The Awkward Black Boy Trope & Its Impact on Black Masculinity in Media
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2024
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Hey Rummates, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I wanted to start the year off right with some commentary about the Awkward Black Boy trope and how it's been making waves in changing how we view black masculinity. I think it's a great conversation and I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:36 What is the Awkward Black Boy?
2:34 Who Fits Into The Trope?
4:00 Black People As More Than Human
4:40 Black Hypermasculinity
5:40 The Awkward Black Girl
6:07 Masculinity In The Black Community
7:27 Queer Black People & The ABB Trope
8:47 The Lawrence Effect
9:38 Does The Awkward Black Boy Truly Exist?
10:30 Outro
#imuRgency #commentary #awkwardblackboy
I think these characters always often get associated with gay too for not being as hyper masculine as we’re usually portrayed.
YES! Which is why Jamal's presence is SOOO important!!!
@@imuRgency always felt this way too, love the vids btw
Yup that’s very true
That’s why I think movies like white chicks and Malibu’s most wanted were waaay ahead of their time. Like MMW has some outdated jokes but the themes of cultural appropriation and typecasting in Hollywood was spot on
@@imuRgency but Jamal (on my block) was hella sassy 💁♀️ like if a straight man is reading me back to back is giving jealously or queer energy 🤴 because only gay men love to diss women heavy. Yeah you should talk about gay mens misogyny. That’s valid video.
i think it’s really cool how roles differ between races, like i saw a show with an asian drug dealer and another with an indian jock and it made me so happy to see both east/south asians as roles outside the “genius nerd” archetype. and now we see more black nerdy boys in media which is great.
Oh cool. What show is that?
Grand army had a Indian jock i think
Agreed
@@pranavsakhre1198 you're absolutely right
American Dad actually showed me the 1st Asian jock I had ever seen (this was the mid 2000s), that show is so under appreciated
Yes! And there’s are some white writers that write shows and their portrayal of black people so bad. They really do be missing the mark.
Yes these White writers and other non-black writers do too. Some of them participate in the anti-blackness portrayals of Black people. And do not get me started on these Black writers participating in the anti-blackness🤦🏾♂️💯
@@JulianSteve yes Tyler perry is one of them.
@@blackqueen5330 He is. I do not know how he’s getting prestigious awards for his “contributions” to the arts. Not saying all of his movies are anti-black/lackluster, but most them are😬…
Write your own stories
@@JulianSteve exactly…
Yes I love Jamal's character so much because it made me realize that I do think black men that are not highly masculine are gay and this is coming from a black woman who always wants to protect black men but I had to acknowledge that bias that I have against my own race I want us as a collective to just be able to be ourselves
Im so happy you recognized your flaws and grew from that harmful mindset!!
I would also add Winston from new girl as a example. Winston and coach started more of a token black character but thought out the show they were allowed to be more weirder and fun even till the end. Winston thing was having a little too close relationship with his cat and struggling to talk to women. I really like that the show acknowledged them being black and even gave them they own moments to talk about their experience. Of course they could have done more but I think it is a good start especially compared to older ish shows like How I meet your mother.
YES Winston is a perfect example, he turned out to be one of the best characters.
Winston is my favorite character! I love how dangerous and stupid his pranks are.
This trope gives insight to trends of today as these characters in the past (Urkel & Carlton) were perceived as comedic side characters who were never supposed to be taken seriously. But now, these characters are in leading roles with more depth to them (Lionel, Jamal, Ezekiel from the Get Down, Miles Morales) which probably shows that those Awkward Black Boys in real life grew up wanting to have their stories told and not be relegated to joke characters.
Also what you said about Lawrence’s character arch is very interesting because it parallels what happened to Dwayne Wayne in A Different World. In order to become the desirable man to Whitley, the writers ironed out some of his quirks for him to be more typical and acceptable. They both even have successful careers in stem!
You forgot the sitcom "What's Happening".
I don’t know if you mentioned it but I think Chris in Everybody Hates Chris is an awkward black boy trope
Well it’s based on Chris Rock’s childhood so...
@@johanaforever965 Uh ok? That doesn’t change anything lmao
@@XD4697. cookie!
@@XD4697. Yes!!!
Stereotypes of Black men don’t mean inaccurate portrayal; it just means it’s over-portrayed. Everyone will find that their specific personality isn’t represented in the media. Black men exist in many forms, so these media portrayals aren’t inaccurate-they just don’t represent everyone.
Facts. I wish more people stopped trying to seek validation from media. It's insane!
