frame with long curly
black hair, and extremely attractive. Sarah’s character is presented as
being raised middle class and trying to reach higher goals to fall into
the status of upper middle class. Figure 3: 2: Sarah Trent (see figure 3: 1), Sarah’s brother and Wes’s brother-in-law,
Figure 3: 3: Trent 53 is also a light skin looking mulatto. He is 5’10” with a muscular build and short curly black hair. He has arched eyebrows – like he has been to a beautician to get them done.
His facial expressions and body gesture portray him as a flamboyant gay man.
Wes and his wife live in what is presumed to be a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath 2-story home about 2500 square feet. He had his house built from the ground up and it has been tastefully decorated. The kitchen has high-end finished and top appliances.
Episode 1: Wes
Episode 1 focuses on Wes Thomas, a real-estate banker. As Wes arrives home from work his wife tells him that her brother, Trent, is visiting and will be staying with them for a few weeks. Trent is an openly gay man and makes Wes question his own DL identity. As such, Wes did not want his brother in law staying with them. In the next scene, Trent was helping his sister in the kitchen when Wes walks in and asked his wife to help him with tying his tie. She refused and walks out of the kitchen. Then, Trent walks towards Wes and starts to seductively button his shirt. Wes allows this to happen until Trent touches his chest. Wes became aroused, then feels uncomfortable and stops him.
Later that evening, Wes and his wife went to a dinner party with some of their married friends. During the gathering, the men were making out with their wives. Wes is uncomfortable with public displays of affection with his wife and she does not understand why he would not show any affection towards her like a typical married couple. Back at home after the party; Sarah was washing the dishes. When she sees Wes coming towards her. She stops washing the dishes and tries to passionately kiss him. In response, Wes gets annoyed – pushing his wife away from him - and starts telling her
54 how tired he is, about his exhausting job, and how he works a job that he hates just to take care of her. She storms out of the kitchen and goes upstairs. Meanwhile, Wes feels guilty for not being able to sexually satisfy Sarah. Yet, at the same time he is struggling with his attraction to Trent and his DL identity.
That night Trent went into the den and asked Wes what is going on and why is he so unhappy. Wes was drinking scotch and was already half way drunk. Finally, he discusses everything with Trent. During their conversation, Wes realizes he is more comfortable talking with the Trent then Sarah. They both started to act on their sexual attraction for each other and they had an unbelievable night of erotic sex together.
Meanwhile, Trent tells Wes that his wife is sleeping. But in all actuality she is waiting for him to come to bed. The next morning, when Wes wakes up – hung over -, he realizes that he had sex with his brother in law and is afraid that his wife has found out. He immediately runs down stairs. He was afraid of losing his wife until Trent told him to relax. Wes tells Trent that he is a straight and what they did was wrong and it can never happen again. Trent ensures Wes that their sexual encounter would remain a secret and his sister will never know what happened.
The next day, feeling guilty for what he done, Wes brought home flowers for his wife. That evening after going to the bedroom, Sarah changed into a sexy white negligée and applied perfume and lotion to her body. She goes to Wes and starts a serious discussion with him saying that she knows everything about him and Trent. Wes is now nervous and thought Trent told his wife everything that happened the nigh before. When
Sarah tells Wes that she knows about him and Trent. He asks what do you know about of us. She told him that she knows he is not comfortable with Trent’s staying at their house.
55 Wes was relieved and replied he has no issues with Trent so he could stay at their home as long as he wants. Wes then begins to have passionate sex with his wife.
Analysis:
In this episode of The DL Chronicles, Wes has a beautiful wife and he is in denial about being on the down low. The episode discusses how Wes is not able to sexually satisfy his wife and how he is dealing with the duality of his DL identity. There was a lot of tension between the couple when Trent comes to visit them. Trent is an attractive gay
Black man and Wes is not ok with him being at their home. Trent makes Wes call into question his sexual identity (Capehart, 2012). This episode also represents how difficult it is for DL men to manage their heterosexual relationships v. their desires. The episode helps the viewer to understand that most DL and Black gay males are facing unhappiness and anxiety because they do not want their homosexual relationships to be exposed. Wes was having a sexual DL relationship with Trent. He not only gave Wes relief but sexual pleasure too.
Walker (2009) suggested that the physical and psychological mistreatment and subjugation of African slaves during slavery and the equally malicious form of institutional racism that proceeded post emancipation have systemically altered the psyche of Black males, their manhood, and ultimately their humanity. The history of emasculation of Black males has an enduring and pervasive history. Similarly, Scott
(2010) posited that the practices of Black man emasculation could be traced back to pre- colonial America. In fact, Ferguson (2004), Johnson (2001), Scott (2010), and Walker
(2009) suggested that there is an active history where White people through institutional
56 racism conspired against Black men to effectively undermine Black manhood and render them weak, docile, and impotent.
Since 1982, researchers are more concerned with analyzing social issues faced by
DL and gay men. Focusing on the historical point of view, so much literature has been published to describe the lives of different gay men with different perspectives. Kimmel and Brod (1996) discussed their research in which they examine the masculinity of the mid-1980s within the literary and cultural studies movement. This action situated male masculinity in the context of politics and sought to answer how men positioned themselves in or about feminism, especially when they are gay men (Kimmel, 2003). The same has been discussed in this episode when Wes is grappling with his identity, he argues that he is straight after having sex with a man to validate and situate his masculinity.
In this episode, Wes was afraid of facing the reality of his sexuality and to show his masculinity and strength as a man; he got married to a woman. Wes was trying his best to make his marriage life ideal and charming just because he wanted to show the world that he is the man who knows how to keep his wife happy. This indicates in order to keep his masculinity a priority; he negates being DL and sees himself as a heterosexual man. This same line of thinking is discussed by Boone (1990), in his research, he suggested if men wish to engage in feminist approaches to social critique, they would have to turn the critical lens on themselves and their original bodies. Such a critique, according to Boon (1990) provides analysis and conceptualizes male masculinity and sexuality from both historical and cultural contexts. This new context redirected the focus from gender to differences within men and manhood (Boone, 1990).
57 In 2001, Reid-Pharr published work regarding sexuality and race about African
American gay men. This literature offers contemporary cultural criticism to the African
American society for not accepting homosexuality as a part of Black culture. Therefore, linking homosexuality to DL ensures that DL has no other option but to live their lives as a lie (Reid-Pharr, 2001). McBride (2005) also talks about the masculinity of Black gay men, which has been divided, into three sections, (a) “Queer Black Thought, (b), Race and Sexuality on Occasion and (c) Straight Black Talk.” These sections of the book explore issues at the intersections of gender, class, sexuality, and race. Part one of the book, “Queer Black Thought,” reveals the truth of race and sexuality in America and enlightens how the American at their workplaces has neglected Black Americans. In the second part, “Race and Sexuality on Occasion,” he represented how gay men and lesbians have become a part of comedy and fun rather than the political realities and civil rights in which they have fought so desperately to have. In the last part of the book,
“Straight Black Talk,” he places the subjects of sexuality and race into the lens of theory and intellectualism (McBride, 2005).
Significance of Study
To unravel and untangle images, masculinities, and identities depicting Black men in the United States, attention must be given to the social and cultural climate as well as to stereotypical approaches and practices of cultural production. Supplementing the discussions in chapter one and two in addition to the analysis, here, I review matters around gender, identity, race, and sexual orientation and the embodied condition of these categories. This dissertation places the Black male body at the center of a multitude of
58 artifacts and elements of heteronormative falsehoods (see, chapter 1 and 2). Each of these falsehoods intersects with Black male bodies in terms of antiquated meanings and interpretations. This explicit engagement with Black identity disrupts what might have formerly been accepted as a coherent, unwavering, or stabilized view of the DL lived experience. Cultural and visual hierarchies in the United States are intrinsically aggressive as they misappropriate power over identity, race, gender, class, and sexuality.
It is my contention that some segments of conversation surrounding the production, distribution, and interpretation of the Black male body as cultural artifact are fundamentally acts of epistemic and ontological violence that inspire political acts of aggression towards Black men.
In recognizing the dense intertextual nature of constructed identity within Black visual culture, my hope is to destabilize prescribed and generally constructed ways in which we see and understand Black masculinities and sexualities through visual representations (Gray, 2006). Furthermore, the educational effects of these images are as multifaceted as they are disconcerting. The multifaceted collection of self-conscious representations embodied in visual images of the DL, Black heterosexual men, and Black gay men, challenges racist depictions of Black masculinity as stable, fixed, and unchanging. These same images of Black masculinity can be seen as intimidating and frightening. Stereotypical notions situate Black men as animalistic, oversexed, and provincial, and ultimately a threat to middle class notions of White womanhood, family, and a nation that is deeply rooted in Whiteness. Moreover, it is with the “realization that spectatorship (the look, the gaze, the glance, the practices of observation, surveillance, and visual pleasure) may be as deep a problem as various forms of reading
59 (decipherment, decoding, interpretation, etc.)” (Mitchell, 1994, p. 16, italics in original).
Therefore, it is the job of the spectator to not only work to destabilize Whiteness in depictions of Black masculinity but also they are also to question identity and representations, which are situated within a conflicted affiliation with denotations and images of identity and masculinity within Blackness.
According to Harris (2003), the concept of race “is so deeply embedded in the
American consciousness that much of our language and imagery operates from racial assumptions that seem natural and therefore resist critical inquiry” (p.1). To date, homosexuality, homophobia, and heterosexism are often examined in current research
(Jackson & Hopson, 2011; Jackson & Moshin, 2013; Johnson & Henderson, 2005;
McCune, 2014; and Snorton, 2014); however, they are not essentially focused on Black
DL’s and how they navigate their identities in Black visual culture at the intersections of race, identity, gender, and sexual orientation. Given that the study of Black masculinities and sexuality can be positioned within a landscape of representations within Black visual culture, at question is what multifaceted identity constructs might be revealed when theories of interpretation are applied in a critical analysis of Black visual culture.
Assumptions and Limitations
In many discussions of Black visual culture, DL’s are often dealing with a double consciousness of identity. For example, they are often seen as heteronormative v. homonormative; or, they are viewed as objects from within certain facets of heteronormative Black culture, Black gay culture, and Black visual culture. For instance, the identity struggles of DL and gay Black men are not separate pieces of their identity;
60 rather, their identity and identity in general is composed of connotations that vie with each other for recognition and acceptability (Alexander, 2006; Harris, 2003). In short,
Black sexual identity is constructed in heteronormative and heterosexist footings
(Ferguson, 2004; Fleetwood, 2011; Johnson, 2003, 2008), and it is also constructed in
Whiteness. Therefore, this study assumes heteronormativity may not allow a DL or Black gay man to be considered an authentic Black man because he is not heterosexual or
White. In this context, DL and gay have conflicting images of identity. In other words, in
Black culture, there is a general assumption that a man cannot be straight and DL; he can be only one or the other. Straight is set up as a heterosexual identity and DL set up as a homosexual identity. Moreover, The DL Chronicles repeats double consciousness Du
Bois’ (1903) theory in the physical bodies of many of its characters and the radical otherness in its narratives. However, it adds an additional element of disruption that exposes the inconsistency and absurdity of the notions of heterosexual v. homosexual.
Double consciousness is also represented in Black visual culture in a way that connects them, and renders them into an understandable picture of the construction of power, abuse, and fear.
In this dissertation I focus on The DL Chronicles because I argue this series captures and explores an authentic example of the DL lifestyle in relation to Black
American culture. The DL Chronicles is one representation of DL identity, within the landscape of popular Black visual culture. Nevertheless, this study seeks to explore the ways in which, Black male sexuality broadly, and Black DL identity specifically, has been presented in visual culture in relationship to Whiteness.
61
Chapter 4
Analysis of The DL Chronicles
In this study, the primary focus is The DL Chronicles, which consists of
four episodes. This series is about the lives and sexual relationships of DL and Black gay
men. Each episode is about DL and Black gay men who are having secret relationships
with each other, and are afraid to expose their sexual identity too their relatives and the
rest of the World because society considers DL and gay as a sin. The study will reveal
how The DL Chronicle shows the lives of brothers on the down low. In this study,
Bordwell and Thompson’s (2000) theory assists with a thorough reading of each episode
of this television series. I describe each episode, then its analysis, and then its link with
the literature.
Episode 2, Robert: Background of Characters
Robert (see figure 1: 1) is in his late thirties, divorced, a
father, and is a casting director. He is 6’0” tall, a light skinned
brother who has a muscular football player’s body and chiseled
features. He is ruggedly handsome with a scruffy beard. Robert
has a masculine appearance and lives his life on the DL. Robert
Figure 4: 1: Robert lives in an upscale neighborhood and owns his home. His home
office has a glass table with a home computer on top if it with a
built in camera and speakers. His office is spacious and he keeps
the blinds closed and the door locked, when he is in this space.
Figure 4: 2 62 Austin (see figure 4: 2) is in his early thirties and is the store manager at a vitamin
shop – similar to GNC. He is 5’8” tall, a dark skinned brother with a muscular build.
Even though it is hard to figure out if he is gay, Austin lives his life as an openly gay
man. Austin lives in an apartment with an eclectic decorating
taste. It is a combination of urban funk and shabby sheik. He does
not have a dedicated home office like Robert does. Austin’s
computer is on a table in his living room.
Shirley (see figure 4: 3) is in her mid twenties and is a
sales associate at the vitamin shop. She is a 5’6” tall, brown Figure 4: 3: Shirley skinned sister with a voluptuously thick pear shaped body with a long black weave with
Shirley temple curls. Shirley’s character is quite protective of Austin. In this episode she
is portrayed as the angry Black woman.
Rhonda (see figure 4: 4) is Robert’s daughter and she is in
her early twenties and is an undergraduate in college. She is 5’6
tall, medium brown skinned sister with a solid but slender build.
She has shoulder length curly black hair. Her character is
portrayed as a spoiled naïve little girl who has been sheltered
from the realities of the world all of her life.
