Black men’s participation in New Orleans Red Dress Run raises questions about their masculinity
The number of Black men wearing dresses to participate in the New Orleans Red Dress Run is beginning to alarm some observers.
The Red Dress Run was held on August 9th in the New Orleans French Quarter. White men, White women, and Black women participate in the two-mile walk or run. The run started in 1987.
It is not known how many Black men participated, but some argue that it leads to emasculating Black men. Some agree while others disagree.
The history of Black men has long been a history of emasculation in America. Black men were also routinely raped by their slave owners as forms of punishment for their insurgency. The process was known as “breaking the buck or buck breaking.” Involves an African slave who was challenged and then whipped in front of his entire congregation of slaves.
Black men were purposely separated from their families during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and today they continue to be separated from their families due to the prison-industrial complex put together by President Bill Clinton, whose wife, Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State, later apologized for supporting the law.
During and post slavery, Black men’s genitals were taken as trophy pieces during and after lynchings. This was done to cease reproduction, prevent sex with White women, for entertainment, and it was also a warning to keep other Black men in check.
It’s a recurring refrain in Hollywood that in order for a Black male comedian to truly make it big, he, seemingly, has to put on a dress.
Flip Wilson did it on his show as Geraldine in the ’70s and ’80s. Martin Lawrence and Jamie Foxx did it as Sheneneh on Martin and Wanda and In Living Color, respectively, in the ’90s. Eddie Murphy also donned a dress as Mama and Granny Klump in the Nutty Professor franchise, the first film which won an Oscar for Rick Baker and David LeRoy Anderson’s makeup in 1997.
Hollywood’s portrayal of Black men has ignited intense debate, particularly concerning representations that challenge hetero-normative gender ideas.
Through the limited binary concept that Black men are either dangerous and thuggish, or effeminate and wimpy––a liminal space was created through which Black men can be accessed palatably by society (which has its roots of subjugation in slavery), through drag, writes Nikki Iyayi in “Say Yes To The Dress: Emasculation of Black men in Hollywood or Homophobia?”