The ways in which black men are represented seldom offers variety. Today, the commodification of black people takes place through two avenues on the one hand a desire and love for our culture and on the other, a form of hatred – portrayed in how black people are treated in society. Throughout history, black people have been portrayed as animalistic, lascivious and dangerous, with body parts that ‘proved’ this, and any guilt that may have arisen from selling, seeing and treating us as nothing but animals was assuaged because of it.Īs such, an array of binaries were invented civilised/uncivilised, them/us, white/black. Some will call me a racist, despite me being the person calling out the racism, brush it off or say that I’m ‘playing the race card’. I’ve pushed back on people several times, but realised there’s no point in wasting my time. The anonymity of the internet turns these platforms into a space in which people no longer need to censor themselves, making the prejudice and racism so much worse than what you’d typically face offline. This is something we and other BAME people still experience today – regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity – but it’s more nuanced, which makes it harder to call out and white people are reluctant to believe our stories. It’s easy for people to dismiss these claims with an eye roll or a ‘here we go again’ response, but this ignores the very real truth of how black people have historically been sexually objectified and fetishised. It’s not just our bodies one guy who I spoke to over the phone said he was disappointed because my voice didn’t sound as he had expected – I didn’t have a ‘Hackney’ accent. There’s also this assumption that black guys are always a ‘top’ during sex (the penetrative partner) – which is just another stereotype.
This is just a small fraction of the types of unsolicited messages I receive and if I don’t live up to this fantasy of being a hypersexual black stud with a big dick, I am immediately rendered dispensable and stop hearing from them. Other examples include: ‘I’m craving a black guy or a group of black guys’ ‘I’m in my car and fancy a big black c**k in my mouth’ or ‘is it true what they say about black guys’. Often the first message I get sent is: ‘BBC?’ (which stands for big black c**k, a common phrase in the porn industry) or ‘hung?’. For instance, constant references to my gigantic penis – I don’t have one, but I’m black and so apparently it’s a given – is usually the focus of interactions.