Figure 4: 4: Rhonda
63 Episode 2: Robert
In this episode, the main characters are Robert – a business professional – and Austin – a vitamin store manager – meet each other in the vitamin store when Robert was searching for a particular brand and flavor of protein shake but the vitamin store was out of stock. Austin gives Robert a voucher for a free protein shake. Then their eyes lock onto each other and Austin says this is for the inconvenience of coming to the store and not being able to get the brand of protein that he wanted. Austin writes his phone number on the back of the voucher and tells Robert to call him and he would let him know when the protein shake was back in stock. There was an obvious sexual attraction towards one another when they first met.
That night, unknowingly Robert messages Austin on a gay sex hook up site, via the Internet. After Robert realizes it is Austin he asks him to join him via webcam to continue their conversation. First Austin asked Robert to remove his shirt and then to stand up to show him full body on the webcam. When Robert saw Austin’s body he was highly impressed and asks Austin for his home address. After getting Austin’s address,
Roberts’s daughter, Rhonda, knocks on his door. Startled, Robert pauses then puts back on his shirt and goes to open the door. Rhonda asks him what he was doing. He is so befuddled; he replies with, he was just checking emails. Robert leaves his place to go see
Austin. Once he arrives at Austin’s place Robert informs him that he is sexually attracted to him and wants to have sex. Robert informed Austin that he is living on the down low and is also interested in developing a relationship with him. In return, Austin informs
Robert that he is an openly gay but everyone thinks he is straight. Austin asks Robert if they can take it slow and not have sex on their first meeting (Chronicles, 2013).
64 The next day Robert went to the vitamin store to meet Austin for lunch. Being playful and giddy with one another. Austin decides to take Robert into his office.
Austin’s office looks like a stock room with boxes everywhere and it has a desk with a computer. While in the office, they have a quickie – a quick session of sex. To this point
Robert has not informed Austin that he has a daughter. The following day, Austin and
Shirley were out shopping when Austin sees Robert hugged up and laughing with a woman. Feeling somewhat jealous, Austin immediately calls Robert on his cell phone to ask what is he doing? In return, Robert told Austin that he was out having lunch.
Meanwhile, Austin and Shirley follow Robert and wait for him outside of a coffee shop.
When Robert and Rhonda exit the shop they accidentally bump into Austin. At this point,
Robert introduces Austin to Rhonda as one of his clients. Robert also introduces Rhonda to Austin as his daughter. That night, Robert went to Austin’s place to explain to him about his relationship with the woman he saw him with earlier. Robert tells him that he could not tell his daughter about his sexual identity because he is afraid of losing her.
Austin understands Robert’s situation and makes him feel at ease. Then, Robert invites
Austin to his house to have dinner with him and Rhonda.
The next day Austin had dinner at Robert's home. After having dinner,
Austin said thanks to Rhonda and left the house. Robert also accompanied him till the gate. Robert was stroking Robert’s back while giving him a sensual good night kiss on the side of his head; Rhonda, looking out of the front window, saw her father kiss Austin.
In total shock, Rhonda looked dismayed and flabbergasted. The next morning Rhonda went to the vitamin store and had a conversation with Austin. She asked him is her father was gay and living on the down low? Is her father having a sexual relationship with him?
65 In response, Austin told Rhonda, which is conversation to have with her father. From her facial expressions it is obvious that this is very painful for her because it was difficult for her to accept that her father is on the DL.
Austin called Robert to tell him about the conversation he had with Rhonda.
Robert got angry with Austin and went directly to his apartment. Austin tried to make him understand that its normal and his daughter will accept him for whom he is. Robert replied that now his daughter will never look at him with respect and it will be quite difficult for her to accept that her father is living on the down low. Robert said to him, this is why I do not usually fuck with faggitty-ass niggas like you. Then Robert tells
Austin that he is acting like a bitch because he is always running his damn mouth. Then
Austin tells Robert that he can leave his apartment and Robert breaks up with him.
Finally, Robert went home to have this difficult conversation with his daughter.
But Rhonda was not ready to understand Robert rather she did not accept his apology. In response, Robert said so helplessly that this is what all he is, and he cannot do anything with it. He told Rhonda that he is not having any disease, which can be cured so he cannot do anything with it. Rhonda realized that she should understand her father's feelings, and so she hugged him. Finally, Robert went to the food store and said sorry to
Austin and started a happy and relaxed life afterward.
Analysis:
In this episode the story focuses on two males, Robert and Austin, one is openly gay, and the other is DL. Robert is DL and the one who is fearful of losing his daughter if he tells her about his sexual identity. They started having a secret relationship
66 with each other at Austin’s place. This episode focuses on the relationships between DL men, their family. The anxiety and mental angst that DL men deal with is apparent as well. Robert is living in a dual world. A world where he is one person in public and another behind closed doors. Robert marries Rhonda’s mother to keep up the appearance that he is a straight man. However, when his sexual desires take center stage, he is forced to get a divorce.
DL men have to face so many social challenges. In Robert’s case, he could not endure the thought of his daughter thinking that he is less of a man because he is DL.
Losing his daughter was a nightmare that he would do anything to prevent. But when
Rhonda came to know about the reality of her father, it was challenging for her to understand the situation in its entirety. But here The DL Chronicles shows that living on the down low should not be an option. Rather gay men should talk about their feelings and realities with their loved ones in order to be true to themselves. This was substantiated when Robert had the conversation with his daughter about his attraction to men. The end of the episode is profound and an important lesson to learn. When Rhonda accepted her father for who he is and allowed him to have a relationship with Austin,
Robert felt a bit more at ease. At this point Robert is able to go find Austin and confess his true feelings for him. Expressing his true feelings gave him the confidence to have an openly gay relationship with Austin. One in which Robert does not care what other people think about him or his sexual identity.
This scene also focuses on the fact that DL men cannot reveal their relationships with other males because it is considered as a sin. Whereas the symptomatic meaning of the episode is that brothers on the down low take refuge in lies in order to
67 protect their relationships. If society would allow them to live life freely, they would be more content and comfortable within their sexuality and their lives. Additionally, DL me have to meet other men for sexual relationships on the Internet because they are afraid of being found out and dealing with retaliation from society. As a result, they cannot expose their reality to the world. (Chronicles, 2013)
According to U.S. society, masculinity of men can be defined as his physical strength, sexual prowess, and hypermasculinity. In this episode of The DL Chronicles,
Robert wanted to keep his DL identity a secret from his daughter, and that is why he chose to live on the down low. He was afraid that his daughter would not understand his sexuality. DL men become the brunt humor and jokes from society and his masculinity is challenged. Such conversations on manhood, masculinities, and male identities, have also been part of the literature since the nineteenth century. Collins (2000), Richard and
Delgado (2001), and Pinar (2004) have published much literature about gay men who have faced so many social challenges because of their identity (Collins, 2000). Richard also published literature in 2001, which is similar to Austin and how he deals with
Robert’s DL identity, in which she discussed the ways in which to understand the tropes of gay men and the challenges faced by DL men (Richard and Delgado, 2001; Pinar,
2004). In 2015 Christopher, published an article in which he discussed military men who live on down low because they cannot face society and cannot tolerate questions about their masculinity. Similar to Robert, military men are considered to be highly physically fit and strong, and thus society cannot accept them as gay. He discussed that DL and
Black men prefer to live on the down low because they do not want to deal with the social challenges due to discrimination.
68 Neal (2013) also wrote about black masculinity in his book, “Looking for Leroy:
Illegible Black Masculinity," in which he discussed that the African American men are bound into their bodies which are legible only as hip-hop thugs, petty criminals, and pimps. He questioned the public and the media to queer of black masculinity and to show that how the black men bodies are often thought to be the body attempting sin. He highlights that Black bodies have right to live their lives either as bisexual or homosexual. In fact, the Black gay men have no place in society, and they are considered to producing sin in the society, but actually, it is not the case. The society must allow them to live their lives freely. In this why they will be able to achieve their inner peace
(Neal, 2013).
McCune (2014) discusses the lives of Black gay and bisexual men in African
American culture. In his literature, he grounds his work in auto ethnographic research and of men who are sexually interested in one another and are living their lives as DL and
Black gay men. Similar to Robert and Austin, the men in McCune’s study love each other’s company and cannot imagine having a separate life. His work represents contemporary themes of identity, hidden desires that depict how DL and Black gay men develop concealed relationships with each other.
Episode 3, Boo: Background of Characters
Boo (see figure 4: 5) is an ex-convict perceived as
angry, hypermasculine, and sexually promiscuous. He is
6’1” tall, a brown skin brother with a baldhead. He has a
muscular basketball players build, has tattoos, and he is
Figure 4: 5: Boo 69 presented as being well endowed. Boo does not have job and is a drug dealer. He dresses in the stereotypical thug wear of, a wife beater, baggy jeans, a sterling silver chain around his neck, and timberland boots. Boo does not have a college education and the way his character is portrayed it makes you wonder if he received a high school diploma.
Keisha (see figure 4: 6) is Boo’s girlfriend.
She is 5’4” tall, dark skinned sister with a weave
that is a little more than shoulder length black hair.
Keisha has a petite build with medium sized breasts
and a shapely butt. She is portrayed as the
Figure 4: 6: Keisha stereotypical angry Black woman wearing bamboo earrings and lives in the projects (low income affordable housing). She constantly accuses Boo of cheating on her with other women. Her dress is that of a typical black woman in the projects. She wears halter-tops with skinny straps. So skinny you can see her bra strap as well. She wears tight jeans and sneakers.
Boo does not have a place to stay. He goes back and forth between Keisha’s place and his mother. Keisha lives in the projects. She has a modest apartment. She has the bare essentials in her apartment. There is nothing there over extravagant. The details in her apartment sow that she is a part of the working poor social class in America. Mama has a house in the hood. Bars are on the windows and the screen door. Her kitchen is small and the sink is always filled with dishes. While she gives off the appearance that she keeps a clean and tidy home. The over abundance of nick knacks gives off the appearance that mama is in the beginning stages of becoming a hoarder.
70 Episode 3: Boo
The episode starts with Boo and his girlfriend Keisha having an argument. Keisha is fed up with Boo and his cheating habits and kicks him out of her house. Boo is sexually active with numerous women as well as men. He has a friend from the neighborhood where he grew up that he likes to spend time with. In front of his heterosexual friends, he pretends that he is only interested in females. He does this by belittling and ostracizing Black gay men when talking to them. However, Boo is living his life on the down low. He is afraid of revealing his sexual identity to his friends, family, and his girlfriend. As well as others from the Black community, that sees gay men as abhorrent.
After Keisha kicked Boo out of her apartment, he went back to his mother’s house. The next day, his mother was watching television, where an interview about gay men was on. The people in the television interview were discussing issues surrounding the fact that gay men cannot pro-create with each other so they are useless for American society. Boo’s mother started discussing the same topic with Boo and asked him when was he going to settle down and get married (Chronicles, D.L., 2013). Boo was distracted and not interested in discussing his personal life with his mother. The only thing on in his mind was that his mother would never accept him if he decided to tell her that he is sexually active with both men and women and living his life on the down low. Not wanting to have the relationship conversation with his mother, Boo goes outside to hang with his friends.
The following week Boo goes back to Keisha’s. When he gets there she lets him in and asks him why did he come back? Boo, fumbling for words was unable to give her
71 a satisfactory answer. Keisha, feeling annoyed kicked him out again. Going back to his mother’s house, Boo calls Keisha several times, but she does not answer her phone nor does she call him back. Two weeks later, He goes back to Keisha’s again. When he knocks on the door a rock hard naked man opens it. This man is 5’9” tall, with a muscular build. He is light skinned with straight black hair, clean-shaven, with multiple jailhouse tattoos, and has a stereotypical hyper-masculine/ hypersexual swag about him. His facial features and skin tone are similar to someone who is of Puerto Rican descent. Showing a facial expression of being upset, Boo leaves. The episode ends with Boo finding out that one of his sexual DL partners and friend, Deron, has HIV/AIDS. Keisha is shown as having multiple sexual partners at least four others besides Boo. This news leaves Boo questioning why he is living on the down low. The camera pulls back but focuses on his face. This creates the assumption that Boo has decided to embrace his sexual identity and live his life openly and true.
Analysis:
This episode shows how DL men get frustrated with their lives. Unable to satisfy their true sexual desires for men openly, they engage in relationships with both men and women. Boo is one of the brothers on the down low who cannot divulge his sexual identity to society. In the episode, Boo is constantly trying to restore his relationship with Keisha’s in order to hide his sexual desires for men and maintain his masculine heterosexual identity.
Boo is an ex-convict and a cheat who does not attempt to understand the meaning of monogamy and lives his life on the DL. His girlfriend Keisha is fed up with Boo’s
72 cheating and kicks him to the curb. Boo’s mother tells him it is time to settle down, but
Boo is unfazed and continues having sex with multiple partners of both genders, including Deron, his neighborhood friend who is also on the DL. When shocking news about Deron’s HIV/AIDS status – see chapter 2 – unnerves Boo, he is forced to reconsider his reckless life on the DL.
DL and Black gay men are living a life of denial. In this episode, Boo is solely focused on having numerous sexual partners and portrays the existing stereotypes of hyper-masculine, hypersexual, with hyper-aggressive demeanors. In addition, in this episode DL men engage in unprotected sex with numerous men and women. They hide their DL identity by exposing their relationships with women, while hiding their relationships with men. DL men are hesitant about discussing their sexuality because they do not want to face the backlash from Black culture. DL identity and homosexual relationships have been constructed in Whiteness. As such, they are fearful of Black culture and society.
In this episode, Boo is living on the down low and in proving his masculinity he tries to maintain his heterosexual relationship with Keisha. Boo had been facing significant social challenges because he was unable to tell his mom about his sexual identity. Not having the support from his mother, family, and friends Boo felt as though he had to lie in order to maintain harmonic relationships with them. Finally, Boo hypersexuality is a way to get rid of his frustrations being a DL man. As hooks (2004) argued that hegemonic ideologies about gender and sexuality continue to construct an environment that condones and connects hyper-masculinity with heterosexuality while
73 stigmatizing queerness by connecting it to maligned femininity (Hook, 2004). Connected to the Black identity struggle is the devaluation of the feminine.
