Al Neely on the Black Manosphere: Toxic Influences, Societal Struggles, and Pathways to Empowerment

What if the Black Manosphere, meant to be a sanctuary for open dialogue, mirrors the broader manosphere's darker themes? On this episode of the Listen Up Podcast, I, Al Neely, tackle the nuanced and often controversial dynamics within the Black Manosphere. We unravel the layers of societal struggles and survival mentalities that have shaped narratives within the black community, leading to the development of damaging stereotypes about black men and women. Our discussion shines a light on how figures like Joe Rogan and Candace Owens have influenced these spaces, and why young black men are drawn to these forums seeking connection and validation amidst limited opportunities for expression and growth. 

As we explore the complexities of this community, we confront the harsh realities of toxic influencers who exploit these platforms, spreading messages that fuel self-hatred and misogyny, overshadowing the potential for positive discourse. By reflecting on the systemic challenges the black community faces, from socioeconomic disparities to generational trauma, we emphasize the vital role of meaningful relationships and mental health awareness. Drawing inspiration from historical figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we navigate the ongoing issues of inequality and the necessity for healing and empowerment. Join me for a critical examination of these deep-rooted issues and a forward-looking exploration of potential pathways to change.

Chapters

• 0:02 Challenges Within the Black Manosphere
• 25:17 Toxic Influencers in the Black Manosphere

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hello everyone, welcome to Listen Up Podcast. I'm Al Neely. How are you doing today? Before we get started, I'm going to ask you to subscribe to receive any of my future podcasts. Please click the subscribe button and you'll receive those as they come available.

Speaker 1: 0:30

So today, what I want to talk about is the black manosphere. If you recall, in the manosphere episode I did, I talked about the black manososphere and how the white manosphere and the black Manosphere are connected. I'm going to attempt to show you Some of the ways the two are connected and the outcomes that Are seen in the black Men's Manosphere Part of our society. Okay, so Both reward sexism, homophobia, racism. They both reward transphobia, xenophobia and domination and the aggrandizement of money and wealth. So that is something common to all of them. So what I found out is when people are struggling, they gravitate towards things that give them an immediate satisfaction, and in the Black community there's more. This is more prevalent than any other communities, where the possibility of being able to assimilate are greater from other communities. The Black community has been dealing with this since its formation and its establishment. It's in a constant I need to hustle mentality in order to survive. So the lack of understanding and willingness to learn the source for most internal influence of a black culture has created a misleading narrative and a dangerous situation for Black men. So see, black men are viewed as aggressive, angry, hard-headed and hyper-masculine and Black women are often seen as the scapegoat and the problems and struggles of the inability to rise above their plight. So they have misogynistic views. The truth seems to be that Black women who overprotect and overmaternalize the male child doesn't truly prepare that child for the reality of being a black male in a white hegemonic, dominated culture and all that is required of that. So another point of contention I see with the negative energies towards black women are because black women are better positioned to keep pace with the requirements needed to challenge other races for education and wage earnings. Black women are more likely to further their education beyond high school, which brings more income and higher social status in the American culture.

Speaker 1: 3:51

So you ask yourself what brings young men to the manosphere, young men to the manosphere? So I'm going to quote a few people, influencers or sociologists. One, dr Aaron Fountain Jr. When someone comes into the Black manosphere it's because of social connection, dating relationships and money grabs. Jay Smooth, everyone is working from the same fundamentally assumption fun. Same fundamental assumption that it can take time to step out of those conditions. Okay, little Bill, a YouTube influencer. Young Black men know the conditions they have. They don't have the tools or the know-how to express and grow beyond the situation. So when someone appears with a similar or closely related feeling or thought, they tend to gravitate towards that thought process. So this is kind of helps explain why Joe Rogan, who has nothing in common with growing up in the Black culture, is one of the most followed influences for young Black men. The most followed influences for young black men.

Speaker 1: 5:37

Next, I feel like there's a lack of a logical step-by-step platform to get young men from start to self-success. Not much time is put into self-preservation of the Black culture. Most of the efforts have been put in exploitation of the resources that segment society has to offer, for example, the music, the designer, clothes, buying, those examples. So there are several things that consistently reoccur in the black man's sphere that are super toxic the misogynistic attitude towards women. The underlying message of self-loathing or destruction of other black men. The known but often unspoken truth that a majority of black men cannot ever be in a place of continuous position of ongoing authority in society. Position of ongoing authority in society.

