Theoretical Predecessors: Learning from Black Male Studies

‍Why Look to Black Male Studies?

Before we can establish South Asian Male Studies as a field, we must acknowledge our theoretical debts. The most significant is to Black Male Studies, a framework developed by scholars like Professor Tommy J. Curry that fundamentally challenges how we think about racialized masculinity. This is not about claiming that South Asian and Black male experiences are identical – they are not. Rather, it's about learning from a methodology that successfully centers the specific vulnerabilities of racialized men without diminishing the experiences of women or falling into patriarchal apologetics.

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Part 1: Who is Tommy J. Curry?

Tommy J. Curry is a philosopher and Professor of Africana Philosophy and Black Male Studies at theUniversity of Edinburgh. His groundbreaking 2017 book, The Man-Not: Race, Class, Genre, and the Dilemmas of Black Male Identity, argues that Black males occupy a unique position in American society – they are often seen as "man-not," neither fully protected as children nor granted the privileges of white manhood. Curry's work challenges both mainstream feminism and conventional masculinity studies for failing to account for how racism creates a specific "genre" of violence directed at Black males that cannot be understood through the lens of patriarchal privilege alone.

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Part 2: Core Tenets of Black Male Studies

Tenet 1: Centering Vulnerability

Traditional Framework: Mainstream gender studies typically frames men – including racialized men – primarily through the lens of patriarchal power and privilege. Men are understood as perpetrators, beneficiaries of sexism, and agents of violence against women.

Black Male Studies Intervention: While not denying that Black men can participate in patriarchy, Curry argues that this framework becomes inadequate when examining Black males who are:

• More likely to be victims of homicide than perpetrators
• Targets of state violence (police killings, mass incarceration)
• Subjected to sexual violence and lynching throughout American history
• Denied the "protections" of childhood (seen as threats from a young age)

Key Insight: Black males are uniquely vulnerable to racialized violence that specifically targets their bodies, their lives, and their masculinity. This vulnerability is not incidental to racism – it is central to how anti-Black racism operates.

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Tenet 2: Refusing Pathologization

Traditional Framework: Social science research has historically pathologized Black families and Black manhood, portraying them as inherently dysfunctional, absent, or criminal.

Black Male Studies Intervention: Curry argues that we must refuse frameworks that begin with the assumption that Black male life is inherently problematic. Instead:

• View Black male behaviors and survival strategies within their historical and structural context
• Recognize resilience and resistance rather than dysfunction
• Question who benefits from narratives of Black male pathology

Key Insight: Many behaviors labeled as "pathological" are actually rational responses to impossible circumstances created by structural racism.

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Tenet 3: Critiquing Intersectionality's Gaps

Traditional Framework: Intersectionality, developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw, examines how multiple identity categories (race, gender, class, sexuality) intersect to create unique experiences of oppression. It has been transformative for understanding Black women's experiences.

Black Male Studies Intervention: Curry argues that while intersectionality is valuable, it sometimes fails to capture the specific "genre" of violence directed at Black males. Why?

• Intersectionality emerged primarily to theorize Black women's experiences
• When applied to Black men, it can inadvertently re-center patriarchal privilege
• The specific vulnerability of Black males to lynching, police violence, and sexual violence gets lost
• There's a fear that centering Black male vulnerability will somehow diminish attention to Black women

Key Insight: We need frameworks that can hold multiple truths simultaneously – that Black men can experience male privilege in some contexts while being uniquely vulnerable to racialized violence in others.

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Part 3: Translation to the South Asian Context

How do these tenets apply to studying South Asian masculinities? Let's examine each:

Centering Vulnerability in South Asian Male Lives

Just as Black Male Studies asks us to see Black males as targets of specific violence, South Asian Male Studies must center:

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Historical Vulnerability:

• Colonial emasculation through legal disarmament (Arms Act of 1878)
• Partition violence that specifically targeted men's bodies
• Indentured labor that separated men from families and subjected them to brutal conditions

Contemporary Vulnerability:

• Post-9/11 hate crimes, surveillance, and profiling
• Mental health crises (high rates of suicide, depression, anxiety)
• Labor exploitation in service industries
• The "bamboo ceiling" in professional contexts

Question for Reflection: Does acknowledging South Asian men's vulnerability to these forces contradict recognizing their participation in patriarchy? Or can we hold both truths simultaneously?

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Refusing Pathologization of South Asian Men

South Asian men have been pathologized in different but parallel ways:

• Colonial narratives of "effeminacy" and "irrationality"
• Post-9/11 association with religious extremism and terrorism
• Stereotypes of being "backwards" in gender relations
• Portrayal of South Asian families as uniquely oppressive

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A Black Male Studies Approach Asks:

• What are the historical and structural conditions that shape South Asian male behavior?
• When South Asian men reinforce patriarchy, is this purely a cultural relic, or might it be a response to
• colonial emasculation and ongoing racialization?
• Who benefits from narratives that frame South Asian men as inherently problematic?

Important Caveat: Refusing pathologization does not mean excusing harm. It means analyzing behavior within context while still holding individuals accountable.

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Adapting the Intersectionality Critique

South Asian Male Studies must grapple with similar tensions:

• How do we center South Asian male vulnerability without diminishing attention to South Asian women's experiences of sexism?
• How do we acknowledge that South Asian men experience racialization in specifically gendered ways?
• How do we avoid the trap of oppression olympics – claiming that South Asian men have it "worse" than others?

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Curry's insight is crucial here: The point is not to establish a hierarchy of suffering, but to develop analytical tools precise enough to capture specific experiences. South Asian men face vulnerabilities that South Asian women do not (post-9/11 profiling, the pressure to be economic providers, different forms of colonial emasculation) while also wielding patriarchal power that South Asian women do not have access to.

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Part 4: A Fraternal, Not Identical, Framework

South Asian Male Studies is in dialogue with Black Male Studies, not a copy of it. The differences matter:

Different Colonial Histories:

• British colonialism operated differently in South Asia than slavery and Jim Crow did in the United States
• The "divide and rule" strategy in South Asia created ethnic and religious hierarchies (martial races theory)Migration patterns differ significantly

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Different Racial Positions:

• South Asians occupy a different position in U.S. racial hierarchy (sometimes positioned as "model minorities")
• Anti-South Asian racism draws from both colonial and Orientalist stereotypes
• The relationship to white supremacy is mediated differently

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Different Gender Constructions:

• The specific stereotype of the "effeminate Bengali" has no direct parallel in anti-Black racism
• The model minority myth operates differently than anti-Black stereotypes
• Marriage and family patterns differ

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What We Share:

• Both are racialized masculinities positioned in opposition to white masculinity
• Both have been subjected to state violence and surveillance
• Both have had their family structures pathologized
• Both face specific forms of sexual and bodily violence tied to race and gender

Black Male Studies: An analytical framework that centers the specific vulnerabilities and historical experiences of Black males

Vulnerability: Exposure to harm, violence, or exploitation; in this context, the specific ways racialized men are targeted

Pathologization: The framing of a group's behaviors or characteristics as inherently diseased or dysfunctional

Genre of Violence: Curry's term for the specific form and logic of violence directed at a particular group

Anti-Blackness: The specific form of racism that targets Black people, distinct from other forms of racialoppression

Intersectionality: A framework examining how multiple identity categories (race, gender, class) intersect to create unique experiences

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