Similar to the way Boo thinks, Black men who exhibit feminine traits are demeaned, disparaged, and excluded from pure, authentic Black spaces or Blackness, thus linking homosexuality with effeminacy. Such links to femininity suggest inferiority rather than empowerment (Hook, 2004). Collins (2004) also argued that the gay men become surrogate women. She continued to suggest that femininity as a performance of queer identity reinforces Black masculinity as an unfeminine narrative. To protect Black masculinity, the feminine performance becomes widely accepted as the identifier of homosexuality, and being effeminate excludes Black gay men from Black manhood.
Such negative discourse about homosexuality can be seen in Black music. Some facets of hip-hop genre, for example, Collins (2004) suggested, is hyper-masculine and filled with negative stereotypes. Such spaces normalize violence against LGBTQ communities
(Collin, 2004).
Woodard (2014) discussed homoeroticism within the African American culture in
United States. Being a Black gay man is considered a sin in the Black community. DL and Black gay men are ostracized in some facets of the Black community and are treated as a useless object of the community (Hemphill, 1991). From slavery to current day DL and Black gay men and have been victims of harassment and psychological torture, which causes frustration and depression in some DL and Black gay men (Woodard,
2014). Similar to Woodard, Boo exhibits characteristics of subjective aggravation and mental abuse due to the construction of Black masculinity and sexuality in systemic racism and Whiteness.
74 Episode 4, Mark: Background of Characters
Mark (see figure 4: 7) is 5’10” tall; he is a light skinned
brother with a close caesar haircut (a style where the hair is cut
very close to the scalp, almost bald). He is what one would call a
pretty boy. He has a muscular build with defined legs. Mark is a
masculine Black gay man that is DL. Figure 4: 7: Mark
Dante (see figure 4: 8) is 5’ 9” tall; he is a light skinned
Puerto Rican with short black hair. Dante has a thin muscular
build, a hairy body, and has an effeminate way about him, from
Figure 4: 8: Dante his gesture, his speech, and the way he walks. It is easily assumed that he is an openly gay man.
Terrell (see figure 4: 9) is 5’10” tall; he is a light skinned
brother with 1990’s Maxwell hairstyle. Terrell has slim build, not
very muscular, unemployed, and his character is portrayed as he
comes from a lower class upbringing. His mannerisms are harsh
and he portrays himself as a hypermasculine heterosexual man
Figure 4: 9: Terrell from an all Black community.
Mark and Dante live in a lavish condominium. There are 2 bedrooms 2.5 bathrooms, a spacious living room and kitchen. They have a den and a dining room. Their condo looks as though it was professionally decorated. It is obvious that between the two
75 of them they are in an upper class socio economical status. There is no mention of
Terrell’s home. However, from his appearance it is assumed that he lives in a lower class neighborhood and is working paycheck to paycheck. Like Terrell there is no mention of
Reginald’s home. His character is portrayed as a drug dealer. He has the stereotypical clothing as in the previous episodes.
Episode 4: Mark
Mark and Dante are in a committed monogamous relationship. They have been living together happily for several years. While Dante was living his life as an openly gay man, Mark was living on the down low. Mark was afraid to reveal his sexual identity for fear of being ostracizing by his family and friends. But more importantly, he was afraid of what his mother would think about his sexual identity. One day, Mark’s cousin Terrell shows up unexpectantly. Mark, a bit puzzled at why Terrell just showed up to his home without calling first asks him if he will be staying with his girlfriend while he is in town. Terrell laughs and tells Mark that he will be staying with him for a few weeks.
When Dante arrives home from work he was not pleased that Terrell just showed up at their house and invited himself to stay there without asking before he arrived. He was also not happy that Mark introduced him to Terrell as his roommate. In order to keep his lifestyle a secret from his cousin, Mark lied to Terrell about his relationship with Dante and he started sleeping in the spare bedroom. The following morning Dante, unhappy with the Terrell situation, informs Mark that when he comes home from work, Terrell needs to be gone. Mark, feeling conflicted could not tell Terrell to leave because he is his cousin. When Dante comes home from work, he finds Terrell
76 still in their house. Mark explains to Dante why he could not make Terrell leave. Mark tells Dante if he makes Terrell leave he tells his family that Mark kicked him out of his house and they would become suspicious. In short, he rationalizes his fear of revealing his sexual identity to his family. (Chronicles, D.L., 2014)
Later that evening, Terrell asks Mark about Dante’s sexuality. Mark ignored Terrell the first time he asked then Terrell asked the same question again. Mark tells Terrell that Dante has a girlfriend and that the two of them are just roommates. That night Terrell is pretending to be asleep on the couch and he sees Mark sneaking into
Dante’s room. Terrell immediately gets up off of the couch and quietly walks down the hallway to Dante’s bedroom door. Leaning his head up against it he is trying to listen to what is going on in the room with Mark and Dante. When Mark opens the door, he finds
Terrell in the hallway. They both pretend that everything is normal and nothing was going on in the room with Mark and Dante and Terrell was not listening at the door. They say their good nights, separate, and then they go to bed.
The next evening Terrell’s friend Reginald comes over. Reginald followed Terrell all the way from Los Angeles –where Terrell lives. Reginald invites Mark and Dante to go to a club with him and Terrell. At the club, Terrell encourages Mark and Reginald to join two women who are flirting with them from the bar. Reginald and Mark engage the women in conversation. The both of them are laughing and dancing together with two women, they are having a good time. Dante looks over and sees how much fun Mark is having with Reginald and the women, and he gets jealous. While the guys are off dancing, Terrell and Dante have a conversation in which Terrell tells Dante that he in a sexual relationship with Reginald and he knows that he and Mark are gay.
77 Mark sees Terrell and Dante engaged in a deep conversation and he gets insecure.
Back at the house, Mark asked Dante about his conversation with Terrell. He also asked
Terrell, to tell the truth, and to tell whatever he told Dante in the club. Terrell pretends to be innocent and says; he does not know that what Mark is talking about. Before Mark could say anything else Reginald comes in the house and in front of everyone he tells
Terrell how much he loves and misses him and he came to San Francisco to bring him back to their home. Reginald’s confession of love revealed Terrell’s sexual identity to everyone. This made the entire separate bedrooms and just roommate’s situation funny and full of humor. Mark was hiding his homosexuality, but he did not realize that Terrell was also gay. Finally, Terrell left with Reginald and went back to Los Angeles. Mark and
Dante started to live their lives as openly Black gay men. They understood that the only way to win the game is to stop playing the game. In short, they have to accept themselves as gay men and it does not matter what family, friends, and society have to say.
Analysis:
In this episode, Mark and Dante are in a committed monogamous relationship. One in which both of them are concerned about each other’s well-being and happiness. Whereas, Mark is afraid of revealing his sexual identity because he does not want to damage his relationships with his mother and family, Dante is openly gay.
Terrell’s presence made the episode entertaining yet dramatic. Terrell, being on the DL himself, was immediately able to see that Mark and Dante were in a relationship. While this episode focused on issues surrounding the necessity for Black gay men to live their
78 lives on the down low, it also explained a need for DL and Black gay men to embrace and to be comfortable within their own sexual identity.
In Black American culture some Black gay men live together both openly and on the down low. This episode speaks to the fact that gay men do not need to live on the down low. Rather they can be true to their sexuality and live their lives openly. Gay men have to fight for their civil rights and do not need to hide their sexuality behind lies.
Gay couples love and care for each other in a similar if not the same way as heterosexual couples.
Similar to the issues that Mark’s character deals with in this episode, the same was discussed in “Brother to Brother,” by Essex Hemphill (1991). Hemphill stipulated that this book is written primarily for DL and Black gay men who face so many social issues regarding their existence as being gay. He shows how a Black gay man cannot have what is considered a normal life or relationships in heterosexual standards. Due to fixed heterosexual notions of normalcy Black gay men cannot freely express what they feel and what they want to have in their lives. In fact, heteronormative culture sees them as engaging in sin by loving and having sexual encounters with another man. Black gay men have a long way to go for substantial equity in their basic civil and human rights.
Hemphill argues for societal acceptance so that Black gay men can have a peaceful life society.
Similar to Mark, Reid-Pharr (2001) discussed issues faced by Black gay men. He argued, Black gay men are the ones who cannot divulge their sexual identity due to societal constraints. Black gay men need to capture the complexities in Black masculinity and sexualities in order to express the true narratives of Black masculinity and sexuality
79 to show how society has fractured Black gay men in the Black community and Black culture for by not accepting their sexual identities (Scott, 2010). Reid-Pharr has provided great insights into gay lifestyles that are distinctive and provocative (Reid-Pharr, 2001).
Interestingly, the current emphasis within the discourse of masculinity is on the structure of manhood and how manhood is defined, particularly on how manhood is performed between and among men is similar to Mark in The DL Chronicles. However, in the 1990s the emergence of gender as a category, allowed for a broader discussion that was more closely aligned with women’s studies and feminist criticism (Scott, 1997).
Such criticism focused on the systematic and systemic cultural constructedness of gender differences. Scott (1997) suggested that these studies’ main objective was to focus on sexual difference and by doing so, advance a critical perspective aimed at exposing patriarchal practices while exploring the lived experiences of women, their work, and history separate from the dominant male culture and identity. Such a concept, as claimed by Scott (1997) suggested that gender in this context no longer referred to a biological binary, but a multi-dimensional socio-political and cultural construct. This concept connects too Crenshaw’s (1991) and Collins’s (2000) theories of intersectionality in that,
“‘Intersectionality’ means the examination of race, sex, class, and national origin, and how their combination plays out in various settings” (Collins, 2000, p. 57). I contend that an example of the hidden social meaning of Mark’s sexuality is at the intersection, or what Collins (2000) termed, “interlocking nature of identities” (p. 57) is inseparable, and one must consider how these multiple identities simultaneously reproduce particular sites of oppression and exclusion. Scott (1997) along with Crenshaw (1991) and Collins
(2000), and in a traditional context, de Beauvoir (1949) suggested that gender is not born,
80 but made, providing a sociological critique not of the body itself but rather cultural influences such as social roles, cultural functions, and fictions of femininity and masculinity. Through these theories, gender ceased to be an ontological category and became a representation. Such representation serves as an opportunity to destabilize gender relations and patterns of marginal cultural practices (Collins 2000).
Hidden Meanings
This section provides a summary of the hidden meanings that the producers and directors do not discuss in the series. Here is what Bordwell and
Thompson (2000) would call the implicit and symptomatic meanings of a film. However,
I provide you my understanding from this study using literature from gender, Black identity, sexuality, and masculinity studies. Gender and its intersectionality with culture, class, and race, as outlined by Scott (1997), positioned men and women in distinct ways that provides a cultural critique and formation of a platform to examine masculinity. This new position, as suggested by Kimmel and Brod (1996) has moved the center focus within men’s studies. Kimmel and Brod (1996) examined the masculinity of the mid-
1980s within the literary and cultural studies movement. This movement situated male masculinity in the context of politics and sought to answer how men positioned themselves in or in relation to feminism. Boone (1990), in connection to Kimmel and
Brod (1996), suggested that if men wish to engage in feminist approaches to social critique, they would have to turn the critical lens on themselves and their sexual bodies.
Such a critique, according to Boon (1990) provides analysis and conceptualizes male masculinity and sexuality from both historical and cultural contexts. This new context
81 redirected the focus from gender to differences within men and manhood. These differences, according to Boone and Cadden (1990), were found in the voices and narratives of gay men, who more directly experienced the consequences of restrictive notions of masculinity. The positioning of Black gay men within narratives of manhood from a feminist perspective positioned the construction of masculinity.
Mariott (2000) posited, “human existence is a struggle" (p. 88). Marriott went on to claim that “existence may be a struggle for us all, but for the Black man his being is the effect of a war fought on at least two fronts. He must enter into combat not only with the presentiments and premonitions of a world condemning him to nonexistence, he must also enter the lists against his own image” (p. 88). Similar to the four episodes in The DL
Chronicles, the sociological myth of Black masculinity and the Black male body, through the lens of Whiteness is at the root of Marriot’s (2000) work.
Marlon Bailey (2013) described another struggle that is linked to gay Black men.
He focused on the distinctive gay ballroom scene in Detroit and provided a glossary of terms in order to enhance the readers’ understanding of gendering in Detroit’s gay ballroom culture. Similar to Marriott (2000) and Thomas (2011), Bailey (2013) entered into a subjective assessment of how emasculating the Black male body disrupts societal expectations about hetero-normative gendering and sexuality. He described the bond of family in the ballroom community and asked his readers to reconsider what constitutes family outside of the hegemonic master narrative. According to Bailey (2013), “They want us sick,” (p. 23). He argues “that the sexually transmitted disease prevention methods endorsed and funded by public health agencies of CBOs are ill-conceived and ineffective because they are fraught with racism, sexism, and homophobia” (p. 24).
82 Bailey (2013) focused on how assumptions about race and class inform the way resources and attentions are distributed to LGBTQ communities. Bailey stressed “how this complex labor of community remaking undertaken by gay ballroom members mitigates the harsh realities of HIV/AIDS and provides a viable communal response to this epidemic” (p.
25). The gay ballroom scene deviates from Whiteness but still brings hegemonic roles within the fold. As a result, LGBTQ people purposefully consent to the scene of queen performance culture, the gay ballroom scene, in Detroit.
LGBTQ Agency in Detroit is embedded in the gay ballroom scene and holds elements of misogyny that are not productive. For instance, Bailey (2013) argues, “I have been a man and a man that emulates a woman. I look lovely, no bags, and no lines under my eyes (p. 33). However, everyone in this ballroom scene has a hope and a dream. Just like hetero-normative people, they all want the White American dream. They want their culture to have a centralization of Whiteness. In short LGBTQ people in the gay ballroom scene in Detroit want to have their existence normalized is more than aesthetics. Some of them do not want to be White; they just want the materialistic life that White people have. There are those who idolize Whiteness and do everything they can to assimilate into Whiteness. Nevertheless, they realize that surviving the harsh brutalities of death from HIV/AIDS, murder, and drug overdoses are performances within and of itself that are a part of the struggle they face in their everyday lives rooted in Whiteness.