Speaker 1: 6:46

Okay, and number four the lack of understanding about one's mental condition due to the experience of generational trauma and the expectations of society to adjust and handle those situations. There's just no patience for that. So the first one, excuse me. Situations. There's just no patience for that, so the first one, excuse me. The first one leads to a meaningful relationship because of the inability to. The first. One leads to a lack of meaningful relationships because of the inability to communicate and identify a quality partner to grow with. All right. The second one leads to a constant thought that masculinity, combat physical intimidation and domination is the most effective way to handle confrontation.

Speaker 1: 7:53

The constant devaluation of the black male leads to self-loathing. For example, most recently you had the Nashville spree shooter, solomon Henderson. He said he was influenced by Adolf Hitler, kanye West and Candace Owens. So A large part of what Candace Owens talks about is Basically the degradation of the black community. So you internalize those things if you don't have a knowledge of what's going on and where you've come from. So when I look at some of the rhetoric that she pulls out, so it's actually to me like she loathes herself, her blackness.

Speaker 1: 8:49

The third leads to a biased system of judgment and consequences based on unrealistic expectations. Okay, so one of my favorite people in history is Dr King. So if you remember, or there's a quote that he says, how can you be expected to pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you don't have any boots? This is constant, a constant issue for the black community. They're constantly in the lower part of the income level of the socioeconomic structure of the United States. The fourth leads to perpetual issues of unexplained anger or unexpected experiences leading towards aggressive actions and unfamiliar situations and practices. So the first, the second and the third lead to usually tragic situations of young Black men.

Speaker 1: 10:01

For example, there was a young man known as the Joker. He was out of the Philadelphia area, his name is Noah Scurry, he's a prep school honor student, a basketball star, and he was on his way to getting an athletic scholarship for a full ride to a major college. Well, he created this different persona to fit into the street culture. That persona was the Joker. Okay, and we all know if you follow the Joker in its criminal, violent, it's Ed's Lord type of behavior. So, with that persona that he created to go to be accepted in the streets, that persona caused him to be gunned down in the streets in front of his house. Okay, he had everything that he needed to be successful in what we would call the educated hierarchy of our society. Okay, so which brings me to Terry Crews, and I want to talk about Terry Crews because his situation kind of conveys the thoughts that I'm trying to express.

Speaker 1: 11:38

When you think of Terry Crews you tend to think of first thing you think of is this big, powerful Black male, right, and he doesn't take any crap or he's just not going to tolerate anything. So those are incorrect expectations placed on Terry Cruz from the black community and society in general. See, the symbolism he represents is the black man, black male, sexual prowess in society, the exploitation of power by the white hegemonic society. He had to work in the exploitation of the black male, trying to uplift his situation and being confronted with the reality that he could not attain equality in this society equal to his white counterparts. So this is from his book. He said I walked around this world with my chest puffed out. He realized he was vulnerable after he was sexually assaulted by a Hollywood executive. After sharing the experience and enjoying the millions of women sharing their stories of exploitation, he was drugged online for not being a man. He was called a simp and was told that his muscles weren't meant for nothing, and he asked how he could let an old white man fondle him fond of him.

Speaker 1: 13:36

Well, black men I think this is very common for black men. The thing that we need to be careful about is black men as a group are diverse. There's various categories you can place them in, and I don't think that is something that seems to be a possibility. When it comes to the thinking of the black man, you're seen as a monolith. So I want to focus on the topics that men are trying to confront in the black manosphere, and most of the information I use to judge these men is based, is biased, it's incorrect and it's misunderstood.

Speaker 1: 14:25

So one aspect that could be an equalizer, for example, in society, would be education. Education has been difficult to obtain for a large segment of Black men, and the reason why is because if you're hungry, it's difficult to focus and concentrate on complex mental activities. If there isn't enough emphasis placed on education, then your focus doesn't gravitate towards that. So there's not enough emphasis in the black community for men to focus on that. It's usually sports, music, music. It's just things that you commonly come across and you feel like gangsters, hoods, things like those tend to be the focus of the black community. Okay, there needs to be, because of that, there needs to be, specialized areas for technology studies that are relevant to what's taking place in society. Okay, those things will help lift the black male out of the situations.

