The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors

The Isis Papers
once the males of the oppressed group are weakened and/or destroyed.
This is troe no matter how many college degrees the females may have;
no matter how tough, loud or coarse their language may become; no matter
how "strong" they may appear. In the final analysis, females must depend
on the physical strength, discipline and willpower of their men for ultimate
proteCtion. Thus, always the males represent the major potential threat
and challenge to male oppressors.
The system of racism in the U.S. specifically has labeled its number
one target of attack as the Black male. The Black male is n~t only to be
intimidated and oftentimes physically destroyed, but more Importantly.
he must be destroyed functionally through the negation of his major
breadwinning activity for the Black family. When men are not permitt~
to become the major breadwinners and troe functional protectors for their
families, a major imbalance is created between the importance of the adult
Black male and adult Black female roles. Likewise, the importance of
male functioning is discredited and thus subtly disrespected. As a result,
chaos and disorganization befalls family-life, leaving the family as .a
dysfunctional "survival-unit," where mothers are forced to engage m
full-time bread winning and protector activities and are not free to perform
their major tasks of child-care and socialization.
The subsequent imbalance produced between the money power and
the pseudo-social (and family) power of the Black female, when compared
to the Black male, eventually leads to ~ienation be~ween the two
of them. This alienation, followed by separauon and/or divorce, causes
the imbalance that leads to the now epidemic Black social-pathologic
· syndrome: the so-called strong Black female and weak Black male. The
fundamental cause of the syndrome is the white supremacy power system.
Also, this system leads to the "Black male womanizing syndrome,"
wherein Black males seek to compensate for a lost sense of manhood by
attempting to prove they are still men via the number of women they can.···
seduce and conquer. But this syndrome only heightens the au•~""'"'V"'·~
between the Black male and female, and it fails to convince the male
his manhood.
Black Children
Increasingly, Black females are being left alone to rear the children.
They, along with the myth of the so-called "strong Black female" are
crumbling under this impossible burden. Nonetheless, the survival~units
bec~~e dominated by adult female presence and all of the children are
femm~ed, mal.es and females alike. Even when there is no physical
separation or divorce (because the racist social system never attacks the
Black female with the same ferocity as it does the Black male), a relative
Black male passivity is produced, leaving an overall tone of greater female
power than male power amongst Black people.
This analysis should not be viewed as a condemnation of the Black
male or the Black female. It is only a description of the intent of the
op~essive system of racism. Most profoundly affected are Black
children who grow up in this system, especially Black male children
Black male children systematically are deprived of stong male model~
throu~h whom they can develop pride, useful self- and group-supporting
behaVIoral patterns, and true respect for the Black adult male position.
Lar.ge numbers of young Black male children can tell you that it is far
easier and more rewarding to be a Black female than a Black male. (See
Chapter6.)
The racist social system can survive only if Black manhood is
destroyed. It steadily has removed strong Black male images, such as
. those presented by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Initially, it
replaced those powerful, progressive and constructive images with the
powerful television and movie images of "Geraldine" and "Superfl "
The racist media then followed with the message to Blacks that it is "goy .d
( " 0
. 1mes to see a pathetic Black adult male who never can seem to find a
d~e~t paying .job and a teenage Black male son who is a clown and a
~nmmal s~oplifter who never studies, but who now has an intense interest
· m academic subjects. Innumerable like-examples followed. These weak
male media images persist into the present. We return to the "pitiful
. . of real life to face the fact that the average college-trained Black
.female has a salary scale only $300 lower than her white college-trained
. . whereas the Black male college graduate earns $3,000 less
the white male high school graduate.
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