Mercer discusses the ways in which he examined how a lens of Whiteness was used to describe masculinity and sexuality in the bodies of Black Men. He discussed how through Whiteness, Mapplethorpe used his camera to create objectifying visual images in the bodies of Black gay men. Mercer criticized the ways in which these men are
83 represented as aesthetic objects and symbols of erotic hyper-sexuality. According to
Mercer, when a painter depicts a nude picture of a White woman they portray the picture in a way that a White man wants to look at her. However when the same is done to portray a picture of a Black man, then the consideration becomes different, and
Whiteness views the Black body as a threat to the masculinity and traditions of Whiteness
(Mercer, 1994).
Mercer argues Mapplethorpe focuses on the sexual objectification and emasculation in the bodies of Black gay men in order to show their connection to nude pictures of White women. He wants to highlight the shiny Black bodies of Black men – similar to how slaves bodies were greased up to make them look healthy and exotic before they were sold into slavery – in order to appeal the sexual fantasy that some White gay men have of the Black make body. Additionally, Mapplethorpe’s pictures of nude
Black gay men represent them as a symbol of strength. By the painting, Mapplethorpe wanted to show that Blacks people should not be treated as slaves rather they should be used as heroic symbols that may also use their power against White people.
Lastly, Kobena Mercer’s (1994) piece, “Reading Racial Fetishism,” argued that in terms of the history of desire, race, and power and how they relate to Robert
Mapplethorpe’s photographs of nude Black men and their various body parts. Mercer
(1994) continued to argue that these stereotypes of Black men in Black visual culture play toward the objectification through the lens of the White male observer. He proclaimed that Mapplethorpe “appropriates elements of commonplace racial stereotypes in order to regulate, organize, prop up and fix the process of erotic objectification in the desires of the White gay male subject” (p. 176). He also wrote that the mass-medias
84 stereotypes of Black men are typically that of “criminals, athletes, and entertainers” (p.
176). The mass-media also bears witness to contemporary repetition of a colonial fantasy and the limited but rigid grid of representations of Black male subjects, and about the nature of Black sexuality and the ‘otherness’ it is constructed to embody” (p. 176). This outlook of gay men within a narrative of manhood from a perspective of Whiteness could be perceived and conceptualized as a construction of masculinity. The assumption is
Black bodies can be used as models because their bodies are more attractive and stronger than the bodies of White men (Mercer, 1994).
My interest in Mercer provides an example of conceptual evidence in challenging notions of the Black male body in visual culture, which in turn I use to challenge and reveal hidden racist, and seemingly fixed depictions of DL. Mercer has provided the groundwork for me to create my own path within this research. To date, there have not been any dissertations or studies using The DL Chronicles as a primary source to critically interpret DL in Black visual culture. I have selected the four episodes of The DL
Chronicles TV series as a primary source of inquiry because it responds to a specific set of issues that I am concerned with: masculinity, sexuality, and the issues of disclosure and non-disclosure of sexual identity among DLs, men who have sex with other men
(MSM), gay men, and heterosexual men. I interpret the characters in The DL Chronicles using film critic Bordwell and Thompson’s (2000) four levels of meaning as a springboard to assist with the hidden historical meanings in film and have modified it for interpreting television to use as my methodological framework.
Robert Mapplethorpe’s (1986) Black Book photographs and negro-philic objectification are examples of the emasculation of the nude Black male body. Similarly,
85 to the ways in which Robert and Austin are viewing each other’s bodies via the Internet.
Mapplethorpe’s (1986) photographs serve a function: they are a malicious iconography of
Blackness that has been fragmented of all personal particulars, an undifferentiated object of nameless fear, loathing, and perverse desire (p. 95). A disconcerting image that
Marriott (2000) described is that the souls of Black men are fixed and static by codes of racist culture. He argued, “our dream work is an eye fixed by someone else’s fascinations and repulsions, a distorting emanation sent to possess, to consume us” (p. 41). A psychic and cultural life nurtured on a tradition of fearful identification with the image of the monstrous and lynched brute: such is Black life. The Black man endlessly lives as a complicit image of Black identity through a lens of Whiteness.
Ferguson (2004) looked at the way herteronormative culture has functioned in constructing citizenship through Whiteness that has historically excluded people based on race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. In the same vein as the episode “Boo,”
Ferguson goes against the societal norms and uses sociological theory to expound on his concepts. Ferguson (2004) argued, pathologizing of Black culture is ingrained in sociology As such; he identified the historical imbrication of discourses that he claimed must be disassembled by a queer of color critique.
Ferguson (2004) further asserted that because seminal queer theory texts rely on
Whiteness, the positioning of coming out as a liberatory act reflects Whiteness that further instigates epistemological bias that does not necessarily represent queer subjects divided by racial distinction. This framework similarly over-arches facets of the LGBTQ community. Ferguson (2004) eloquently identified the vacillations between how the queer of color resists interpellation into these controlled categories of Black American
86 identity established by canonical sociology and dominant literary representations. Similar to Mark’s view on how Black gay men have to navigate their identity through a resistance to Whiteness, DL men position themselves in opposition to gay identity. He also focused on how in an already marginalized context, White queer narratives are placed on Black queers or queers of color that do not fully address the issues faced by these further marginalized groups. As a result, queers of color are asking questions that are non-conforming and seen as deviant from a homogemony of Whiteness. “Queer” is therefore not an essentialist category of identity but a set of critiques of White homo- sexuality and patriarchy, which enables what Angela Davis called “unlikely and unprecedented coalitions” (as cite in Ferguson, 2004, p. 29) against capitalism. This claim is also in correlation with Audre Lorde’s book, Sister Outsider (1984).
Sister Outsider is a collection of essays focusing on race/racism, gender/sexism, sexual identity, and social class as they are enacted in a White supremacist master narrative, heterosexism, and capitalist patriarchy. Lorde (1984) connected with and stood firmly in the Black dominant narrative. For example, The Master's Tools Will Never
Dismantle the Master's House, an essay that radically challenges how White people learn about racism, or how men learn about women. Lorde discussed the discourses of
Whiteness as an old and crucial instrument of all oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the master’s concerns.
I argue, deep exploration into the particular brings about the universal in the sense that the concept of Whiteness is deeply grounded in particular political claims and those claims have been cloaked and hidden through rhetoric. Lorde (1984) posited your own body and how you are defined shape your subjectivity. This type of thinking creates a
87 foundation for re-positioning identity constructs. Or as Lorde would put it, reflexivity is key. For example, Lorde (1984) was one of the authors to argue that scholars should place themselves within their research; she does this by using poetry as her point of entry into other areas of concern.
Lorde (1984) left the reader to question how can one transform a systemically oppressed people? And she challenged readers to place themselves in a position that forces them to reject easy answers (p. 74). Lorde is erotic, the life force of women (p. 54), according to Kimberly Crenshaw Black (1995). Additionally, she claimed that people are always in the intersection and are always crossing they are not parallel. Crenshaw focused on the inner workings of the White master narrative institutionally, its political practice, and the level of the representational Blackness unexamined. Lorde (1984) turned Kipling (1899) upside down and on its side. She threw caution to the wind and at
The White Man’s Burden, in which Rudyard Kipling (1899) saved Black people from themselves. Kipling (1899) depicts Black people as savages. However, Lorde (1984) also used popular culture as a good entry point to discuss the how queer tropes have changed over time. She argued that these tropes are not static; they are dynamic. But, you must go beyond the surface to reach the political connotations.
Informed by a constructionist agenda, queer theory has moved from explaining the modern homosexual to questions of the operation of the hetero/homosexual binary.
Queer theory moves from an exclusive preoccupation with homosexuality to a focus on heterosexuality as a social and political organizing principle. It critically analyzes social dynamics and power structures regarding sexual identity and social power by challenging and deconstructing normativity, especially as supported by essentialist notions of identity.
88 Queer theory renders identity multiple and unstable and thus celebrates difference that contributes to a non-threatening truth. But, queer theory also deconstructs identity as much as it does gender and its accompaniments such as power, social roles, and hierarchical locations. And, it moves from a politics of minority interest to a politics of knowledge and difference (Butler, 1999; Ferguson, 2004; and Seidman 1996).
Here, my use of queer theory ends up asking questions similar to those in the discourse around intersectionality, even if the questions resonate differently and are located within other fields of inquiry. That said, queer theory denounces sexuality as universal while affirming it as a social construct. Even though queer theory effectively examines the role of sexuality in the lives of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people, and other sexual and gender minorities, the research repeatedly centers on White people as subjects of inquiry to the exclusion of queers of color (Cohen, 1997; Collins,
2000; and Holland, 2012). Thus, queer theory was constructed in Whiteness instead of including the differing racialized experiences amid homonormative people and does not address issues pertaining to DL or gay Black men.
Black Male Emasculation: Historical to the Contemporary
The emasculation the Black man is at the crux of the issues regarding negative hegemonic stereotypes of gay Black men, which in turn affect DL identity. The focus on emasculation in this study is to provide a historical background for Black male sexual and masculine identity. This section provides a review of the history of Black male emasculation and brings it into contemporary times. Walker (2009) suggested that the physical mistreatment and subjugation of African slaves during slavery and the equally
89 malicious form of institutional racism that proceeded post emancipation have systemically altered the psyche of Black males, their manhood, and ultimately their humanity. The history of emasculation of Black males has an enduring and pervasive history. Similarly, Scott (2010) posited that the practices of Black man emasculation could be traced back to pre-colonial America. In fact, Ferguson (2004), Johnson (2001),
Scott (2010), and Walker (2009) suggested that there is an active history where White people through institutional racism conspired against Black men to effectively undermine
Black manhood and render them weak, docile, and impotent.
For example, Black (1997) suggested that the earliest form of Black male emasculation came at the hands of White slavers during the Atlantic Slave Trade. He stated that the cross-oceanic journey began “the slave’s initiation into a systematic degradation designed to strip away his humanity and make him ready for the seller’s block” (p. 43). This was the start of the emasculation process. This experience, the stripping away of the Black slaves’ humanity and masculinity, was an acute blow to both sense of self and manhood for the African male, who prided himself on being able to protect and defend himself, his wife and his family. Black (1997) also suggested that no longer was the African man able to function according to his developed self-concept. He became psychologically deprived and lost in a sea of shifting identity and as a consequence, the Black man looked to the White slaver for his identity, success, and dependency.
Black (1997) continued to suggest that the intersection of the loss of identity and the development of a dependence on the White slave owner provided a shift in locus of control from internal to external, from self to master. Thus, under the condition of
90 slavery, the Black male became amorphous–having the physical features and physiological functions of a man but denied access to the role which fulfills the concept
(p. 25). While Black (1997) wrote about the Atlantic trade route experience, Franklin and
Moss (2000) suggested another form of emasculation: institutional racism. These authors suggested that during the plantation existence, Black males came to realize that their master dominated them but, more extensively, so did the entire system of enslavement; hence the rise of institutionalized White racism. This system allowed for Black subservience and subjugation on a national scale as opposed to a personal one.
Furthermore, a complex component of the emasculation process was the inability to provide for and protect their families. Black (2000) illustrated this point by suggesting that White male dominance of female slaves in the presence of Black males became another visible sign and source of emasculation. Unable to perform the role of protector,
Black males were constantly reminded of their impotence and lack of virility. To cope with such psychological and physical limitations, Black (2000) suggested that Black males constructed metaphorical masks and in doing so learned to act in a role pleasing to the White power structure, a role he further suggested, that convinced their oppressors that they had finally accepted the power of Whiteness over their lives. Such dysfunction caused the thwarted Black men to be unable to live out a healthy self-concept of manhood.
Post-slavery, the 19th and 20th centuries carried over the institutional racism.
Present in every facet of the Black man’s life were institutional and systemic constructs that served as constant reminders of his inferiority and inequality in a White male dominated society. Scott (2010) summarized this condition by stating about the Black
91 man, “freedom was not synonymous with equality” (p. 139). Educated and uneducated
Black men are treated just alike. Physical manifestations of submission and dominance can be seen in the sexual exploitation of Black bodies. Black bodies were seen by White slave-owners as profitable capital commodities and used to produce more commodities
(i.e. children) to work the plantations. For example, the slave-era notion of physically attractive Black males as studs or bucks conjures imagery of the 20th century. This slave era notion of Black men as animals to be selected and bred has carried over into the 20th and 21st-century myths of the hyper heterosexual Black man that current Black culture still holds onto. However, slavery had a different connotation. The connection of the
Black man’s sexual prowess is seen as an erotic fantasy with his worth tied to his penis
(i.e. mandingo), which was used for nothing more than to breed children and become the sexual object and fantasy of the White slave master, master’s wife, and others who wanted to experience such eroticism.
Additionally, curriculum theorist William Pinar (2004) suggested that White
Southern slave owners saw Black men as over-sexual and sexualized creatures. Such objectification and commodification became part of the emasculating process. Black men were seen as studs to breed children, only to see those children taken away and sold.
Further, Thomas and Sillen (1972) suggested without doubt, White captors contributed to the idea that Black men are good only for hyper- heterosexual activity. In short, the only place in which White slave owners allowed a Black man’s self-worth to become realized was when it was tied to his sexual expertise, albeit not without grave psychological consequences. The assumed hyper sexuality of Black men was merely another attribute that one would expect to find among heathen, savage, provincial, and beast-like men.
92
Discussion: Revisiting Black Masculinities
Being a DL man is taboo in some facets of the Black community, mainly for all of the reasons stated above, but primarily because the sexual acts that would label one as gay most often take place in hidden places like a bathroom, a park after dark, a sex club, or an alley. Some Black men believe if no one sees a man having sex with another man then homosexuality does not exist, and they do not want to have the image of being gay attached to them. About this, Collins (2004) stated, “Many Black men who are gay or bisexual hide their sexual orientation, preferring to pass as straight” (p. 173). Dyson
(2009) echoed Collins when he states, “The gay male upsets the social order for the straight male. Straight males want to celebrate male athletes or religious figures without fear of being charged with an erotic or sexual attraction to them” (p. 242). In some facets of the Black community, it is more acceptable to be strung out on drugs, to be an ex-con, to be a womanizer, a dead-beat father, a murderer, or a gang-banger than it is to be gay.