Absolutely, it's a good rule of thumb to not look for remnants of yourself in other's art. I think it helps me appreciate everything more
I love that there is more representation of the awkward black boy. I'm a black queer man and I remember vividly how shocked I was when I watch Dear White People. It was the first time I saw someone like me on tv and I had mixed feelings. I was both thrilled and scared cause I expected all the characters but also the public to have a negative reaction. That's why him being friend with the archetype of the cool and confident black man was in my opinion so important
Very well spoken, definitely hit the nail on every topic. I definitely have seen videos and conversations on the awkward Black girl, so it is definitely refreshing to hear someone discuss the awkward Black boy. Not all Black boys/men are the same and the representation of the awkward Black boy in media can show Black men and Black people in general that they don't have to live up to the stereotypes that are usually associated with them if that's not who they are. Really enjoyed this video!!!
You should check out the second season of Love Life. The main character is an awkward black man who has a happy ending without changing himself in that way.
‼
I wonder if/posit that "awkward" isn't actually awkward; it's being allowed to exist in a scope of normalcy that isn't (wasn't?) readily seen in Western media for Black folks.
It's being allowed to be "normal".
Instead of being the perfect character who we only care about because they are the "good type of Black" (or aim vitriol/pity towards because they're the "bad type of Black").
Instead of being the background character that always comes in at just the right moment to provide a laugh or sage advice with a side of sass.
It's being allowed to be "human".
This is so thought-provoking!! Great analysis
There's a show on HBO max called Love life. Its an anthology (each season can be watched on its own) Season 2, the main lead is a black man named Marcus who I think is an awkward black men. It about his love life. You should check it out, I think you will really like it and I want your opinion on the show. It feels very underrated, since not many people have talked about it.
In cartoons you can even see more of this trope like (last kids on earth, shera, kipo)also the guy from runaways, they all have these geeky awkward black friends. its science or music or technology. i love that animations really develop side characters more.
This video was great. Made me think of Chris from Everybody Hates Chris. I thought that he was a refreshing character who served as a nice contrast from his brother Drew and dad Julius, as well as the other hyper masculine characters we see in his Bedstuy
neighborhood.
Loved this!! It is really nice to hear from someone who identifies themselves with “awkward boy” character comment on examples of media. I personally feel we don’t get enough of a diverse personality to black men and it’s refreshing to see a different angle!!
Wow, Rumi finally does a video on the awkward Black boy trope. I been waiting for your take on the discussion. Back in May I made a video on this topic and mention you too. It’s crazy how the universe works⭐️
P.S. - Thank you for mentioning the masculinization of Black men and dark skin Black women. It needs to stop and screw TheShadeRoom😒💯
It's been overdue tbh! I just finished watching your video on it. LOVE your takes!
@@imuRgency Yes and thank you for checking out my video Rumi. It means a lot coming from you🥲🤘🏾
My favorite thing about Lionel is that the actor playing him is actually a Troy lol
Fine AF
Awkward black boy here. Loved your take on the subject matter and can identify with all of the ideals that make an awkward black boy character and I haven't thought about Lawrence's character in that way but it makes sense
I clicked on this video with such a quickness!! I literally just made a video about black masculinity touching on some of these topics.
omg tis the season to deconstruct black (toxic) masculinity
Happy New Year, and a great video to kick off the year! This video made me think: there really isn’t a lot of conversation surrounding the awkward Black boy only because writers and society in general think that Black men are a monolith in terms of personality; like you have to be just that one thing. Masculinity should be decanter but that would also mean patriarchy would have to go too.
I’d actually like some of the characters because not every black straight men is all hard and stuff. People like that excise
Exactly
other projects to look for with the Awkward Black Boy Trope or stray from the mainstream black male characters:
Uncorked: starring Mamoudou Athie (film, Netflix)
How To Get Away With Murder: co-starring Alfred Enoch (show, Netflix and ABC)
Oh Jerome, No: starring Mamoudou Athie (limited series, Hulu)
The Outside Story: starring Brian Tyree Henry (film, Hulu)
Love Life Season 2: starring William Jackson Harper (show, HBO Max)
The Good Place: co-starring William Jackson Harper (show, Netflix and NBC)
Four Weddings and a Funeral: co-starring Brandon Mychal Smith (limited series, Hulu)
Grand Crew: starring Echo Kellum (show, Hulu and NBC)
Abbott Elementary: co-starring Tyler James Williams (show, Hulu and ABC)
That Awkward Moment: co-starring Michael B Jordan (film)
What's Happening: Starring Ernest Thomas, Haywood Nelson and the late Fred Berry (show, formerly ABC, now Crackle).
