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