Hence, the statement made by many Black mothers, at least my son is not gay.
Through the analysis of contemporary mainstream media, Marlon Riggs (1999) discussed the discourse surrounding Black masculinity and Black gay men.
I am a Negro faggot, if I believe what movies, TV, and rap music say of
me. My life is a game for play. Because of my sexuality, I cannot be [B]lack. A
strong, proud, ‘Afrocentric’ [B]lack man is resolutely heterosexual, not even
bisexual. Hence, I remain a Negro. My sexual difference is considered of no
value; indeed, it’s a testament to weakness, passivity, and the absence of real guts
– balls. I am consigned, by these tenets, to remain a Negro faggot. And, as such, I
93 am game for play, to be used, joked about, put down, beaten, slapped, and bashed,
not just by illiterate homophobic thugs in the night but by [B]lack American
culture’s best and brightest. (p. 307)
In this passage, Riggs (1999) reflected on what it means to be a Black gay man in
American society. The societal segregation that homosexuals endure can be thought of as similar to Jim Crow Laws. These laws constructed by White people were based on prejudice against Black people in the late nineteenth century through the middle of the twentieth century. As such I argue Jim Crow laws enable the spectator to view homosexuality and DL as a cult like experience.
According to hooks (2001, 2004), ethnic and racial differences within masculinity are important to the diversity of African American studies. Framing these issues within the context of intersectionality provides ways in which masculinity is experienced, accepted, negotiated, and interpreted. She further suggested that masculinity, as practiced by Black Americans, plays upon and, and at times, calls into question culturally dominant projections of Black masculinity which are restrictive. In this way, highly commodified cultural domains such as entertainment, sexual fantasy, sports, and music, reveal some extreme difficulties and possibilities for marginalized groups in terms of reconstructing racialized manhood. Another factor in reframing Black manhood – similar to the episodes in The DL Chronicles – are social stigmas and penalties, which can include community isolation, violence, and prejudice when Black men do not conform to the expected masculine performance or narrative. Such attempts are undermined rather than celebrated (Potoczniak, 2007).
94 The current explosion of discourse on manhood, masculinities, male identities, and the emergence of gay studies, men’s studies, and queer theory, as well as institutional politics that accompany such predispositions, did not occur suddenly. The discourse has a historical perspective informed by intersectionality (Collins, 2000; Crenshaw, 1995), critical theory (Delgado & Stefanic, 2012; Horkheimer 1993), and curriculum theory
(Pinar, 2004). Much of what appears has connections and origins in the late 1960s and
70s. The focus on race, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation in the 1970s and the early
1980s provided nuanced analyses of manhood (Baym, 1981; Bell, 1981; Hoch, 1979;
Katz, 1976; Pleck & Pleck, 1980; and Staples, 1982). This analysis situated masculinity in a historical and sociological dimension, defining the descriptive role and social function of the male gender (hooks, 2001; Hoch, 1979 Katz, 1976; and Pleck & Pleck,
1980).
In dissimilarity, the 1980s saw a rise in research that explored the multiple perspectives within the discourse of man, and new theoretical approaches emerged.
According to Gullette (1994), this was encouraged in part by the rise of gay studies and studies of gay culture in male sexuality. Current emphasis within the discourse of masculinity is on the structure of manhood and how manhood is defined, particularly on how manhood is performed between men. However, the emergence of gender as a category allowed for a broader discussion that was closer aligned with women’s studies and feminist criticism (Scott, 2010). Such criticism focused on the systematic and cultural constructedness of gender differences.
Scott (2010) posited that these studies’ main objective was to focus on sexual difference and by doing so advance a critical perspective aimed at exposing patriarchal
95 practices, while exploring the lived experiences of women, their work, and history separate from the dominant male culture and identity. Such a concept proposes that gender in this context no longer refers to a biological binary, but is conceived as a multi- dimensional socio-political and cultural construct (Scott, 2010); which I call gender multifaceted. And these topics were not presented solely from the construction of African
American Studies, which itself is a discipline constructed by heteronormative homophobic Black men.
Gender multifaceted concept connects to Crenshaw’s (1995), Cohen’s (1997), and
Collins’s (2000) theories of intersectionality. Collins (2000) stated that “the examination of race, sex, national origin and sexual orientation, and how their combination plays out in various settings” (p. 57). Similar to my reading of The DL Chronicles, these authors argued that the intersection, or what Collins (2000) termed “interlocking nature of identities” (p. 58) is inseparable, and one must consider how these multiple identities simultaneously reproduce particular sites of oppression and exclusion. Scott (2010) along with Crenshaw (1995) and Collins (2000), and in traditional context, de Beauvoir
(1949), suggest that gender is not born, but made, providing a sociological critique not of the body but rather cultural specifics such as social roles, cultural functions, and fictions of femininity and masculinity. With these scholars, gender ceased to be an ontological category and became representational. Such representation serves as an opportunity to destabilize gender relations and patterns of marginal cultural practices (Cohen, 1997 and
Collins, 2000).
Due to the destabilizing representation of gender and its intersectionality (Cohen,
1997) with culture, race, and gender studies, Crenshaw (1995) and Scott (2010)
96 highlighted male and female in distinct manners that provide cultural critique and formation on a platform to examine masculinity (Brockenbrough, 2015). This new positionality, as suggested by Kimmel and Brod (1996), has moved to center focus within masculinity studies. Kimmel and Brod (1996) examined the issue of male masculinity from the debate of masculinity that emerged in the mid-1980s within the literary and cultural studies movement. This movement situated male masculinity in the context of politics and sought to question how men positioned themselves in or in relation to feminism.
Similarly, Boone and Cadden (1990) suggested that if men wish to engage in feminist approaches to social critique, they would have to turn the critical lens on themselves and their sexual bodies. Such a critique provides analysis and conceptualizes male masculinity and sexuality from both historical and cultural contexts (Boon &
Cadden, 1990). This new context redirected the focus from gender to differences within men and manhood. Similar to the episodes of Mark and Robert of The DL Chronicles, these differences were found in the voices and narratives of gay men, who experienced the consequences of restrictive notions of masculinity (Boone and Cadden, 1990).
This interpretive observation in narratives of gay men provided a platform and voice within gay studies literature by suggesting strategies of emancipatory discourse that critiques the oppressive effects of a hegemonic construction of masculinity from within the White, middle class position (Boone and Cadden, 1990). They provided a platform and voice within the gay studies literature by suggesting strategies for emancipatory discourse that critiqued the oppressive effects of the hegemonic construction of masculinity from within the White, middle class position. However, later critiques of this
97 approach suggested that the voices of males of color were absent from this line of discourse (Ferguson, 2004). As such, race and ethnicity remained less than a principal issue, holding Black bodies within a fixed and unchanging narrative. However, I argue, due to the absent voices of men of color from this line of discourse, especially in
Whiteness, where gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity become the principal issue, confirming Black bodies as a fixed and unchanging narrative (see, chapter 5).
Closing
This study explored the ways in which, Black male sexuality broadly, and Black
DL identity specifically, has been presented in visual culture in relationship to Whiteness.
The major focus was to analyze the television series, DL Chronicles, which is about the brothers on the down low. The series consist of total four episodes. Each episode presents the story of an African American brother on the down low. In each episode, different circumstances have been discussed. The first episode is about the marital relations of brothers on down low, the second episode is about the fathers who are living on the down low, third episode is about the frustrated brothers on the down low who become hypersexual due to social issues, and fourth episode is about the unmarried brothers on the down low who are afraid to reveal their sexuality to society.
The series received the 2008 GLAAD Media Award in the category of
Outstanding Television Movie or Mini-Series. It is the first cable television show to center on Black Americans and the DL phenomenon in the gay community. Filmmakers
LeNear and Gossett (http://www.glaad.org/blog/dl-chronicles-producers-quincy-and- deondray-gossfield-speak-glaad-about-being-married-live) created, produced, and
98 directed the series, The DL Chronicles. This series explores the lives of men of color who live double lives while still closeted. Not only is the show sexy and provocative, but it also offers a socially conscious insight into the lines between sexuality and perceived socially acceptable behavior within the African American community. The DL
Chronicles is one of the first television shows to center on Black Americans and the DL phenomenon in the gay community. Deeper insight into the background of the creators of
The DL Chronicles might fall into the history and experience of its creators. LeNear and
Gossett—currently married—met through mutual friends. One of their friends was trying to link them up for creative and business reasons. He had no idea that they were gay.
They were actors and very closeted for fear that public knowledge of their relationship would ruin their chances of success in Hollywood. Over time, they gave love a try, and for seven years they loved each other in a DL relationship. Many of their friendships suffered because of their fear. They felt the pain of being unable to openly celebrate their love (http://www.glaad.org/blog/dl-chronicles-producers-quincy-and-deondray-gossfield- speak-glaad-about-being-married-live). Disillusioned with the lack of people of color in
LGBT media and growing tired of the witch-hunt for DL, LeNear and Gossett created the indie anthology series, The DL Chronicles. LeNear and Gossett decided together that when their short film came out at its first film festival, they would come out with it. The success of the series set them on a new path of tackling topics such as sexual identity and promiscuity.
This television series conveys a message to society that DL and Black gay men should have the opportunity to live a normal life. Hiding their sexual identity and telling lies to people makes them anxious and frustrated. Moreover, Black gay men have to face
99 so many negative social attitudes, which are based on sexual orientation, color, and culture. Black Americans have always been the target of harassment due to their color and ethnicity. DL and Black gay men specifically believe that there is no place for them in facets of the Black community. That is another reason why some DL and Black gay men struggle with the existence of facing their sexual truth. So they are forced to develop hidden or secret relationships with other men (Hawkeswood, 1996).
100 Chapter 5
Introduction
In this chapter, I first provide a summary of the study. Next, I discuss how the interpretations in Chapter 4 respond to the two research questions that guided this study with an emphasis on how these interpretations relate to previous knowledge and methodologies discussed in Chapters 1, 2, and 3. This chapter concludes with a discussion of implications of the study and recommendations for future research.
Summary of the Study
This study provided readers a synopsis of theoretical frameworks that are typically used to discuss Whiteness in relation to masculinities and sexualities in United
States history – intersectionality, queer theory, and a queer of color critique. I have revealed my perspective on perceptions and stereotypes, thereby setting the background for the reader to know better my awareness of the lived experience of men who are Black and DL in the United States. Bordwell and Thompson’s (2000) four levels of meaning from the literature in film studies mixed with literature from art education, African
American studies, and gender and sexuality studies provided examples of how to interpret deeper meaning from Black visual culture. These concepts represented a juxtaposition of Art Education and African American Studies that is grounded in critical pedagogy. As a result, contemporary images of Black men on the DL in television shows, social media, movies, film, and numerous other types of Black visual culture continue to characterize them as ungenuinely Black, constantly struggling with their identities,
101 embarrassed to openly live, and engaged in secret sexual relationships with men.
Furthermore, Black DLs are burdened with the perception that they are guilty of spreading HIV to heterosexual Black women.
The literature showed, this narrative of DL and gay Black men created conflicted and shattered identities, which are incapable of finding peace, validation, or emancipation in their socially constructed identities. As a result of their sexual selves that vie with their racial selves DL men suffer from a problem of having to choose a DL identity and then select inclusion within a fixed cultural identity. Further, it is important to point out that such depictions of DL and gay Black men tend to rely on a number of prominent, structural arrangements (Whiteness, heteronormativity, Black authenticity, and White gay homosexual all of which are substantiated in identity), which positions DL and gay Black male identity as iniquitous, Blackness as abnormal, and Black homosexuality as a White influenced sexually promiscuous ethos constructed in times of slavery which are linked to modern DL and Black gay identity as being diseased (Cohen, 1997; Collins 2004;
Crawford et al. 2002; Reid-Pharr 2001; Riggs, 1991: and Woodard, 2014).
Responses to the Research Questions
As stated in Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4, interpretations of two episodes of The DL
Chronicles revealed a fear of homosexuality and homosexual identity within facets of the
Black community. The DL Chronicles also illuminated the distinctive lived experiences of DL Black men in the United States. The series showed a need for more accurate depictions of cultural iconography and the teaching and educating of Black men, DL men, and gay Black men in the United States. These findings confirm what Darts (2007)
102 discussed pertaining to the nature of media messages in terms of “intended and perceived meanings [being] forever dependent upon historical, cultural, political and personal contexts and conditions and [being] perpetually contested in flux” (p. 82). The United
States cultural dependence on historical and cultural facts is in direct relation to (Harris,
2003; Pieterse, 1992; Collins, 2004; Collins & Crawford, 2008) Chapters 1, 2, 3, & 4.
The interpretations of The DL Chronicles in Chapter 4 offered increased and more adequate and meaningful interpretations of the deep rooted Whiteness in the formation of
Black identity, masculinity, and sexuality in Black visual culture in the United States.
The rhizomatic experience of branching out and allowing Bordwell and Thompson’s
(2000) four levels of meaning in this study to cross over and intertwine with Black visual culture and Blackness in television helps to increase awareness of the interdisciplinary relationship between visual culture and Black masculinities and sexualities (i.e. art education and African American studies). Additionally, the relationship of these two disciplines has assisted me with responding to the research questions in this dissertation.
1. In what ways are brothers on the DL represented in The DL Chronicles? (Specifically: behaviors, language, mannerisms, actions, dress, relationships and proximity to distance from other kinds of representations).
