We are not the Patriarchy

First: Let’s define what a patriarchy is: pa·tri·arch·y

noun: patriarchy

A system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line. “the thematic relationships of the ballad are worked out according to the conventional archetypes of the patriarchy”
A system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it. “the dominant ideology of patriarchy”
A society or community organized on patriarchal lines

The basis for and seemingly the primary issue of the woman’s movement is that the USA and much of the world operates from the second part of the above definition.

The patriarchy sets the rules, has all the advantages, society automatically revolves around them and supports and looks to them for leadership and values their presence immensely, innately and intuitively.

So the question is this: Are all men part of this patriarchy?

As far as Black Men are concerned: The answer is clear: No!

Disagree?

Some questions to consider:

If Black men were part of the patriarchy, then:

Would society accept that today, nearly 1 in 12 black men age 25-54 are incarcerated?
Would only 3 of the Fortune 500 CEO’s be black?
Would society be ok with that at any time in the current era, there are 1.5 million black men missing from everyday life
Why, in 2018, Black males accounted for 34% of the total male prison population but only about 7% of the general US population?
Why do Black men represent 70% of the NFL players and there only three black NFL head coaches?
Why is the NBA consist of 75% black men and of the 30 NBA teams there are only eight black head coaches? (Better than the NFL, but still…)
Why, in NCAA Football…from 2008 to 2018, there were 152 Power Five head coaches. Only 21 identified as African American. The 2019 FBS season began with 14 African American head coaches.
Why, according to a recent report from the Post-Gazette, there are only 14 black head coaches (18.7%) of the 75 programs in college basketball’s six major conferences.

The first four bullet points represent the institution of mass incarceration. Which employs a lot of people in the real patriarchy or paid by it. By that I mean judges, Police officers, parole officers, the entire prison industry. In fact, The US prison industry employs approximately 415,000 people with a median wage of $49k.

Think of how many people would be out of work if Black men stopped going to prison? People literally make a living out of arresting, prosecuting and jailing people. Yes, all races of people get locked up, but when 7% of the population represents 34% of the inmates, then the system is arguably built on locking people (men) up from communities of color (black). The livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people are supported by an industry that does not really make anyone safer.

Oh and when they draw up political districts, the prisoner are counted as residents of the district the prison is in and not where they come from. BTW, this also impacts how resources are allocated and political representation. Note that prisoners also cannot vote!

Society is INVESTED in our prison system. And that is a way to maintain the patriarchy.

If Black men were part of the patriarchy, there would be a backlash to all of the 8 points listed above, but as of now there is no outrage to it at all! It is just…normal!

So allow me to change bullet point #2 and combine it with bullet point #3 to be a more accurate definition of the patriarchy:

A system of society or government in which (some) men hold the power and women (and almost everyone else) is largely excluded from it so as to organize that society or community organized on patriarchal lines.

History MUST be written in his favor as well!

Senator Tom Cotton called the 1619 Project “a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded.”

How is the truth racially divisive? This country was not founded on freedom and equality. This country was founded on the backs of enslaved Africans and slaughtered Native Americans.

When confronted with that, the Senator went on to say this “We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country. As the founding fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction”

I’m not sure the founding fathers actually said that, but…I will move on.

In other words, slavery was necessary to build the great nation that we have. Our founding fathers created it in their infinite wisdom and it was their vision to build that union in a way that the evil of slavery would be eradicated. Tell that to the 600k souls who fought and died over that issue. And YES, that was the issue.

So to maintain the patriarchy, then history must be taught to the children such that what they did was done in the name of freedom or justice.

The Patriarch as the Hero

The patriarchy cannot stand being painted in any other fashion than the hero and no other men can be allowed this honor. He will fight to the nail anyone who challenges his claim. No” Remember the outrage when Idris Elba was rumored to be case as James Bond?

He must always be the one to rescue the kid, or save the women or be the loving supportive husband, the defender of the universe and the powerful super-hero that will save mankind.

Or, just your friendly neighborhood police office who will make sure that he is always locking up and killing dangerous spiders and they are the heroes keeping them safe. To do THAT, and to maintain control then they need an enemy that needs to be contained, controlled and/or managed and that enemy doesn’t look like them, it looks like…US!

Black men are not part of the patriarchy, we are, in fact, its primary target and have been for 400 years.

Because if we were part of the patriarchy, then a LOT more of the superheroes would look like this: