Black Masculinity and Herschel Walker
The Georgia senatorial race has become a showcase for how America imagines valid representations of black masculinity. Two practicing Christians, one Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock a pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. Dr. Warnock a PhD From Union Theological Seminary, a Morehouse grad skilled, measured, thoughtful. Herschel Walker a famed Georgia Running back, evangelical Christian, outspoken and often under informed. Two black southern professed Christian men, have forced America in general and white Americans specifically, to consider what black masculinity looks like?
Thin characterizations of masculinity are cast upon black men from the womb. The acceptable representation of black masculinity is framed as athletic, aggressive, irresponsible, dangerous, vacant, and superficial. White folks seek out this singular representation of black masculinity to affirm their fears and confirm their anxieties. The portrayal of the brutish, bruising, and belligerent black man, is used to justify the treatment of the black body. The portrayal is a permission slip to treat the black body with disposability and criminality.
America needs the black male body to carry the ball, to fill the prisons, and scare the little old white ladies crossing the street. In its conceptions of valid black masculinity; It needs sensationalism, overt hostility, and aggression to justify over policing and under resourcing of black communities. America needs its monsters. It needs villains. It needs brutes. It needs someone to blame and someone to abuse. America needs someone to fit the description. Enter Hershel Junior Walker.
Herschel Walker has spent the greater balance of the last two years running to be the senator for the great state of Georgia. Campaigning with a cocktail of soulful southern “awe gee shucks” down bottoms Christianity. He sprinkles a pinch of respectability politics into the mix a device to shame and silence black folks struggling to overcome socio economic challenges. He’s questioned the presence of black fathers in the homes. He’s even gone as far as to apologize to black communities for the absence of black men. He’s centered his own intellectual deficiencies, “I’m not as smart as Dr. Warnock”, not as a bug but a feature. He parroted the GOP talking points; pro life, crime, tax reduction. He chants “Joe Biden” like he’s stuck at séance.
He will say what you need him to say, do what you need him to do, and debase himself for power and privilege. Herschel Walker is not the American dream, he's the white American necessity. He’s the black buck that checks every bare minimum box. He’s barely there, barely aware, and barely conscious.
He is the embodiment of hypocrisy. The four kids, and counting, whose lives he struggled to be present for. The pro life position, with the personal privilege of pro choice pathologies. The abusive relationships with women. The failure to care for his personal well being and mental health. He’s cozy with the police, carries a badge but doesn't have an ethic of justice, simply a penchant for punishment. He’s a Christian “saved by grace” but struggles to comprehend that grace is an institution not an excuse. He talks about protecting the lives of babies, but understands those lives in the abstract. He takes care of his children, But fails to conceive that care is more than the checks we cut but the courage to be there when it matters most.
What is it in the way black masculinity has been cast that make Herschel Walker a plausible candidate for any elected office? Why is this a race? How is it that fickle, flimsy, absent minded, vacant, and shallow blackness the form of blackness that resonates in America? Simply stated, He gives you what you need, A puppet without praxis. You can put anything on him and he will carry that ball across the line. And as long as you give them what they need a republican party that has a loose association with the truth with give you a seat at the table.
Herschel Walker is running to represent the citizens of Georgia. Consider what that says about Georgia. When the world thinks of the vividness of Georgia he wants to be the picture next to that definition. His presence in this race is not a reflection of Herschel Walker, it's a reflection of a republican party that is no longer scraping the bottom of the barrel, they’ve decided the bottom is where they live.