Speaker 1: 16:09

Okay, another thing that is a serious issue in the black community is an addiction problem, and it's usually caused by the need to self-medicate and it's due to not understanding where the source of the trauma comes from. There's generations of trauma and if you don't understand it, you're going to self-medicate. That tends to be a big issue in the Black community ghetto community. So let's talk about some of the outside noises and its effects on the black man's fear.

Speaker 1: 16:59

Many influencers blame the relationship with black women, and I kind of find this unfair to black women. Where you are in your societal status or your socioeconomic class is usually the place you're going to find women that are interested in allowing their man to be the head of the household and lead the family. So it just depends where you are. If you go to college, you're going to be around college educated people, so those are the people that you're going to likely associate with All right. So, for example, one of the so I'm going to go over a couple of the women that you'll typically run into You'll have the traditional values women, a mindset that they're more open to allowing their male to take their men to take a, a leading role.

Speaker 1: 18:15

Okay, the challenge with that situation and why we're there not there Isn't that many black and female, black female and male relationships is because the challenge is that fewer black men seem to attend church. It's not been good for them and there's just a lack of interest to go All right, and there's just a lack of interest to go All right. The next woman that we would actually run into is the woman that is a goal-oriented, educated, driven and ambitious person, and they understand that they need a male or mate that has all of those things as well in order to accomplish the dreams and the goals that they have. In my opinion, these women will fall into the category of the group of people with fundamental capitalistic values, which is the main origins of America. They have more of a capitalistic mindset about how things work in the US, so they set up and approach life in that ideology.

Speaker 1: 19:43

The challenge there is and this is my opinion is a large segment of the black community tends to be more socialist in their actions and their followings and they actually believe it's subconscious. So when you have that situation, black men are left to figure out, with a lack of information, how to approach and work their way through it. So they tend to gravitate toward what is being said on popular social media platforms and because of that, you're going to run into these grifters. These money grab people and these platforms are often hyper-masculine, misogynistic and exploit the listener for monetary gain, right? So the other segment of the Black community that makes things difficult for the Black males trying to gain some understanding, the Black community that makes things difficult for the Black males trying to gain some understanding.

Speaker 1: 20:48

The Black community has made the Black thought-provoking, inquisitive male, weird, quirky and without swag. If he tries to learn something other than what is being learned in the street culture or the black society, he's considered an outcast, and that's always been a challenge. So when you don't understand the causes for your situation and how to obtain what it is that you desire, you become isolated, and if you don't have strong family and friends excuse me, as a structure, you don't know how to work through these issues. So when that happens, the outside voices become relevant and you may have a lack of understanding of yourself With some people. This can have a negative psychological effect and it can lead to self-destruction and self-destructive behavior towards other people.

Speaker 1: 22:15

In the Black man's sphere, there's a lot of emphasis placed on self-identity associated with the hip-hop movement and the gangster persona, which in most cases is unattainable. Right. Only a small segment of rappers come out of that community and almost no gangsters, unless they change midstream, unless they change midstream. So another issue that I'm seeing, and it's more generational, is personal communication skills are lost or being lost With the way technology is. It's hard to cultivate a strong personal relationship if you don't have face to face interactions, and that tends to be as we get more into the technology phase of our culture. That tends to be an issue for the younger generations, tends to be an issue for the younger generations. So these are all things that create issues for men in the Black Manosphere.

Speaker 1: 23:33

So, in summary, what I'll say is the Black Manosphere was developed as a space to express the need for communication, unanswered questions about trauma and connection with women in a more traditional way. What we've learned is that it's frustrating and it's difficult due to society shifting to a more monetary and capitalistic value system. But we've also learned that black men want to keep pace. But there is truly a lack of understanding on how to get to a place where there is more economic freedom and a place where there is freedom to express yourself without being seen as an outcast. It's a belief of mine that if one does not understand the source or the cause of their actions, an individual will default to a learned behavior as a comforting mechanism. So in the Black community, the hood thug life, hyper-masculine and the hustle mentality for short money has always been the default. So I know young men are searching for something different. I know young men are searching for something different. Young black men are searching for something different.

Speaker 1: 25:17

The black manosphere opens up what should be a safe space for discussions, but the negativity oftentimes has been exploited by grifting influencers that make it toxic with self-hatred and misogynistic messages. So there you have, my thoughts on the Black Manosphere. So I'm going to ask you, before we get off here, to hit the subscribe button. Just go ahead and hit the subscribe button so you can get my upcoming episodes. So I want to thank you. Thank you for following me on, listen Up, and you have a great day.