I analyzed The DL Chronicles using visual representation, language, and the discourse that surrounds Bordwell and Thompson’s (2000) four levels of meaning. Harris
(2003) stated, “‘With the image,’ you only have a one-step process of where the image impacts on your psychology directly, and that, then, becomes what you internalize. When it comes to visual representation, clearly a lot is at stake” (p. 15). Visual representation and images unequivocally support ideological constructions of race and identity to take
103 form. Harris (2003) further stated that “despite the real-world impact of the construction of [B]lack racial identity and its derogatory imagery, it is important to recognize it as what it is: a construction, an invention. All identities are constructed” (p. 15). This is a direct correlation to hegemonic White American society refusing Black people entrance into mainstream society due to the constructed notions of Black people being inferior. On a larger scale the opening remarks of The DL Chronicles made by the narrator Chadwick, brings identity constructs, racism, gender, sexual orientation, and politics to the forefront of the discourse surrounding uncloaking visual representations of DL in Black visual culture. This is conversation is similar with double consciousness and using the assimilation and the discourse of invisibility concept. For instance, “Black men whose voices are muted…The DL man is both Black and gay, both misunderstood and feared” as a result of identity constructs grounded in a Whiteness DL men who identify as such are seen as how Cohen (1997) put it, as a crosscutting cultural issue who inflict further marginalization on themselves within an already marginalized Black culture with their erotic and sensual actions. For instance, “gay sexual identity has been seen in some heteronormative [B]lack communities as mitigating one’s racial identity and deflating one’s community standing” (Cohen, 1999, p. 14). Additionally, in the narration that introduces each of the four episodes in the series, the narrator says, “the DL man blurs the lines between an otherwise supposed clear distinction between gay and straight, normal and abnormal, moral and immoral, like a child joining two blood lines, one dirty, one clean.” This introduction bears a direct relationship with HIV/AIDS phenomenon within some facets of Black communities and religions.
104 Harris (2003) argued, “racial discourses, though they are discourses of power; ultimately rely on the visual in the sense that the visible body must be used by those in power to represent nonvisual realities that differentiate insiders from outsiders” (p. 2). In this context, Harris (2003) is referring to race as complex, unsolidified, and an unpredictable subject whose meanings somewhat shift over time. Further, Nicholas
Mirzoeff (1995) posited,
The definition of the Other as wholly different from the Self was, of
course, haunted by anxiety that difference more apparent than real. It was
therefore crucial that difference should not only be known but visible…The
pseudo-science of ‘race’ dominated such efforts to visualize difference. (p. 17)
In this context, I refer back to the example analysis of “Boo” in Chapter 3, when I reference a Black mother saying, “at least my son is not gay.” Episode “Boo,” revealed a fear common to heterosexual Black men of being labeled a homosexual; the episode also dealt with the image of homosexual identity within the Black community and the Black church. Additionally, it addressed the way in which some facets of Black culture require an instant distancing from homosexuality. Ultimately, in using Bordwell and Thompson’s
(2000) four levels of meaning for the analysis of the four episodes, I conclude that racism is derived from preconceived notions that are explicated through visual imagery. This assertion is supported by Collins, 2004; Du Bois, 1903; Gates, 1988; Gates & West,
1996; Grant, 2013, 2014; Harris, 2003; hooks, 1992, 1995, and 2004, Pieterse, 1992;
Powell, 2008; Riggs, 1999; Rolling, 2010; Taylor, 2004; and West, 2008. Additionally, through the analysis of contemporary mainstream media, Marlon Riggs (1999) discussed because of my sexuality I remain a sissy, punk, faggot. I cannot be a [B]lack gay man
105 because, by the tenets of [B]lack macho, [B]lack gay man is a triple negation. (p. 307)
Here, Riggs (1999) echoed the cliché of what some believe it is to be a Black gay man in
American society. Riggs’ (1999) description reinforces the spectatorial notion that homosexuality is effeminate and considered emasculating the Black male image. Human experience is profoundly affected by images, and Bordwell and Thompson’s (2000) four levels of meaning represents visually constructed identities. These images are grounded in what appear to be justifiable depictions of reality, and the revealing or presence of cognizance along with the positioning of visuality.
From my lived experiences the analysis of this episode echoes what I
witnessed firsthand living in NYC. Some Black men continue to struggle with
cultural, societal, and socioeconomic conditions, which have plagued Black men
since before Du Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folk in 1903. A substantial amount of
Black visual culture of the last century has focused on Black men and the struggles
with societal maltreatment, impoverished socioeconomic conditions, employment
limitations, and incarceration which cause Black men to rebel that results in social,
financial, and spiritual death through media coverage (see Collins, 2004; hooks, 2004;
Powell, 2008; West, 2008, as cited in Grant, 2013).
2. In what ways can representations of masculinity and sexuality of brothers on
the DL in Black visual culture be used to inform and guide curriculum in art
education and African American and diaspora studies?
Due to the implicit meanings within The DL Chronicles, the four episodes analyzed in this study represent in many ways what Giroux (2012) discussed concerning
106 the cruelty of Whiteness and racism in the United States. Giroux (2012) scripted:
The culture of cruelty is important for thinking through how entertainment
and politics now converge in ways that fundamentally transform how we
understand and imagine politics in the current historical moment – a moment
when the central issue of getting by is no longer about working to get ahead but
struggling simply to survive. And many groups who are considered marginal
because they are poor, unemployed, people of color, elderly, or young have not
just been excluded from ‘the American dream,’ but have become utterly
redundant and disposable, waste products of a society that no longer considers
them of any value. (p. 35)
Giroux’s focus on social and political issues in the United States fertilized my examination and interrogation of the dominant Eurocentric White cultural ideology’s negative saturation of the mind, the mood, and the societal conditions of the majority of
Black people in the United States. For instance, the lived experience of some Black
Americans can be the implicit engagement with Black identity as it disrupts a coherent, unwavering or shattered view of the Black lived experience. In addition, this study has shown that the fields of art education and African American studies are academic disciplines in which in-depth interpretations of Black visual culture can take place. As a result of this implicit engagement Bordwell and Thompson’s (2000) four levels of meaning acknowledges that The DL Chronicles provide a fertile space for theorizing curriculum in art education and African American studies.
In art education, Freedman (2003) stated, “the ideal purpose of including culturally diverse art in curriculum is to promote an understanding of the richness of
107 visual culture [and] increase acceptance of disenfranchised groups” (p. 125).
Additionally, Freedman (2003) discussed the complexities of teaching about diversity or other social issues connected to visual culture, revealing that these complexities require a deeper understanding in multicultural and cross cultural settings. Freedman’s (2003) statements embody the premise of this study, which is, in order to reveal the intricacies and the complexities in Black visual culture, one must have an awareness of the Black lived experience in the United States. Using examples of Black visual culture such as The
DL Chronicles provides such awareness and thereby informs curriculum theory in art education and African American studies.
Further, art educator, Carpenter (2005) wrote of “teachers who bridge the content of two or more subject areas as a way to cross between disciplines. When some teachers and curriculum designers see a wall, others imagine a window, door, or bridge in its place” (p. 4). Nevertheless, curriculum theory has allegiance to the discipline and experience of education because of its origins in this area. The ‘complicated conversation’ (Pinar, 2004) of curriculum theory is in direct correlation to the Black lived experience in the United States to which I have connected Bordwell and Thompson’s
(2000) four levels of meaning. The juxtaposition of art education and African American studies with curriculum theory is an excellent start to enriching curriculum in these fields.
Likewise, Carpenter & Sourdot (2010) discussed the need for enhanced art education curricula. They wrote, “the field of art education has for more than two decades, opened the discourse of its own practices to consider the roles, values, and influences of visual culture” (p. 444). In this sense, visual culture as public pedagogy is juxtaposed with the
108 ‘complicated conversation’ (Pinar, 2004) of curriculum theory (Carpenter & Sourdot,
2010).
One of the courses I taught at The Pennsylvania State University was (Art
Education 225, Diversity, Pedagogy, and Visual Culture for 3 Credits) a required course for pre-service art education undergraduate students. This class focused on issues of diversity in art, education, visual culture, curriculum, and pedagogy. The course was grounded in critical explorations at the intersections among diversity, visual culture and contemporary art, and pedagogy. That is, this course sought to function as an evolving space to promote critical explorations at the intersections of diversity, visual culture and contemporary art, and the consideration of pedagogical implications of such intersections.
As a result, I structured my syllabus for the course thematically to allow for focus on distinct but overlapping discourses. The themes were: (a) Diversity, Pedagogy, and
Visual Culture (b) Xenophobia and Social Difference (c) Gender and Sexual Identity (d)
Public Consensus and Censorship (e) Oppression and Stereotypes.
While colleagues may begin their classes with a short video or reading, and eventually engage in a class discussions, I began by asking questions to make my students think deeper. Not wanting to jade their perception I never give my own opinions.
For instance, one of the assignments that my students have engaged with, had the capacity to encompass all of the themes above is mapping their identity. In this assignment they were to map their identity development in relationship to a person of their choice, someone who they did not know (i.e., not enrolled in the current course) and who they viewed as ethnically different from themselves. They were to conduct a series of at least 3interviews with that person. They were to also list the dates and times of their
109 meetings or interactions. Along with this there were a several additional components to this assignment. Offered below is one of these components, “the interview” (abridged version):
I will not provide questions for your interview. However, you may want to start by reflecting upon them when you both first recognized differences in race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. What did you notice? What were your thoughts? You should spend time discussing such topics as (though not limited to) family, friends, childhood, goals, dating, language, work, leisure activities, schooling and other forms of education, politics church/religion, personal perspectives on contemporary issues, or any other topics you and your interviewee wish to discuss, specifically as they relate to issues of race. During your conversations, you are mapping the racial/ethnic identity of your interviewee.
Identify the racial contexts from which this individual constructs a worldview different from your own. (Grant, 2016)
Once the interviews were completed they were required to produce a reflective narrative. This was to be more than a simple transcription of the interview. The bulk of the narrative will address their portrait of the interviewee in relationship to their selves.
The students are to choose the stage that best describes them at their present level of identity development. They are to describe those significant life experiences and situations that help clarify where they are in terms of their race, gender, sexual orientation, and how that, among other things, affects how they interact with others and how they might interpret/perceive the visual culture around them.
Additionally, they should present both a portrait of the interviewee’s world in relationship to their world and an analysis of their perceptions (before and after the
110 interview). During their class presentations, students are encourage to use excerpts from the interview materials to help the class to understand how the interviewee perceives the world and what factors might have led to his or her particular perspectives. In doing so, they must first clarify the racial and social contexts central to themselves and the interviewee so that we, the class, might understand why both the student and the interviewee see the world in the distinctive manner in which they do. Therefore, the class presentation should address their own subjective preconceptions concerning the interviewee and how these changed or were reinforced during the interview.
Lastly, in mapping their racial/ethnic identity and that of their interviewee, students should be able to answer the following questions: Why did they label their interviewee as racially/ethnically different from themselves? Were these differences constructed under investigation? Did the commonalties of their experiences diminish some of the differences they assumed existed? Were their assumptions based on stereotypes? How have these experiences affected or changed the ways in which they look at other people who might appear to be different from them?
The intent of this assignment is for students to identify specific class, gendered, racial, and sexuality perspectives that provide detailed meanings for events that have occurred in their and the interviewee’s life. In other words, it is not sufficient simply to identify what happened to both of them; their goal is to relate how and why they both understood those events in a certain way. For example, their interviewee participated in the protest for the legalization of gay marriage. What did this mean to them? Why did their interviewee engage in this activity? What was it about the issue(s) surrounding the activity that inspired such action on his or her part? Are they able to understand different
111 points of view and come to the realization that they do not have to agree with someone in order to understand them?
Implications for Art Education
For a further look into the research questions, my study considered pertinent societal issues of Whiteness and its effects on the representations of DL and Black identity in Black visual culture that should be of concern to the field of art education.
Olivia Gude (2009) stated, “through artworks, students absorb the perceptions of others— situated in other times and places, embodied in other races, genders, ages, classes, and abilities. Through art, the self becomes vitally interested in other selves, sensing the possibilities and problems of those selves within oneself.” (Gude, 2009, p.
13) Here, Gude (2009) implied, art education is the landscape where the interpretation of
Black visual culture can be addressed. Additionally, she wrote, “Through quality art education, youth develop the capacity to attend to nuances of meaning. Most significantly, engagement with the arts teaches youth to perceive complexity as pleasure and possibility, not as irritating uncertainty” (Gude, 2009, p. 13). In short, through art education, students cultivate heightened skills for understanding the meaning making of others in the classroom. Heightened self-awareness can be extended to heightened double consciousness of others and groups that are marginalized (Gude, 2009).
Scholars in the field of art education base their work heavily on critical pedagogy as well (see, chapter 2, Carpenter, 2005; Carpenter & Tavin, 2010; Garoian, 1999;
Freedman, 2004; Grant, 2013; Rolling, 2010; Tavin, 2003). Critical pedagogy, as a form of education in which students are encouraged to question dominant or common notions
112 of meaning and form their own understanding of what they learn. For example, Garoian
(1999) argued for challenging and disrupting formal Western epistemic education. He argued for the creation of liminal spaces in the classroom where critical thinking can be injected into the education process. As such, he wrote:
Critical thinking…enables students to cross historically and institutionally
determined disciplinary and cultural boundaries in order to gain multiple
perspectives and to participate in the discourse on educational content. (p. 49)
Within the context of the creation of liminal spaces, I assert that within the art education classroom environment, my personal experiences as a Black male interpreting and researching Black visual culture grounded in critical pedagogy can serve as examples to illustrate concepts of visual culture, and theoretical examples within course lessons, assignments, and readings. With this approach, I can create a classroom environment that is a inter-contextual Garoian (1999) writes:
Under such circumstances, classrooms are transformed into liminal spaces,
sites of contestation where the struggle to learn takes place as the politics of
learning is challenged with the interpersonal, inter disciplinary, and intercultural
perspectives that students bring to the school. (p. 49)
Additionally, Pinar (2004) stated, “Curriculum theory is the interdisciplinary study of the educational experience” (p. 25). Taken one step further, by considering study as a form of interpretation, I posit “theorizing curriculum in art education is the interdisciplinary interpretation of the art educational experience.” (Grant, 2014, p. 168)
Lastly, double consciousness enables me to see culture in complex, complicated, contradictory, and multifaceted ways. By seeing double consciousness in these ways, my
113 students and I can cultivate humility of impulse to explore the marginalized side that has been heretofore veiled.
