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====== I Am a Man ======
This article discusses the impacts of the Moynihan Report, a report on minority male employment and the state of Black inner-city families. It was published by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1965, less than a month after the assassination of Malcolm X. When it was released to the public, it started a lot of debate around the intersection of poverty and masculinity, as well as the expectation for men to be "breadwinners". (Jazper Schmidt)

One of the proposed solutions by Moynihan, was to increase the number o f minority men enlisted into the military. Moynihan saw this a a solution to the U.S military manpower needs and unemployment within minority men.(Hannah Covin)

Here, Este explains how the Black man’s struggle for Civil Rights and their struggle to showcase manhood cannot be divided. Throughout history, Black men faced slavery, segregation, and marginalization which contributed to the denial of traditional characteristics of masculinity, like authority, autonomy, economic autonomy, and social acceptance. The strike in Memphis introduced the slogan “I AM A MAN” which symbolized the urge for social recognition, as well as the rejection of the narrative that African American men were “childish”. This push for acknowledgement fostered the Civil Rights movement fighting against discrimination. This fifth provided Black men to demonstrate acts of courage and discipline, which opposed the general definition of Black masculinity which included traits of violence and inferiority. In this instance, these men opposed these prejudices by expressing masculinity through nonviolent protests, asserting that African American manhood relies on the claim for autonomy and humanity within a system built to deny those characteristics. (Reiley Gibson)

In this excerpt. Este makes a connection between the distribution of economic equality and masculinity identity. Este explains how providing for the family was a foundational characteristic of an African American man’s expression of manhood. The connection becomes apparent when the expression of this characteristic is challenged with systematic marginalization and economic inequality, which both work as forms of demasculinization. This challenge prompted activists to fight for fair labor rights and wages in order to mitigate experiences of instability and the undermining of social authority. The Moynihan Report showcases this intersection by introducing how the absence of Black fathers are wrongfully blamed on culture instead of systemic racism and prejudice. This idea brought to light the struggle of African American men to define their masculinity in a world that defines masculinity in terms of economic and moral authority/autonomy. (Reiley Gibson)

Estes uses the movie //Nothing But a Man// as an example of some of the disadvantages faced by Black men, especially in the workplace, and how those disadvantages affect their relationship with manhood. In 1964, the year the film came out, 29% of Black men were unemployed at some point in the year, and the unemployment rate was 5x higher than that of white men. This high unemployment, as shown in the film, led to an internalized and reinforced belief in many Black men of not being "man" enough, that having a job was an inherent part of the social role of being a man. (Jazper Schmidt)

The Memphis Sanitation strikes had racial, economic, and masculinity layers to it. The motto "I Am a Man" appealed both to the the fact that these corporations were not treating their black workers as human and how they made it difficult for men to fulfill their masculine role as the be the bread winners of the house due to inadequate pay. This inadequate pay was exasperated by the fact that black workers were the first to be dismissed early on rainy days, thereby, losing potential wages that they could have earned. (Henry Prior)

Estes argues that the culture of maschismo in the Black Panther Party stymied the BPP's ability to act as a revolutionary movement. Hypermasculinity in the BPP encouraged some of its members to prioritize violent action with immediate but uncertain returns over political education and Community Survival programs. Furthermore, misogyny and homophobia in the party's ranks alienated female and gay activists who were otherwise supportive of the Black Panther Party's ideas and methods. Course correction on the part of BPP leadership, it seems, was too little too late. (Nick Thodal)

Black Panther Party members were influenced by the psychological theories of Frantz Fanon, who argued that anti-colonial revolution provided a masculine rebirth for anti-colonial fighters. White supremacist colonial propaganda instills in the colonized a double consciousness (as termed by W.E.B. DuBois) where they view themselves through the eyes of the colonizer, and therefore, the colonized often internalize an inferiority complex. Violent retribution against the colonizing power, therefore, allows colonized men to reclaim their claim to masculine independence and superiority. These ideas influenced Eldrige Cleaver's work, Soul on Ice, where he argued that participation in black liberation would instill a pride in African-Americans that the centuries-old white supremacist power structure had beaten out of them. (Nick Thodal)

Discussing the intellectual background of the Black Panthers, Steve Estes emphasizes the influence of postcolonial and socialist thinkers. Among them, the figure of Frantz Fanon appears to be particularly exemplary, as his theories resemble Black Panther rhetoric in a different but equally important historical context. Frantz Fanon argued that decolonization is an inherently violent process, necessary for any meaningful change for the oppressed within the racial and social dynamics of Algeria and other African countries. According to S. Estes, Fanon’s ideas were highly influential and popular among Black Panther leaders. Primarily, these ideas became widespread because they provided a certain rhetorical connection between the discourse of armed rebellion and African American masculinity. - Nikolai Kotkov

