Race and the Black Male Subculture

The Lives of Toby Waller

William T. Hoston

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781137590459
• eBook ISBN:
  9781137588531
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Social Sciences

This book is a study of black masculinity in the twenty-first century. Through a series of critical and interdisciplinary essays, this work examines the image of the black male in American society as a Toby Waller stereotype.  Toby Waller is the fictional, yet symbolic character from Alex Haley's highly acclaimed book and mini-series, Roots.  It is a richly detailed, fictional story about slavery and one enslaved African man's struggle to regain freedom.  The parallel of the life of enslaved Toby Waller is similar to present day black males.  Both are individuals who are often stripped of their cultural identity and exist within an institutional and systemic framework that devalues black male life.  This dichotomy is the historical platform to discuss how those in the annals of white America demarcate which embodiment merits inclusion into societal acceptance.

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

William T. HostonRace and the Black Male Subculture10.1057/978-1-137-58853-1_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: The Toby Waller Stereotype

William T. Hoston¹

(1)

University of Houston - Clear, Lake, USA

End Abstract

The image of the black male in the twenty-first century is projected as a Toby Waller stereotype. He is the fictional, yet, symbolic character from Alex Haley’s highly acclaimed book and mini-series, Roots. It is a richly detailed, fictional story about slavery and an enslaved African man’s struggle to regain freedom. The parallel of the life of enslaved Toby Waller and present day black males is that, by and large, their lives are on a similar plane. Both are individuals who are often stripped of their cultural identity and exist within an institutional and systemic framework in American society that devalues black male life. For centuries, the embodiment of black males has been subjected to racial castigation. Their societal worth has continually been a cord of debate. Once counted as three-fifths of a person in the US Constitution, the struggle to fight for their devalued status has at times been challenged by a society that has yet to grapple with the history of slavery.

Roots stands as one of the more important mini-series in American cinematic history. This iconic mini-series, bared on Haley’s 1976 book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, was an attempt to address the sensitive topic of slavery in a truthful manner. The eight-part mini-series aired in the homes of millions of Americans who were finally exposed to the visceral, unjust, and brutal images, and subsequent effects of slavery. For black Americans, the timing of the mini-series after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, formation of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (1966), deaths of Malcolm X (1965), and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1968), the consciousness bred from the Civil Rights Movement, and the black intellectual initiatives of the 1970s led black Americans to appreciate Haley’s mission. The timing was conducive to provide a significant narrative in American history.

Roots received many awards and nominations for its courage to provide a cinematic visual to educate those whose knowledge and understanding of slavery was only made available through literary works. The mini-series is highly credited with helping to better understand race relations in American society. The narrative revolves around the main character, Kunta Kinte. He is the antithesis of Toby Waller. Kunta Kinte life’s journey is tracked from free African to American slave. He is a Gambian-born African, who is captured and transported through the middle passage to the states, and sold at an auction as chattel property to new slaver owner, Massa John Reynolds. In the book, Kunta Kinte is sold to the slave plantation of John Waller. Despite this minor difference between the book and mini-series, the center of the exchange is the relinquishment of Kunta Kinte’s status as a human being.

Upon Kunta Kinte’s purchase, Massa Reynolds renames Kunta to Toby. He then assigns Fiddler, an older black male slave as his overseer, to teach Toby how to speak English, be subservient, and mentally train him to be a good nigger slave on the plantation. Massa Reynolds wants to strip Kunta of his natural identity and suppress his inclination to think as a free African. He is adamant about Kunta embracing the name of Toby; however, Kunta wants to retain his birth name to preserve his African identity and culture. Early on Kunta does not allow Fiddler and the other white overseers on the plantation to break his will and create a vulnerable mental state of mind. Kunta attempts to escape from the plantation four times, but each time is unsuccessful. He rejects the notion that slaves should wear chains, shackles, and be held in bondage.

There are two poignant scenes in the mini-series (for me) that best exemplifies his desire to remain a free African. The first is when Kunta plans to escape and Fiddler returns to their quarters to find that Kunta has broken his leg chains. Initially upset that Kunta has not obeyed his orders nor adhered to his teachings, Fiddler lashes out at him. He slaps Kunta and says, “Damn you nigger, didn’t you think nothing about me?” After an exchange, Fiddler further tells Kunta, “You was mine to turn into a good nigger!” Kunta begs Fiddler to run away with him while Fiddler packs Kunta’s belongings to help him and convey to Massa Reynolds that he had no knowledge of the attempted escape. Fiddler is against running away in fear of the physical repercussions. He tells Kunta, “You should have left them chains alone, nigger,” and Kunta replies, “Chains ain’t right for nigger, Fiddler.” At that moment, there is a pause, a pause in the name of liberation. Fiddler finally realizes how important freedom is for Kunta. This transcendent scene shows a Fiddler who wishes he had Kunta’s courage, strength, and understanding of the worth of freedom. Born into slavery and oppression, Fiddler has never experienced the autonomy of that world. He responds to Kunta, “Lord, you sure is some mighty child.”

