56 min
Black masculinities, colonialism, and erotic racism Medicine for the Resistance
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- Society & Culture
Please note this episode deals with sexuality and sexual violence and may not be suitable for all listeners. Some material may be triggering.
If you do find yourself triggered or having difficulty, please contact your local rape crisis center. If you need assistance locating support, please use RAINN.org in the US and Ending Violence in Canada to locate supportive services.
Kerry:
We're talking about Tamari’s book, Appealing Because He is Appalling. And it's all about the idea of Black masculinity, colonialism, and erotic racism. And this is a topic that is so near and dear to my heart. Because it's very much about how we perceive ourselves sexually, and how these ties really affect how we are showing up in these colonial spaces. How has the systematic racism, colonialism, you know, all the isms affected us, and in particular, a very forgotten piece of this space, which is the Black man. Black men have been railroaded into one real vice where, where there, I've always looked at it like we we see them, you know, in this sinister space as one product, or we see them as an infallible space and another end of that product. Like it's almost nonexistent. There's no space in between. And Tamari, I really want us to get a moment to, to unpack all of it, because there is a lot here and so much stuff that I had no idea about. And I'm sure we'll we'll get to talking. I'm sure we will. Let's get dive in.
Tamari:
Yes. No, thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity to be with you. And Patti again. Is this our second conversation? I think it's our second?
Patty:
Yeah, at least second, maybe third. We’re old friends now.
Tamari:
Yeah. We often do not speak about Black men and disabilities, you know, to talk about police violence, without talking about the disabling of Black men, either psychologically or physically. We're just missing a huge part of that conversation. But not just the the disabilities that arises from being incarcerated or interaction with the police. But the brilliant thing about the paper that Leroy and I wrote, and I wrote is that we take this back to slavery. And slavery was the production of disabilities. And if you look at the nature of resistance and rebellions, from slavery onward, very often you're talking about individuals that were disabled.
So if you go to Haiti, you found that Boukman and others who were the founding figures of the Haitian Revolution, those people were all physically disabled, they had either limbs that were dismembered, or some other such thing. Harriet Tubman, right, she took a piece of metal to the head and had convulsions, all her life. So disabilities is a major part of Black resistance and rebellion.
And if you know, I mean, I think we can get get to this, again, is to talk about Emmett Till, and disabilities. That is a really important piece of disabilities history that not a lot of people know. And Leroy introduced me to it. And I did a bit of research on that. And it's just absolutely amazing that this young boy had a speech impediment. So he had like a speaking disability and his mother in Chicago taught him in order to form his words, he should whistle. So that led to, uh, I forget the name of the guy that led the charge. I think his last name was Bryant in thinking that this little boy was whistling at his wife and his wife knew that that was not the case. And upon her deathbed admitted that it was all concocted. So disabilities is a major part of resistance. But it's also produced by anti-Blackness and the particular targeting of Black men.
So about me. So I'm a professor of sociology at Brock University. been there since 2006. And my areas of specialization and interest are Blackness and anti-Blackness in Western and Asiatic cultures. I do not separate the west from the east because it's all Asia people talk about the European continent. All the continents begin with “A” except for North and South America which are joined by an isthmus.
Patty:
Yea
Please note this episode deals with sexuality and sexual violence and may not be suitable for all listeners. Some material may be triggering.
If you do find yourself triggered or having difficulty, please contact your local rape crisis center. If you need assistance locating support, please use RAINN.org in the US and Ending Violence in Canada to locate supportive services.
Kerry:
We're talking about Tamari’s book, Appealing Because He is Appalling. And it's all about the idea of Black masculinity, colonialism, and erotic racism. And this is a topic that is so near and dear to my heart. Because it's very much about how we perceive ourselves sexually, and how these ties really affect how we are showing up in these colonial spaces. How has the systematic racism, colonialism, you know, all the isms affected us, and in particular, a very forgotten piece of this space, which is the Black man. Black men have been railroaded into one real vice where, where there, I've always looked at it like we we see them, you know, in this sinister space as one product, or we see them as an infallible space and another end of that product. Like it's almost nonexistent. There's no space in between. And Tamari, I really want us to get a moment to, to unpack all of it, because there is a lot here and so much stuff that I had no idea about. And I'm sure we'll we'll get to talking. I'm sure we will. Let's get dive in.
Tamari:
Yes. No, thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity to be with you. And Patti again. Is this our second conversation? I think it's our second?
Patty:
Yeah, at least second, maybe third. We’re old friends now.
Tamari:
Yeah. We often do not speak about Black men and disabilities, you know, to talk about police violence, without talking about the disabling of Black men, either psychologically or physically. We're just missing a huge part of that conversation. But not just the the disabilities that arises from being incarcerated or interaction with the police. But the brilliant thing about the paper that Leroy and I wrote, and I wrote is that we take this back to slavery. And slavery was the production of disabilities. And if you look at the nature of resistance and rebellions, from slavery onward, very often you're talking about individuals that were disabled.
So if you go to Haiti, you found that Boukman and others who were the founding figures of the Haitian Revolution, those people were all physically disabled, they had either limbs that were dismembered, or some other such thing. Harriet Tubman, right, she took a piece of metal to the head and had convulsions, all her life. So disabilities is a major part of Black resistance and rebellion.
And if you know, I mean, I think we can get get to this, again, is to talk about Emmett Till, and disabilities. That is a really important piece of disabilities history that not a lot of people know. And Leroy introduced me to it. And I did a bit of research on that. And it's just absolutely amazing that this young boy had a speech impediment. So he had like a speaking disability and his mother in Chicago taught him in order to form his words, he should whistle. So that led to, uh, I forget the name of the guy that led the charge. I think his last name was Bryant in thinking that this little boy was whistling at his wife and his wife knew that that was not the case. And upon her deathbed admitted that it was all concocted. So disabilities is a major part of resistance. But it's also produced by anti-Blackness and the particular targeting of Black men.
So about me. So I'm a professor of sociology at Brock University. been there since 2006. And my areas of specialization and interest are Blackness and anti-Blackness in Western and Asiatic cultures. I do not separate the west from the east because it's all Asia people talk about the European continent. All the continents begin with “A” except for North and South America which are joined by an isthmus.
Patty:
Yea
56 min