Increasing trend of Black men becoming effeminate
The same acceptance is not in place when a boy's abuser is another male. Mr. Jackson has found that, although confusion results from both types of abuse, it can be magnified with a male perpetrator or even when a female abuser resorts to anal penetration. A boy may begin to question his sexuality and whether he is "gay or straight." He went on to say that although the stereotype of Black males in this society remains one of the hyper-masculine being who is most often portrayed as a criminal, thug or threat, "we're now seeing a surgence of African American males who are very hyper-feminized." He quickly added that this is not true in all cases of abuse but the trend is growing -" in the society -" and is clearly evident in places like Atlanta, Georgia, home of Morehouse College, a historically Black male university. In October, per a CNN report, the college's administration issued a ban on the male students "wearing women's clothes, makeup, high heels and purses," to put an end to what the school now considers "inappropriate attire."
Atlanta has become one of the meccas
for gay men and Mr. Jackson describes it as the place where "this
whole mess about the down low brother came out of." It is also near
the location of Bishop Long's church and even though, in recent weeks,
the Christian minister has publicly declared his innocence of any wrong
doing and authorities will not investigate because Georgia's age of
consent is 16 and
the pastor's accusers were over that age at the time of the alleged
incidents, Mr. Jackson sees some reason to place validity in the
young men's claims. "There's a large part of me that believes in
[the allegations] based on patterns, based on grooming," he said,
referring to all the time, money and gifts the men claim to have
received from the church leader.
Such grooming often accompanies acts of abuse perpetrated by males. "So we're not talking about a very violent act. We're talking about [the abuser] takes his time. You're getting compliments, getting your back rubbed. This is a grooming process that is a gradual thing from trust and then to violation," Mr. Jackson explained.
Another reason Black men leave their families?
With 25% of Black men carrying the scar of childhood sexual abuse, and only 1% of them ever disclosing or acknowledging to others that they have been abused, Mr. Jackson notes that "we're talking about a high number of African American males who are walking around with an illness," some of them having become perpetrators and, as adults, now replaying the abuse they received as a child onto innocent and helpless adolescents.
In his interviewing Black men, Mr. Jackson heard several shocking stories but one which stood out to him more than others was that of a man who for years, as a child, was molested by his older sister -" who penetrated him during sexual acts -" and then would "pass him off to her homosexual friends." As a grown man, who went on to have his own children, he confided to Mr. Jackson that he eventually had to leave his family because he knew he was going to molest his children if he did not remove himself from the household.
Mr. Jackson now wonders if another after effect of child sexual abuse of boys is that they grow up to leave, or seemingly abandon, their own families out of fear that they will end up sexually violating their own children. "Is this one of the main reasons that we're absent from the home as African American males?" he asked. "Are you removing yourself from that environment because you don't have any control that you can be in the same surroundings as your child? You can't bathe your little boy or girl because it's an opportunity to inappropriately touch?"
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