ABSTRACT
In traditional black communities when one tells a grown male to "be a man", one is urging to aspire to a masculine identity rooted in the patriarchal ideal. Much of the scholarly work on black masculinity that was based on material gleaned from studies of urban black life. This work conveyed the message that black masculinity was homogenous. The portrait of black masculinity that emerges in this work perpetually constructs black men as "failures" who are psychologically "fucked up", dangerous, violent, sex maniacs whose insanity is informed by their inability to fulfil their phallocentric masculine destiny in a racist context. Collectively we can break the life-threatening choke-hold patriarchal masculinity imposes on black men and create life sustaining visions of a reconstructed black masculinity that can provide black men ways to save their lives and the lives of their brothers and sisters in struggle.