Additionally, Bordwell and Thompson’s (2000) four levels of meaning reveal content and informative prospects of film and as such I modified this theory to interpret television shows. More visual culture could be examined to reveal racialized conflicts, socio-economic status, caste system, and other by-products of Whiteness and historical antecedents such as found in Jim Crow, Black Power Movement, and Civil Rights
Movement. Educators and scholars have already explored television shows in the past
(Carpenter & Sourdot, 2010; Jhally and Lewis, 1992). However, more work is needed on a broader scale in order to add to and to augment the prospects, challenges, probable uses, and effects of Whiteness in curriculum.
African American Studies Re-Structuring Theoretical Concepts
The purpose of this study was to situate my dissertation research topic within the disciplines of art education (A ED) and African American Studies AFAM. As such, I explored some of the historical footprints essential to bridging the relationship between these two academic disciplines. I reviewed some of the literature in these two fields. In doing so I uncloaked some of the fissures in both disciplines within the context of creating liminal spaces. Additionally, the review of literature helped to provide context on some of the key considerations, implications, and interventions with the ways in which DL identity is constructed.
My AFAM department at Penn State is an interdisciplinary discipline that examines the pulse of the Black population. Black studies attract a wide range of
114 academic disciplines, such as art education, English, history, philosophy, and theology, just to name a few. One of the strengths of AFAM is that it uncloaks a range of concepts and dialogues that forge unexpected theoretical connections. For example, these diverse disciplines bring with them different views and this can supplement an area of study.
AFAM is vital because it is directly concerned with documenting, interrogating, and improving the conditions in Black societies. When applying concepts and theories to complex realities, it is usually the case that more than one framework of understanding is needed. In general, AFAM “emerged as a discipline in part as a way of interrogating the very sources and grounds of knowledge production. This means that in addition to studying such things as Black history and African American cultural practices, we explore the ways in which Blackness impacts the production and study of knowledge”
(personal communication, Taylor, 2014). Therefore, theoretical agreement is not always necessary and approaching an issue from different perspectives can be empowering in praxis (Andrews & Palmer, 2013). Similarly, Patton (2013) argued, “unlike the first two waves of AFAM scholars, who were trained in traditional disciplines, younger scholars of race tend to focus on work that is interdisciplinary” (p. 2). For example, contemporary
AFAM PhD scholars take more of an interdisciplinary methodology when approaching traditional issues in the field such as, invisibility, muted voices, and identity construction.
According to Gordon (2007):
Methodologies are the conceptual framework of our research and methods
are the tools we deploy to carry out the research. Our methodology is driven by
the overarching goals of social change and theoretical development. We seek to
couple established methods with those that emerge from our interactions with
115 collectivities with whom we work. In struggles for liberatory politics, our
emphasis is on dialogic and reflexive methods. Rather than stressing observation
as a method, we stress participation: acknowledging our positionality, engaging in
dialogue and synthetic practice. Reflexivity is a critical and aware process for
transformative practice (p. 95).
In this context, Gordon (2007) posited that AFAM is “also particularly interested in the ways in which patriarchy as ideology and practice are key to understanding important issues of gender and sexuality in our communities” (p. 97). In short, the heteronormative and masculinist emphasis in AFAM can be destabilized with Africana
Philosophy and Women’s Studies as a central feature of the new AFAM (Gordon, 2007).
That said, the new wave of PhD AFAM scholars “are not trying to seize the Black experience but are accounting for Black people's multiple identities in the work they do”
(p. 7). As a result, Mark Anthony Neal, an African and AFAM professor at Duke
University, stated that AFAM programs at elite institutions are "swaggering into the future" (as cited in, Gordon, 2007, p. 6). For instance, there is limited information on the
DL. In researching the number of African American men infected with HIV, Bleich and
Taylor-Clark (2005) noted the limited professional literature and lack of research conducted on DL men. Although they acknowledged the challenges researchers might experience in conducting a study with DL men (i.e., assuring confidentiality, the various sexual identities African American men may choose besides down low), Bleich and
Taylor-Clark emphasized that “researchers who engage in this field of study have the potential to make profound contributions to an area of investigation about which little is known or understood” (p. 17). This type of research provides the opportunities for
116 rhizomatic experiences unearthing themselves in curriculum and pedagogical practices in
A ED and AFAM.
Additionally, with regard to this research and the need for future studies, I am reminded that Freire (1970) noted, “the oppressor knows full well that this invention would not be in his interest. What is to his interest is for people to continue in a state of submersion, impotent in the face of oppressive reality” (p. 52). So, as a scholar, I will take refuge in my Blackness and remain vigilant as I live within my own distinctiveness and continue to engage the phantasms of race, class, gender, identity, and social issues that encompass my Black lived experience. As a result, the negative actions from
Whiteness, I will continue to “be a problem” as Du Bois (1903) puts it:
They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or
compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a
problem? They say, I know an excellent colored man in my town;… At these I
smile,... or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the
real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word. And yet,
being a problem is a strange experience, - peculiar even for one who has never
been anything else…. (pp. 1-2)
Du Bois asked, but does not give an absolute answer to this question: How does it feel to be a problem? He complicated this question by providing the gentle reader with insight on what it is to be Black and an American in the United States in the beginning of the twentieth century. Du Bois provided his individual knowledge of the Black lived experience based on what he had learned as a Black man living in the United States during the era of post reconstruction and Jim Crow. Similarly, I can provide insight from
117 my lived experiences as a Black man and a scholar in art education and African
American studies living in the United States in the year 2017.
Considerations, Implications, and Interventions
As a dual-degree student, my dissertation must situate itself within and in relationship to the interdisciplinary work between A ED AFAM/Black studies. I must elaborate on the relationship between A ED and my work on Black masculinities, sexualities, and Black visual culture, while paying attention to the historical footprints that are important to these relationships, identifying the gaps, and what I see as key considerations, interventions, and implications.
Ultimately, as a result of this analysis, I am now better able to engage in and contribute to conversations about DL, Black identity, sexuality, and masculinity in Black visual culture. Doing so is an important outcome, finding, and implication of my study.
That said, I can now conjecture on how the information in this dissertation on the discourse surrounding destabilizing Whiteness in representations of DL in Black visual culture looking through Bordwell and Thompson’s (2000) four levels of meaning might transfer to other examples of Black visual culture besides The DL Chronicles.
I am fortunate to be a part of an interdisciplinary dual title program that allows me to focus on re-structuring theoretical concepts focused on interpretations of Black masculinities, sexualities, and identities in Black visual culture. Having this freedom allowed me to lift the veil of Whiteness in order to explore significant periods in African
American history depicted through a critique of DL representation of Black masculinity and sexuality in Black visual culture.
118 Black studies cover numerous topics dealing with Black masculinities such as sports, media, fatherhood, and hyper-masculinity (Jackson, 2006; hooks, 2004; Lavelle,
2010). Jackson (1997) stated, “the European American perspective of Black masculinity has generally been equated with White masculinity, presuming that American culture is universally lived and understood the same by all American inhabitants” (p. 738). By centering Black male identities, experiences, and interests, Black masculinities researchers identified this as one example of the flagrant gaps in a colonized gaze of masculinity in Black studies (B. Alexander, 2012; Jackson, 1997). Therefore, switching the focus away from a conceptualization of universal Whiteness in masculinity, the above-mentioned Black male researchers have instead focused Black masculinity and sexuality as issues pertaining to Black men. As such, social and mass media representations and stereotyping have firmly grown footing (Alexander, 2006; Grant,
2013, 2014; Jackson & Hopson, 2011; and Lemelle, 2010). However, these conversations are held in disciples other than African American studies.
To solidify my point, I note that Johnson and Henderson (2005) stated Black studies and queer studies often fall short in addressing issues that are specific to Black gay men because Blackness is heterosexualized and gayness is Whitened. Although there has been work detailing the effects of heteronormativity in the lives of gay men (Clarkson, 2006,
2008), these men have often been White and middle to upper class. While these studies are valuable, they problematically position themselves as studies that can be universally applied to gay men of color without considering how race informs experiences with heteronormativity and heterosexism (Ferguson, 2004; Jackson, 1997).
For example, although queer studies effectively examines the role of sexuality in the
119 lives of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered people, and other sexual and gender minorities, the research repeatedly centers White people as subjects of inquiry to the exclusion of queers of color (Cohen, 1997; Holland, 2012). Holland (2012) made a similar observation in White gay and lesbian scholars’ use of Foucault’s (1990) History of Sexuality Vol. 1. Nevertheless, there are hidden meanings in Foucault’s (1990) conceptualization of homosexuality; his historical account is submerged in Whiteness.
Emphasizing growing the community and a call for action, the gay movement concentrated on placing sexuality acceptance as a principal concern and conforming to traditions such as marriage, which is immersed in Whiteness and White privilege. As
Holland (2012) stated in her reflection on queer theory’s shortcomings, “even though integration is our gold standard, we seem wholly unable to practice it critically” (p. 11).
Garoian (1999) argued for challenging and disrupting formal Western epistemic education – Whiteness. He argued for the creation of liminal spaces in the classroom where critical thinking on multiple perspectives can be injected into the education process. Here, I argue that within the A ED and AFAM classroom environment, I can use my personal experiences as a Black male having worked within the trenches of decoding and exploring Black visual culture grounded in critical pedagogy. I can bring perspectives from my work with the CDCP into classroom lectures through a critical pedagogical positionality, thereby creating courses such as “representations of Black masculinity in Black visual culture,” or “Learning to be Black: Unreconciled strivings of
Black Consciousness.” Additionally, Pinar (2004) stated, “Curriculum theory is the interdisciplinary study of the educational experience” (p. 25). Taken one step further, by considering study as a form of interpretation, I can now posit that theorizing ethnic and
120 racial differences in curriculum in A ED and AFAM is the interdisciplinary interpretation of A ED and AFAM educational experience.
Closing Statement
As I have previously stated, art education and African American studies are vital to my research because they are directly concerned with documenting, interrogating, and improving conditions of the identities of Black men in and out of the classroom. Both disciplines embrace the fact that more than one framework of understanding is needed when applying concepts and theories to complex realities. Therefore, approaching critical tropes from diverse perspectives can be empowering in praxis (Grant, 2014).
By exploring identity through a singular focus, an opportunity might be missed to examine how intersections of various identities speak to and shape the lives of people who are on the margins of society. Nevertheless, I close with my own alignment of conceptual theories and their relationship to sexualities and how they inform this work. I bring Bordwell and Thompson’s (2000) four levels of meaning to this study, which views the interpretations of identities and sexualities not as fixed, natural states of being, but as complex and complicated, fluid social cultural commodities.
Some scholars have been critical of queer theory‘s failure to attend to the hegemonically constructed characteristics of Black heterosexual and homosexual life, or to aptly capture the occurrences of racialized sexualities. The literature in this study created liminal spaces to discuss the discourses of assimilation and invisibility as way to interact with Black identity in Black visual culture in the aforementioned fields. There is also a Whiteness emphasis on othering. Due to historical antecedents of Black identity
121 being fixed in Whiteness and its consequences of hegemonic human activity. The counter argument is that Black identification has fluid connections with concerns at the core of racialized perceptions. From this perspective, I discussed the ways in which the brother on the down low’s sexual identity is inextricably linked to sexual identities of Black gay men and is a by-product of historically contingent and governing discourses that are rooted in historical hegemonic racial directives and heteronormative notions of Black
American manhood embedded in Black visual culture. Similarly, in referencing the historical image of the Black man, Collins (2004) stated,
Historical representations of Black men as beasts have spawned a second
set of images of that center on Black male bodies, namely, Black men as
inherently violent, hyper-heterosexual, and in need of discipline. The controlling
image of Black men as criminals or as deviant beings encapsulates this perception
of Black men as inherently violent and/ or working –class African American men.
Again, this representation is more often applied to poor and working class men
than to their affluent counterparts, but all Black men are under suspicion of
criminal activity or breaking rules of some sort. (Collins, 2004, p. 158)
Furthermore, these theoretical concepts are revealed in the content of television shows such as Empire, Martin, In Living Color, The Dave Chappelle Show and social media sites such as Facebook, Grindr, Scruff, and Jack’d. Similarly, these concepts show up in works by authors such as, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, E. Lynn Harris, and
James Earl Hardy, Jr., and in movies such as Deliver Us From Eva, For Colored Girls
Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf, Think Like A Man, or
Moonlight. All of these examples reveal issues of race, class, gender, identity, and sexual
122 orientation as well as other by-products of American culture embedded in Whiteness with the echoing of historical antecedents.
This study has allowed me to confirm my assumption that, while information exists on DL identity and Black visual culture, there is limited information or data that analyzes and interprets DL identity in Black visual culture. Moreover, I have also provided four examples of meaningful interpretation of a specific example of Black visual culture. Examples, which have not been available previously in, art education and
African American studies for sure, and perhaps available but not used in other areas of art, visual culture, history, or art criticism. Finally, as Creswell (2007) stated, “The final written report involves or presentation includes the voices of participants, the reflexivity of the researcher, and a complex description and interpretation of the problem, and it extends the literature, or signals a call for action” (p. 37). In response to Creswell (2007),
I am calling for further radical interpretations of The DL Chronicles and other examples of Black visual culture based on the complexities of the discourse of Black masculinity, sexuality, Black visual culture, art education, African American studies, and the complicated conversation of curriculum theory, is a means for this call. Similarly, hooks
(1995) stated, “to transgress I must move past boundaries, I must push against and go forward” (p.133). In this context, I am one of the scholars who takes up this call and continues to engage and destabilize Whiteness in representations of DL in Black visual culture in the United States in order to help people interpret, examine, understand, and construct meaning of the world they live in.
123 Chapter 6
Epilogue
Learning to be Black: Unreconciled Strivings of Black Identity and Black
Consciousness
You were born into a society, which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence; you were expected to make peace with mediocrity.
