Black Masculinity & Black Rappers

In reading Hooks' article on black men and masculinity I couldn't help but feel somewhat disturbed. Although this was not the first time that I have read and discussed the idea of masculinity in relation to black men, I had never realized how deep it stemmed into slavery and how the white supremacists' obsession with black genitalia, as well as their fear of racial integration, played such a huge part in forming this image of the black demonic, sexual feind. Hooks' discussion on cannibalism is what disturbed me most. However, he makes valid points in that all of this racial history of lynching, and ritualistic torture of the black body has shaped how black males currently see and feel about their bodies. The more I read on, the more I started to understand how black males are taught to find power in their sexual desires, seeing this is what their fathers taught them, who were also taught the same by their fathers, and so on. They are repressed in so many other aspects of their life, that they turn toward their sexuality in order to feel power over white men. Thinking about this more, I see this happening everywhere in our pop culture. I remember watching MTV music videos with my mom late one night, and how flabbergasted she was by how sexually driven all of these black male rappers were. All of their lyrics focused on their massive package, f$#&ing girls, and violence against those that have done them wrong. It is easy to assume that even if young African American boys are not sexually abused as often or influenced today by the adults in their lives, they are just as easily affected by what they see on television as they watch these black rappers. They learn that the only way to have power and feel confident as a black male in this world is to is to turn to their sexual desires, and explicitly act on them. That's what they see their peers doing as well as their idols on TV, so why shouldn't they act like that? This idea of black masculinity has become so normalized over the years, that many of us see these music videos and representations of masculinity and recognize this behavior as the "typical black male". I never realized this until reading this article, but I find myself much more conscious of this idea and I wonder if the day will ever come where black men are able to choose a healthy sexuality and not be subjugated to this stereotypical, yet inevitable masculine representation.