After this particular failed attempt for freedom, the second moving scene was when Mr. Ames, a white overseer on the plantation, and group of bounty hunters return Kunta to the plantation. Fiddler was alerted by one of the fellow slaves. Even though Fiddler had warned him not to escape, upon Kunta’s capture, Fiddler went through extraordinary measures to protect him by visiting Massa Reynolds to spare Kunta from a brutal whipping. This was to no avail. Massa Reynolds turned Kunta over to Mr. Ames. While lifting Kunta by rope to whip him, Mr. Ames summons the other slaves to watch. He explains to them, “You’re going to see how a bad nigger gets turned good.” Mr. Ames instructs James, a fellow black slave, to whip Kunta until he relinquishes his rebellious ways and finally acknowledges his name as Toby. During the whipping, there were temporary pauses.

Mr. Ames: What’s your name?

Kunta: Kunta, Kunta Kinte.

The whipping commences again.

Mr. Ames: When the Master gives you something you take it. He gave you a name. It’s a nice name. It’s Toby and it’s going to be yours until the day you die.

After several temporary pauses between the whippings, Kunta finally submits.

Mr. Ames: What’s your name?

Kunta: Toby.

Mr. Ames: Say it again. Say it louder so they all can hear you. What’s your name?

Kunta: Toby, my name is Toby.

Mr. Ames: That’s a good nigger. Cut him down.

After being cut down, Fiddler comes to Kunta’s aid to comfort him. In response to his pain and anguish, Fiddler says, “What you care what that white man call you? Make you say, Toby. What you care? You know who you be, Kunta. That’s who you always be, Kunta Kinte. There gone be another day. You hear me. There gone be another day.” These words were symbols to exhibit a point of enlightenment. Fiddler further understood Kunta’s deep-seated aversion to be mentally, physically, and culturally transformed into Toby. Kunta is willing to die to keep and maintain his identity. This is the juxtaposition of a life born into slavery versus one knowing freedom and becoming enslaved. Even after Kunta submits to being called Toby, he still made attempts to escape. The mental plane of Kunta and those on the Reynolds’s plantation never met despite all residing in the same oppressive environment.

Do black males in the twenty-first century have a dueling identity? Do these males live in a subculture within the larger culture that has ingrained beliefs and interests that vary from the other cultures of American society?¹ Inasmuch, are these beliefs and interests shaped by a keen understanding that black males are subject to institutional and systemic practices and behaviors that devalue their human existence due to the color of their skin?

Consider, as baseline examples, Kunta Kinte is a black male who projects with a sense of indelible pride, pro-black, heightened level of black consciousness, identifies with the positive and negative factions of the black male subculture, and understands the importance of physical, mental, and spiritual liberation. This black male fights against cultural hegemony to define his own sense of self. These attributes can be generated from positive mentors and influences that recognize cultural competence is needed to foster a generational effect on black males. This person comprehends that a strategic approach is needed to overcome structural and cultural forces detrimental to black male life.

Given the negative institutional roadblocks in American society, think of Toby Waller as a black male beaten into submission by structural and cultural forces. Generally, the adverse economic and social barriers faced are not met with a cultural-responsive agenda due to the lack of positive outlets. In turn, institutional and systemic racism and discrimination further highlights his struggle because he has not been resourcefully equipped. This black male is left to cross a faulty bridge to overcome his circumstances. There is limited conscious motivation and, as a result, goals and dreams are redefined to match the definition of success in his own social environment. In many cases, he finds it difficult to navigate down a path from adolescence to adulthood without proper guidance of a traditional family structure. Thus, physical, mental, and spiritual liberation is elusive in his quest to become a productive, contributing member within the framework of American society.

Too often black males are seen as a homogenous group. However, they differ and go through developmental processes that shape their cultural identity. The competing ideologies of race construction and masculinity have worked to marginalize black males to a subculture grouped together by the beneficiaries of white empowerment. Because race is a social construct, excessively the image of the black male in American society is projected as a Toby Waller stereotype. The stereotypical depictions of members in the black male subculture are as “niggers,” “who are subhuman,” “who are angry,” “who are aggressive,” “who are hyper-sexual,” “who are thugs,” “who are criminals,” and “who are violent,” which makes it difficult to be free in their own black bodies. These stereotypes are so racially driven and intertwined that black males are constantly in a daily struggle to shed them for their own human survival and mental well-being.

Through a series of critical, interdisciplinary chapters, this book examines how the lives of many black males are spent attempting to avoid institutional and systemic forces that use modern-day slave methods as a form of social and racial control (e.g., being slaves = limited productive opportunities and quality resources; whippings = racial profiling, arrests, wrongful convictions, unarmed deaths, the devaluation of black male life; noose = life in prison and eventually death by incapacitation). An accurate depiction of most in the black male subculture shows that structural and cultural forces contribute to their being born into a single-parent household with no father, growing up and living in impoverished environments, attending rundown public schools, and exposure to drugs, gangs, and crime at an early age, which harmfully impacts their lives.