The Learning Tree: starring Kyle Johnson (film, Warner Bros)
The Inkwell: starring Larenz Tate, Joe Morton and Glynn Truman (film, Disney/Touchstone)
Unrelated and random but I’m it just me but you look animated… like a sims animation. But you look cute maybe it’s the skincare. Happy new year tho
this is the best compliment i've ever received. ive been working my whole life to fit the animatronic core aesthetic
He is handsome 🥵🥵
Happy new year Imgurency and also I agree with you w ur opinions and especially w ur opinion on Jamal from On my Block also I luv ur vids so much
happy new year!! :)
Iwish there were more awkward/shy/soft Black girls in media. I see plenty of smart and shy Black boys in shows but rarely Black girls
that’s why i love jamal i am very expressive, and i resonated with insecure because of issa’s awkwardness
i think another good example is marcus from HBO's love life season 2, played by william jackson harper. i love the character development because he's well balanced nd realistic, not hyper masculine but not de-masculined/insecure either, he still represents the black experience and understands the significance of being black
PLEASE DO VIDEOS ON INSECURE IK ITS OVER BUT I WILL REALLY LOVE YOUR TAKE 😘😘😘Happy new year btw
tuesday :)
happy new year !!
if anyone is a reader, I recommend Walter Mosley's "The Awkward Black Man". its a collection of short stories of different, often awkward black men
I love how you tie in sociopolitical ideas into your videos as it's so interesting to see the impact that the media has on society.
LMAOO WHY IS LIL BOOSIE IN THE THUMBNAIL
*bussy
LOVE this video! Thank you for discussing!!
Carlton is my favorite awkward black boy 😍😍😍😍💕📍
would LOVE another video like this...this was such a great video, great topic! So many different facets of black masculinity that should be discussed 👏🏽
happy new year rumi 🤗 this was a really interesting vid I’m really glad you talked about lawrence because what u said was so spot on and I didn’t realize it before
Happy new year!!
Happy New Year. I am really Excited for The New Content that you will serve this Year
Get ready we have a lot coming 😈
I really like your take on Lawrence, I hadn’t seen it from that angle before. This video was really interesting!
I really liked this video and the changeup to a more commentary style
I really like your point about Lawrence's character development. I completely agree even though it's something I honestly didn't realize until you pointed it out lol!
Same here. Especially if you watched the last few episodes of insecure
Lovely video. Very well structured. I enjoyed it!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the subject. Take care and thanks for your contribution. Good work.
Love love love this video! Keep up the great commentary!!
All facts! Appreciate you for speaking on this.
I feel like its really good to subvert tropes but it shouldnt be done over the top or always because then we get a new cliche after some years and thats not good either lol.
bestie can i just say… this video quality 😍😍
unrelated but that camera quality is insaneee
The awkward Black boy trope definitely, yet indirectly, puts the spotlight on the self-stereotyping some to many Black people seem to cling onto in order for them to feel "Blak enough." And no matter how criminalizing this may sound, this is a conversation to be had in our community? But truth be told, the Black community hates doing so and would rather sit by and blame White people all day for these same stereotypes which ultimately hurt us (not saying White folks can't be at fault, though).
I mean, I guess I can say I was one of these "alt-Black" kid because I'd rather geek out on Harry Potter, DC and Marvel superheroes before they became trendy instead of playing sports, I'd rather listen to punk rock, country music and orechestras than most ratchet hip hop musicians, weirdly enough placed upon a pedestal in our community (not saying I didn't or don't dig hip hop but Avril Lavigne, Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Simple Plan, Sara Bareilles, and 2000s Japanese/South Korean pop rock music all hold a special room in my heart), or just because I'm more of a bookworm. All of those who made their mission and duty to question my Blackness and clown me were Black people, and when we do it, we give the keys to other communities to see us as a monolithic pack of savages needing to cling onto violence and ignorance for identity basis, but then protesting against being seen as such.
I see things starting to change because the culture is no longer the same as in the 2000s and mid-2010s (my child and teenage years being born in 1997). However, some "alt-Black kids" turned grown-ups still deal with the intraracial resentment and we need to make sure this won't be passed down to newer generatiosn of Black kids, "alt" or not.
Speak on it!!!!
I experienced the same thing growing up
@@astoldbynickgerr Thank you for supporting my very unpopular opinion that, I know, would have le canceled by our people. But it needed to be said and written. Plain and simple.