S. Estes’s study demonstrates that the mechanism of exclusion was one of the core principles of Black Panther ideology. In particular, this mechanism was especially evident in interactions between homosexual men and members of the movement, as the latter viewed gay men as threats to African American masculinity. In addition, women also occupied an ambivalent position in the early stages of the movement. On the one hand, Black Panthers accepted women and provided them with training as well as education. On the other hand, women were expected to conform to patriarchal values by focusing on the domestic sphere, where they could raise future generations of revolutionary fighters. It should also be noted that such attitudes were not static and changed over time. Nevertheless, they indicate some of the underlying foundations of hegemonic masculinity in the Black Panther movement in the 1960s and 1970s. - Nikolai Kotkov

Moynihan illustrates that black men face persistent unemployment while also being societally expected to fulfill the social role of breadwinner as told in the story of nothing but a man. While the movie is fictionalized, it showed a real world issue of how black men were unable to meet the standards of what society wanted them to be without any real way out for a very long time. (Tea Aliu)

The black panthers made their militant struggle directly connected to the "making of a man" through the killing of Bobby Hutton while also drawing attention to the fact that black men are facing deadly risks from state violence, in this case especially after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. It can also be argued that since Hutton was so young, he was doing these things to prove his manhood and in this sense he was on an accelerated path to become a man in a community he was a younger member of leading to his martyrdom.(Tea Aliu)

the black panther party is supposed to restore masculinity and dignity for marginalized black men through organization and political resistance. economic exclusion and a limited education and outward racism were what produced feelings of powerlessness or inadequacy in the black youth so resistance to state oppression and responding to things like police brutality would make some of the black men in the group like role models to other marginalized people. (Tea Aliu)

Part of the criticism of Black men and families was that since single women and children could get welfare Black men (who couldn't provide for their families because they were unemployed and in poverty because they were discriminated against) would leave their families so that they could qualify. This then made the woman the head of the household. It was then argued that because of this children grew up without male authority and then became delinquent. This is a similar argument to the momism against White mothers in the 1950s in which mothers who were overbearing raised children who would become delinquent unless they had a male role model. (Katherine Hamilton)

One way to prove your masculinity throughout history was to be a breadwinner and provide enough for your family so that your wife could afford to stay home and be a homemaker. However, it was often difficult for Black families to achieve this as in order to survive economically both parents had to work. Therefore in order to be men something had to be done so that they could have better employment. In a way, in order to be a man your wife had to be subordinate to you. (Katherine Hamilton)

In addition to groups like the Black Panther Party, Estes details other civil rights organizations like the Invaders, who were mostly young, black, self-described "radical" men. To the Invaders, even just learning to survive in a very racist society was a kind of rite of passage into manhood in and of itself, offering a much different view of manhood and its traditions and qualifications than what is typically seen in white middle-class groups. Unlike Martin Luther King Jr., the Invaders believed that violent protest could be necessary, and many of them seized the opportunity to participate in violent protest during the Beale Street march. (Noah Rutkowski)

Estes starts with talking about masculinity in terms of the Moynihan Reoprt, specifically the debate of black masculinity and how it shifted in the 1960's. Moynihan argued that many of the struggles in African American communities, such as generational poverty, unemployment, and instability, came from black families, specifically the lack of a male figure present. He does, however, say that this is not a fault of the families, rather of a racist society. Estes critiques this by putting it in a historical context. He flips the arguemtn on its head by arguing that the problems faced were due to systemic discrimination, not the other way around, turning the problems from being the cause to being the effect. -Caroline Cochran

Estes also talks about the militant expression of black masculinity. He lays out that, because of non-violent efforts being met with violence and discrimination from the government, some advocates started rejecting ideas of respectability and integration in the eyes of white people. Masculinity turned into an emphasis on self-defense, autonomy, and pride. An example of this was the Black Panther Party. Masculinity became a central organizational message and language. There was an emphasis onreclaiming manhood and black masculinity. At the same time, this reinforced patriarchal ideas and often sidelined women, especially black women who were often part of these movements as well. -Caroline Cochran

Estes also writes about the Memphis Sanitation Worker Strike and how that reflected ideas of black masculinbity and humanity. This strike wasn't inherently about wages and working conditions, but more about dignity and manhood. Black workers were treated as disposable labor and were denied all respect as men. This linked to ideas of perpetual boyhood. They weren't arguing that they were men as in not women, instead they were men as in not boys. They were using masculinity as the right to be recognized as fully human and fully man. Martin Luther King jr. was also an important part of this strike. He argued that equality wa more than just the absense of legal segregation, but asz economic justice and recognition of dignity. -Caroline Cochran

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