top of page

When Hypermasculinity Leaks from the Black Church: Ariana Grande was groped


On September 3, 2018, Aretha Franklin's funeral was held for what felt like 20 hours. It was filled with preachers and singers of the highest regards. One thing the service has no lack of was black culture. The service was heavy with great hats, great music, a powerful, dignitaries and charismatic preaching. But my soul had to move because there was a leak in the old building and its named is toxic Black Masculinty.

Like so many Black Americans whom have grew up in the black church, weekends and weekday-nights were filled with bible studies, youth revivals( I still don;t know what needed to be revived), and convocations of some sort. The Black Church, AKA 'The Church" has been a pillar of movement and progress from Black people in America. It is time to view things with an even stronger

Let's be honest about the passes we give to the "Men of Gawd". AKA the pastors and bishops in our churches. Black America inside the church and outside the church are very different. Outside of the church we may be perceived as crabs in a barrel. However inside the church we become sheep to the head of our congregations, heeding to every word that drops from the pastors mouth as if it is bible in physical form. The barrel of crabs form a ptramid to elevate the leader of the church, usually a man.


Black women are leaders in the workplace, providers in the home, and mentors in the community. But inside the walls of the church, black women are subservient individuals desperately thirsting for male guidance. Black women attend church at much higher rates than men. We heed to the traditions and unreasonably pratriarchal structure in the search. Rules such as women not being in the pulpit alongside men are followed strictly. Few women are allowed to preach and the ones that are allowed are few and well known.


It is no wonder that black church culture is of uber male dominance. Black men have little control in society, church has become a breeding ground for assertion and where they can be leaders. I think that this follows in the model of the black leaders of the civil rights era. Our most remembered leaders have been reverends, doctors of theology, and men who did their most important work in the walls of the chutch.

Does this mean that black clergymen get a pass a within those walls?

Absolutely not.

From the covering of Eddie Long's predatory ways to the sustained reverance of C.L. Franklin. Black male leadership are protected by the women and men in their church. What happens in this house, stays in this house. I think the complicated reasonb behind this protection is the function of the black church in our culture. Before we were able to have community centers, found our own non profits, and start movements from our laptops; the church was the center of it all. It was the place we could organize without danger off white disruption. The unconscious desire to protect that legacy allows us to overlook the misbehavior of the leaders and give them a pass because they are "Men of Gawd".


The Detroit Free Press wrote of Aretha Franklin's funeral as 'powered by music, ministry of the black church' but it forgot to mention the toxic masculine behavior that accompanied the service. But its 2018: women have agency and #MeToo is alive and well. Stepping into a woman's personal space and pulling her close into your personal space has never been okay. Bishop Ellis issued an apology a healfhearted apology that showed a true lack of consideration. He stated that

It is 2018; men in leadership must reconsider how they navigate through society and their organizations. None of this commentary is to diminish anyone's legacy but to hold leaders to a standard of true leadership. In the black church leadership must begin to reflect leeadership outside of its four walls,. Include women in the clergy and decisions that affect the congregation's community.

Comments


IMG_0336
download (7)
IMG_0766
Screen Shot 2018-03-12 at 9.37.31 PM copy
IMG_0822
IMG_6652_edited
download (1)
21-3-18-3411
19-3-18-0641
Break that fast
IMG_0162
Mas fuerte

Join my mailing list

© 2018 by Tiara Burrns, All Rights Reserved 

bottom of page