"Boys Don't Cry" *please read* Football is here and I'm having my annual trip down memory lane to 4 years ago to when I covered Pee Wee league football for the Nation of Islam. Yes that really happened. It was a constant emotional negotiation, between my desire to photograph my people old and young (and get paid for it 😉) and my struggles with toxic masculinity. To be fair, there was a unified community under the banner or blackness, Islam, and football. However, the "boys don't cry" theory of raising children is a devastating psychological play on the black mind. Because we do cry. Naturally. From birth. Literally the way doctors determine that you are healthy and responsive is, amongst other things, your wailing cries. During my months documenting the 12 or so games, plus playoffs, the teaching, from adult to child, was, "be strong, be tough, don't cry, don't lose your cool." Rather hypocritically, the adults were easily the most demonstrative and emotionally volatile on the field. The joy of running, chasing, scoring, and achieving was robbed from craddles by the parents that made them. To be clear, this is not a bash of the mothers and fathers who watched over their boys and girls as they tackled and cheered their young hearts out. It's a system. An ideology. We tell our children not to cry because all that is black, will either be exploited or use against us. Patriarchy and systemic racism produced this particular offspring in the black community. Those are the parents I'm game planning against. #toxicmasculinity #football #peeweeleague #blackmen #blackfathers #blacksons #bwbanks (at South Central LA) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoXxY3KAzgP/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=m7zif5e8u9f2