Great video!!
This was an excellent breakdown. 👌🏾
Loved this. Comment for the algorithm. ❤️
i much prefer the "awkward" Black boy trope... i find them to be more real/relatable
I don’t
@@matthewtartt9422no one asked for your opinion
@@flashfunk0373 No one asked for yours.
theyve even been participating in this trope since kids shows. ones that come to mind are cameron from total drama, and tucker from danny phantom. its crazy
I for one enjoy this characterization most in particular, as it’s one that I relate to the most. It’s one of the few times I feel represented properly in media as a person of color. Us awkward dudes got style too lol.
Spencer from All America!!!!!! he fits the whole hypermasculine, superhuman trope so welll
Thank you sm for this video
I'm not sure if you read books but the Frankly In Love includes an awkward Black boy that I think you would be interested in dissecting.
Also Long Division by Kiese Laymon
Black people are not a molith.
*monolith but yhhhh we’re not
I wanna hear more about what you said about Lawrence
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TALKING ABOUT THIS!
Yesss I love this!!
CLOCK THAT TEAAAAAA WAKE THAT SHIT UPP FRENNNNN *SNAPS IN GAY* seeing video essay mfs unpack the performance of hyper masculinity in the blk community and unpacking the root of the issue stemming from outdated ideas of masculinity back from colonial times has helped me so much as someone who was gaslit during childhood and experienced emotional abuse bc of my fem qualities its healing to look at things thru a different lens one with historical context to help process and more intimately learn the hate the world has for me and where it comes from. giving myself the tools to understand femphobia in the black community homophobia ideas of upholding and defending ur masculinity learning and de constructing the patriarchal beliefs we all were conditioned to believe.
Imagine being a awkward black man at a HBCU😬
I think that note on Lawerence wasn’t necessarily correct. We never saw Lawerence before his depression kind of magnified his insecurity. We got to see him in a quarter life crisis and I think a regression of him self in some parts. His arc wasn’t trope-y in this awkward black guy to good black man way, the reward was seeing him win, someone who was positioned as the ‘yesteryear’ not trying, self pity version of a man into someone who took the steps to change his situation, adjust his lens on what success was for himself and life kind of rewarding him for those decisions and a byproduct was security in himself through overcoming these obstacles he never faced and the self acuity that came with those experiences.
2:30 IS THAT A DOG
BLACK MALE AWKWARDNESS:
- Absent father
- Emasculating mother
- Lack of opportunities
- Outcasted image
- Police brutality
- Lack of respect
- Hyper-masculinity imposed
- Joblessness
- Homelessness
- Hyper-sexuality
- Housing discrimination
- Medical neglect
- Mental illness
- Lack of funds
When we talk about like media what about the music industry? I know in 1980 there was an Australian rock band called color stones that made a song called "Black boy" it was about a young black boy who was kind of shy and awkward and picked on a lot, but the boy became a man and found pride in himself. I kind of thought it was an uplifting song. Oh and as far as television media we can't forget about Steve urkel, I'm pretty sure that character defined awkward black man.
as an awkward black boy.........i dont get the hate but ok
great vid :) comment 4 the algorithm
the Wonder Years !!
Conflicted mixed race girls is a trope I get annoyed by. I'm Hispanic but I have African ancestry and even Nigerian customs blended into my Latin/Danish customs.
So my ethnicity was my identity so seeing mixed race girls either have issues for being of mixed ancestry or choose be black (remove themselves from their African identity all together) is odd to me.
What makes the trope annoying is how people on real life who consume media act like I'm one of those characters and will interact with me like I'm in a potential state of crisis.
This only happens in the US but still it's weird how much of media influences a lot of people to the extent I become associated with a fictional character for how I look and who I am gets rejected.
ayo never been this early wassup
wassup stink
Thank you for this!
-An Awkward Black Boy
I was thinking about the dog in the back. Who is that?
Hey can you please do a review on Dear White People? cos Ion if I can be bothered for the last season🥺
please this
Do you have any plans on making a video about Insecure? 🤔🤗
insecure video coming this tuesday :)
@@imuRgency YES. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it. 🤗
go rumi go
MY RACE, GENDER, ETHNICITY, AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION 🗣🗣🗣
im loikin the eyoi bros
Who is he, and how do I meet him?
0:00
would u ever do any Insercure video?
hehehe have post notifs on this week ;)
Why would I want to watch a show about awkward people
Steven urkel is the definition of ome
can you pls give me your eyebrows
I mean being LGBT an being awkward aren't equal