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The Paradox of Black Masculine Capital- TURONOMANN ? Are we all Toronto-Man?
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The Paradox of Black Masculine Capital- TURONOMANN ? Are we all Toronto-Man?
Dr Ann Arnett Ferguson’s framework reveals a sophisticated form of cultural extraction. Black masculinity becomes simultaneously criminalized and commodified.
Black males’ images and futures are inevitably sealed & prepackaged in this western world as the criminal image or the endangered species image.
The social engineering Ferguson identifies operates exclusively on Black men: systemic conditioning that narrows their behavioral possibilities while expanding societal surveillance. Yet this same engineering process creates cultural signifiers—confidence, authenticity, physical presence—that become valuable social currency when performed by non-Black bodies. Wearing durags, cornrows, the jamaican-canadian accent we all mock.
This is strategic extraction. The very traits that trigger punitive responses when embodied by Black men become markers of desirability, coolness, or authenticity when adopted by others. The criminalization creates scarcity; the scarcity creates value; the value gets harvested by those immune to the criminalization.
What emerges is a system where Black men experience the disciplinary mechanisms of social control while simultaneously watching their cultural expressions become profitable performances for others. They live the consequences of the stereotype while others access its social benefits.
The sophistication lies in the circularity: society constructs limiting images of Black masculinity, criminalizes Black men for embodying these constructions, then celebrates non-Black appropriation of the same traits as transgressive or authentic. Black men remain trapped within the disciplinary framework while their cultural production circulates freely in privileged hands.
Social engineering is far too sinister too interesting to talk about. It is really deeply insidious how racism is thought out and performed. Dehumanization sounds like exactly what it sounds, however I digress.
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