Original Man Response

There were several parts of the second reading from this week that I found to be quite strange. The one that stands out to me the most was “The Original Man” story. At first, it told the story, and I thought “Okay this is really strange and most likely made up, but who knows how people originated, so I’m sure there are a lot of stories like this that could be made up.” Then the author said who created this original man story, and it instantly became even more absurd to me. At first I thought it was some type of African folk tale or African Muslim folk tale that was from a very very long time ago, but when the author said that it was made up by a black man in Detroit in the 1930’s, I immediately dismissed the story as something completely ludicrous. It blew my mind that he could actually go door to door and get people to buy into his story and get followers. I know the 1930’s were definitely a time were blacks faced a lot of oppression from the whites, so buying into a story that said that you’re oppressors were created by some kind of witch doctor or evil scientist solely for the purpose of evil somewhat makes sense, but when you think of the story and who created it, there is no way anyone could actually believe it. In a way, this story kind of reminded me of Joseph Smith and the Mormons. To me, the story of how God was revealing himself to Joseph Smith and everything that followed with him starting a completely new religion seems kind of crazy and most likely made up to me. That is how I feel about this story too. Another part of this reading that I didn’t really agree with is how the author kept saying they need to redefine what black sexuality is because it is being defined by the males in the black society and oppressing others in a way. I agree that no one should feel marginalized by their sexuality, but I do not agree that there should even be the concept of a “black sexuality”. Sexuality is sexuality and should in no way at all even be related to race. By associating something completely unrelated to race or ethnicity with it and saying that it should define that whole racial community, you are in turn marginalizing someone no matter how you look at it. Instead of redefining black sexuality, she should just remove any type of racial stigma from sexuality whatsoever and let people do what they please regardless of ethnicity or sexuality.