In the mid of a complex web of forces, that often, strips the black male of his identity, many in the subculture live their lives in an identity crisis. Some choose to assimilate adopting a European frame of reference in an effort to avoid the institutional and systemic whippings. Others form a pro-black and/or black pride identity challenging the status quo despite repercussions. Then there are those who master the strategic balancing act of race as a social construct. These black males understand the political meanings of “black” and “white” skin color while maintaining the ability to be responsible, progressive, and define their own blackness and masculine norms.

Race and the Black Male Subculture explores salient concerns affecting the black male, relative to the Toby Waller stereotype, by using a race and crime intersectional analysis to understand the experiences and contexts that, correspondingly, generates reflexively to what can be regarded as the black male subculture. This book voices the need for black masculinity to be decoupled from white masculinity in order for both to have a clearer, neutral portrayal of life as a male. Hopefully, a bridge will be formed to further observe that a interdisciplinary, and many times unconventional, approach is needed to understand that there is more than one way to delve into concerns structured around race and crime—especially when it comes to the black male subculture. Such approaches are imperative to appropriately dissect and probe beneath the complex layers of black masculinity.

This book is organized into three parts. Part I introduces chapters that discuss the devaluation of black male life. Chapter 2 is an open letter to the Beneficiaries of white empowerment. It is written to discuss the institutional and systemic framework in white America that allows the continued shootings and fatal killings of unarmed black males by white police officers. Chapter 3 transitions to the controversial legislation in Florida, “Stand Your Ground.” It looks at the political and legislative activity of black state legislators in their efforts to repeal this self-defense law that has contributed to a legal system that fails to secure justice for black males. Using a multi-methodological approach of bill analysis and interviews of black legislators, this chapter explores whether they have introduced and passed laws that provide substantive representation or are they merely descriptive representors in the post-Trayvon Martin period. Chapter 4 explores the increasing number of black-on-black murders in the city of Chicago. While intraracial murders are not a new phenomenon, the city has consistently had the highest number of murders per year in the last decade. This chapter posits that the lack of black fathers in the home is one of the chief determinants that lead to the increasing number of black males that devalue the lives of other black males. Using an autoethnographic method, which analyzes personal experiences in an attempt to better understand cultural experiences, this chapter provides case studies of three black males from Chicago to explore how having a father shaped, molded, and helped channel their attitudes and behaviors.

Part II of this book sheds the spotlight on white privilege and social and legal inequality. Chapter 5 discusses the Michael Brown grand jury decision in Ferguson, Missouri and illustrates how, in the aftermath of his death, the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney, Robert P. McCulloch and his team, abused their prosecutorial power in favor of Officer Darren Wilson, which resulted in the non-indictment. The inbuilt systemic discrimination and racism entrenched in the municipality of Ferguson provided McCulloch and his team the prosecutorial power to select certain jurors and sway their decision, by deciding what charges jury members would consider, who would testify, which witnesses were credible, and what evidence to present. As a result, McCulloch and his team dictated and controlled the decision of jurors to return a preferred outcome of non-indictment. Chapter 6 examines whether white police officers in the twenty-first century harbor racial feelings toward black males leading to the fatal shootings of unarmed black males. Drawing from interviews of white police officers, this chapter asks, are black males targets of long-standing racial problems with the police? Do white police officers overpolice black males? Do white police officers have a “shooter’s bias”? Despite the national attention delegated to this widespread problem, there continues to be shootings. The flurry of disproportionate fatal shootings in recent years prompts the black male subculture to ask the above stated questions to white police officers as a method of addressing these concerns. Chapter 7 provides an opportunity to juxtapose white businessmen in the state of Colorado profiting from building marijuana dispensaries when they have in the past led the charge in the so-called War on Drugs, which disproportionately arrested and incarcerated black males. This chapter dissects the racial elements of this twenty-first-century form of injustice that continues to incarcerate black males, whereas now, there is a legal drug industry for white males to profit.

Part III of this book provides an ethnographic history of two black males, one who chose a life of crime, and another, who was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. Marquis Glover served over 22 years in the US penal system for the felony offenses of drug trafficking and other crimes, whereas, Cornelius Dupree Jr. was exonerated by DNA testing after spending 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Chapter 8 focuses on Marquis Glover. Mr. Glover recently spent 14 years in prison for the felony offense of trafficking cocaine. The goal of this chapter is to allow an ex-drug dealer, who accepted the conventional goals of American society, but rejected the socially legitimate means to achieve them, to speak for himself to better understand why h...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Frontmatter
• 1. Introduction: The Toby Waller Stereotype
• 1. Devaluing Black Male Life
• 2. It’s Good to Be White in America
• 3. Brothers of the Moment
• Backmatter