James Baldwin – The Fire Next Time
You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger.
James Baldwin – The Fire Next Time
When the White man at the breakfast bar starts spouting negative rhetoric about
DL and gay Black men because after small talk you told him you are on your way to Fire
Island for vacation, you wonder if he does this to White people. My Black experiences tell me that he likely does not. I pray he stops talking. He does not. I want to check him, but I am certain that being the only Black guy in a room of White people checking the ill informed White guy would likely get me labeled – Angry. Hostile. Crazy. As if homophobic bias is not a thing. I decide today to swallow this foolishness, to let it die somewhere deep inside. This is a lesson in survival. This is Black identity. This is also an example of learning to be Black.
124 That said, one of the questions my research raises is, can I productively generalize about Black experiences or about Black identities, masculinities, and sexualities in light of the many crosscutting considerations that complicate appeals to unitary racial identities? These considerations are not just for understanding questions about multifaceted notions of Black identities, masculinities, sexualities, or Black lived experiences nor to argue about distinctive identities of the self from a particular perspective. They are to aid in understanding the ways in which I, as a Black man, learn
Black identity and Black-consciousness as well as the unfathomable interactions that I have with Whiteness in a society which compel certain fixed actions.
From this study I learned that there is an understanding that DL and Black gay men have certain, but limited, power that is in dialogue with the power of Whiteness.
Even though, none of these dynamics are absolute. All must be addressed and understood. Similarly, I learned it is the job of the truth-seeker to synthesize these contrasting subjects in order to situate them into a whole that can be utilized to achieve the aim of a positive narrative within identity construction. This aim is always an open question, but one in which progress can be made. In the late twentieth century, according to Cohen (1999), tensions arose when subpopulations of African Americans were confronted with crosscutting issues affecting multiple identities, such as those suggested by differences in class, gender, or sexuality. When this occurred, a racial hierarchy developed in which those in the subpopulation were expected to defer their differing interests to the interests of those sharing their presumed primary racial identification. For example, Baldwin (1965) wrote, “you were born into a society, which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being.
125 You were not expected to aspire to excellence; you were expected to make peace with mediocrity.” (p. 5) In short, to understand how I learned about my Black self and how we
(as Black men) develop self-consciousness requires an orientation to inquiry that is open, critical, and conjunctive, rather than narrow, critical and exclusive. This same orientation is beneficial in the creation of schools and the development of educational curriculum in disciplines such as art education and African American and Diaspora studies. Students are learning much more than science, technology, engineering, and math in schools. They are learning to become self-conscious and develop their individual identities. This process requires that acknowledgment of self-awareness in order to create a space where the individual is not forced to develop a double consciousness, but to be able to develop, to merge your double self into a better and truer self. Throughout the rest of this epilogue,
I provide examples from my reading of the dissertation research. A reading of what I have learned from this study intertwined with some of my lived experiences working with DL and Black gay men living in the United States during the late 1990s into the early 2000s.
DL and Black Gay Men
Homosexual relationships have been a taboo subject for centuries. Yet, as our society progresses, our minds expand, and our experiences broaden. It is a subject that burns deep within the heart and soul of the United States. For years some DL and
Black gay men have struggled to understand the Black community’s objection to the union of homosexual relationships. Something deep within me stirs triggering a tirade of defense mechanisms put in place to boldly justify my distaste on how some members of
126 the Black community view this as an unnecessary union.
When I was employed with the CDCP, I remember speaking to a friend about heteronormative relationships. Our conversation shifted to relationships of Black gay and DL men. He too sought to understand the Black community’s perspective on this extremely controversial issue. I had been down this road a time or two so my objections were prepared and my reactions were perfectly timed and executed. Yet hours after our initial conversation my conditioned response no longer seemed adequate or justifiable. I could not decide if my objections were sincere or if they were based on what I perceived to be an allegiance to the marginalization of DL and Black gay men. Do some members of the Black community truly have a problem with DL and Black gay men? Or have they been conditioned in the name of Black pride to object to anything beyond the obvious heteronormative union.
The subject of DL and Black gay men’s relationships leaves many Black people with tunnel vision. They are only capable of seeing and feeling what a colonized gaze has conditioned them to see. As a Black man, when seeing a homosexual couple, I have seen members of the Black community become hostile against these men because they see them as effeminate, vile, and diseased. The irony in accepting society’s label as opposed to creating and initiating our own is that we begin to focus on the negative stereotype rather than the attributions that will make any man a valued person, regardless of sexual orientation. In short, some people are unable to separate what someone does from who they are.
In a similar vein gay/ Black activist and scholar James Baldwin (1965) argued, believing that you really are what the White world calls a nigger can only destroy you.
127 Despite experiencing centuries of spirit-crushing cruelty, Black men, with our fragmented identities, still find a way to survive. Holding our heads up in the face of tumultuous adversity within our individual identities and lived experiences. The impact of long-term
(i.e., centuries), heartless, merciless, deadly and torturous White Supremacist treatment of
Black people has wreaked intergenerational havoc on Black mental health, behavior, impulses, culture, and self-concept. Below is a partial list of myths Black Folks came up with to ego-survive White Supremacy. These myths have been embedded in Black cultures to the same degree as collard greens, black-eyed peas, fried foods, and hot-sauce.
The list that follows is just a few ego-surviving comments that I encountered when I was working with the CDCP in New York City:
• Black people do not commit suicide: only White people do that.
• Black people do not have mental health problems: only White folks have that.
• Black people do not have homosexuals: only White people have them.
• Black people do not have oral sex: only White folks do that.
• Black people do not do “freaky things” sexually: only White people do that.
• Black people do not participate in mass-murder: only White folks do that.
• It is God’s will that Black people are oppressed. That is the price we pay for being special in his eyes. (Rare, but said, or the Bible story of Noah and Ham)
• Only White people have flat asses; God blessed (all) Black folks with thick fat
booties.
Yet, even under the mind-numbing weight of a immoral, delusional, and psycho- pathological system of Whiteness, Black people have developed counter mythologies to
128 desperately seek out some resemblance of relative superiority to White people. Despite centuries of spirit-crushing cruelty experience of Black people questioning our identity and our shattered ego’s some Black men still try to survive.
The Black community, which, based on folklore when I was a kid, went from having few to no homosexuals, to currently having more homosexual representation in popular visual culture than ever before. For example, homosexuals are now more prevalent in American society for the fact of them being: news anchors, basketball and football athletes, and drag queen hosted television shows. They are also in major roles in prime time television. Two examples are the television series, Empire (2015) and cable productions Greenleaf (2016), Oz (1997) and The Wire (2008). Within these contexts, there is very little meaningful or community level dialogue that challenges hegemonic narratives.
Additionally, due to the effects of Whiteness, some Black people are clandestinely gossiping about DL and Black gay men, or just afraid to have open rational conversation about these issues. As a result, Whiteness constructs philosophical and political discourses and crafts a colonized narrative. Due to the narrow definition of
Black masculinities and sexualities they are often limited to hypersexual and hypermasculine tropes. DL and Black gay men are a part of subpopulations in the Black community. These men are suffering viciousness, cruelty, and lack of compassion from
Black heteronormativity due to an identity that is constructed in Whiteness. As such, some Black men see being DL and gay as an abomination.
129 Questioning Identity and Representation
Theory provides a lens to frame an issue or an argument, define key concepts, and ultimately make sense of research findings and results. Some of the usual theoretical lenses used to examine Black masculinities and sexualities issues are (a) heteronormative perspective, which frame research in terms of the traditional male-female relationship; (b) queer theory, which seeks to dismantle categorical notions of identity; and (c) intersectionality, which brings in different elements of multiple identification frameworks. Several White queer scholars (Butler, 1999; Foucault, 1990; Sedgwick,
1990/2008) assert that they did not commonly take into account that people of color would experience sexual oppression differently than White people (Johnson, 2001;
Holland, 2012). As such, people of color, who identify as homonormative, are more often than not hesitant to embrace the label queer, due to its connection with Whiteness
(Cohen, 1997; Johnson, 2001).
It has been more than 16 years since I received communications from young suicidal men because they no longer wanted to be DL or homosexual. From my experiences working with Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), many
LGBT&Q organizations in New York City simply see this as so-called homophobia. The majority of the hundreds who reached out to me, complained that they felt unfulfilled and disappointed by DL and homosexual culture, finding it unfriendly, un-fulfilling, with an isolating tendency for vicious and cruel behavior toward each other. DL and gay Black men came to my office saying, my lifestyle choices seem painfully limited. It is either a dark bar full of drunks, a dark church full of hypocrites, or hanging around a bunch of vicious, gay Black homosexual men who do not want to be men. There was an 18 year
130 old gay Black man that had supportive parents, his father a minister, spoke to me in a last ditch effort not to kill himself. Loved ones accepted him; he just hated what he perceived as gay culture. In 2000, while working with the CDCP I heard about a 19-year-old same- gender-loving (SGL) youth who also had loving parents who accepted his sexual identity, committed suicide. A 26-year-old Black gay-identifying activist and HIV/AIDS peer educator, committed suicide. In both cases it was not the weight of homophobic hatred that led them to take their lives. I believe it was the division and the brow beating of gay
Black culture rooted in Whiteness that assisted with the demise and emasculation linked to be being gay; which, directly effects DL identity.
How these young men are being stereotyped by their alleged own Black and gay communities, can contain massive pain. There is no reasonable space for viciousness or an ironic lack of compassion for DL and gay men whose existence is tortured, and who want relief. As a counselor and therapist, I urged people to help, with their behaviors.
Requiring that they create an environment that makes it difficult, instead of easier, for people to hate who or what they are. When all people can accept others for who they are then all people can feel free to be themselves. It is funny to me when I hear people say,
“why come out and who cares.” It is befuddling to me because these people are in effect saying, they do not want to deal with this, they want people to be silent, and do not tell them about it. Well, silence kills.
Closing
Allow me to explain why my research is important yet problematic. I am a Black man and an art educator. I represent a handful of Black men in the field of art education.
131 As such, discussions about Black identity, sexuality, and masculinity are limited. From the comments made earlier, my argument is that stereotypes constructed in Whiteness of
Black masculinity, sexuality, and identity perpetuates broad, damaging points of view of
Black men. Period. Some White people who propagate tropes of Whiteness in stereotypes of Black men reinforce these ideologies in their unconscious biased view that all Black men are hypermasculine. When you close your eyes and think hypermasculine, you do not see well-dressed middle class White kids. You see poor Black men. There is a reason for that. This could be fixed by reframing the focus of the appeal, but because facets of
American society fetishizes saving Black men, they pick particular stereotypes such as, hypermasculinity and sexuality using visual culture as the catalyst to spread these notions of identity. Because of my lived experiences and the findings in this research, I care about the fact that we are oversaturated with images and stories that cast DL, and Black gay men, from deficit points of view. Stereotypes of Black masculinity and sexuality like what I discuss in my study help sustain problems that Whiteness purportedly is working to ignore. Which is why applying these complex and complicated topics from my study to curriculum in art education and African American studies is crucial to acceptance, awareness, and understanding of DL and gay Black men’s fluid and multifaceted masculine and sexual identities, which is yet another approach for a philosophical interpretation of DL and gay Black men in the realm of Black visual culture.
132
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ALPHONSO WALTER GRANT 35 E Cydnee Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72703 | [email protected]
EDUCATION Ph.D. dual title degree Art Education and African American and Diaspora Studies W.E.B. Du Bois scholar, The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) Dissertation Co-Advisors and Co-Chairs: B. Stephen Carpenter, II and Paul C. Taylor, Committee members: Graeme Sullivan and Ariane Cruz M.S. Art Education, minor African American and Diaspora Studies, Penn State B.A. Political Science (magna cum laude), Henderson State University Honors College
HIGHER EDUCATION TEACHING EXPERIENCE African American Studies: Living While Black: Themes in African American Experiences African American Studies: Introduction to African American Studies African American Studies: The Life and Thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. African American Studies: The Life and Thought of Malcolm X Art Education: History and Philosophy of Art Education in Schools and Cultural Institutions Art Education: Queer Theory Art Education: Diversity, Pedagogy, and Visual Culture Art 001: Introduction to the Visual Arts Art 010: Introduction to the Visual Studies
PUBLICATIONS Grant, A.W. (2013). A curricular exploration of The Boondocks for art education: A philosophical interpretation of black visual culture through the critical lens of double consciousness. In (Espinosa- Dulanto, M. E., Humpal, D. L., Pitre, L., and Santana, J. S., Eds.), Liminal Spaces and Call for Praxis(ing) (pp. 39-59). Charlotte, N.C.: Information Age Publishing. Grant, A. W. and Kee, J. B. (2013), ‘Black artists of the Harlem Renaissance in western survey textbooks: Narratives of omission and representation’, Visual Inquiry: Learning & Teaching Art 2: 3, pp. 233–246, doi: 10.1386/vi.2.3.233_1 Grant, A.W. (2014) A curricular exploration of The Boondocks for art education: A critical race pedagogy of identity in black visual culture. In Smith, B. L., Becker, K. L., Miller, L. R., Reid, N. S., Sorenson, M.D. (Eds.). Collective Unravelings of the Hegemonic Web (pp. 49 – 68). Charlotte, NC: Info. Age Publishing. Carpenter,II, B.S. and Grant, A.W. (2015). The Visualization of Urban Black Men: Racial Discourses in Social Media: The National Journal of Urban Education and Practice Volume 9, Issue 2, Fall 2015, pp. 462 – 476 Kee, J.B and Grant, A.W. (2016) Disney’s post racial gaze: Film, pedagogy, and the construction of racial identity. In Garlen J.C. and Sandlin, J. A. Teaching with Disney. pp. 67-79. Peter Lange New York Grant, A.W. and Kee, J.B. – (2017) Dialogues with Diversity: Addressing Race and Culture with Students in Art Museum Education: in Kletchka D. C. and Carpenter, II B. S. Professional Development in art museums: Strategies of engagement through contemporary art (In Press)