First, a little history about my interest in the Manosphere and the Black Manosphere.

I’ve been on numerous social media websites since about 2005, beginning with MySpace and BlackPlanet, and later, YouTube, Facebook, and radio personality Michael Baisden’s website. However, I was first exposed to Black Manosphere ideology on BlackPlanet in various chat rooms and forums.

At that time, I had no idea that there was such a thing as the Black Manosphere and that it was negatively influencing the minds of Black women and Black men. However, I noticed a common theme in the rhetoric of some Black men on BlackPlanet. The common theme was that they hated Black American women and viewed them as enemies, but still desired subservience from and sexual access to Black American women.

Not only did they view Black American women as inferior to men, but they also viewed Black American women as inferior to non-Black women and foreign women. They also claimed that Black American women are insubmissive, rebellious, aggressive, domineering, controlling, unfeminine, masculine or manly, ghetto, promiscuous, physically unattractive, welfare queens, horrible mothers, too independent, too strong, loudmouthed, emasculating Black men, trying to “wear the pants” in the relationship, refusing to let Black men lead, and completely destroyed the Black nuclear family and the Black American community.

It wasn’t until I joined YouTube that I fell down the rabbit hole that leads to the dark underworld of the Manosphere and discovered the influence behind the racist-misogynistic rhetoric that I heard on BlackPlanet.

The original Manosphere is predominantly composed of right-wing White men. The Black Manosphere is an offshoot of the original Manosphere.

Since about 2008, I have been closely observing the leading influencers, Black women allies, ideology, rhetoric, subgroups, and cancerous growth of the Black Manosphere. I’ve also been observing the overlap between the Black Manosphere and the Black Hebrew Israelites, the Black Consciousness movement, members of the Nation of Islam, Black Reformed Christians, Black conservatives, and Black femininity gurus.

As a conservative Christian woman who has been in close proximity to each of these groups on social media, I can confidently state that Black Manosphere ideology is silently spreading among both Black men and Black women in patriarchal religions, ethnocentric movements, the conservative movement, and femininity platforms.

Why raise awareness of the Black Manosphere?

Believers need to be aware of the Black Manosphere for the simple reason that it is a male supremacist cult with a harmful influence in the church and throughout society. The spirit behind it is the spirit of Antichrist. It opposes God, the Gospel, the teaching of Scripture, the body of Christ, the spiritual growth of believers, interpersonal relationships between women and men, marriage, the family unit, and human flourishing.

The Black Manosphere is a gateway to radicalization and extremism, male violence, sexual perversion, and apostasy for believers who attempt to reconcile their faith in Jesus Christ with Manosphere ideology.

If you are a believer, you should not be involved in the Black Manosphere because it is a deception that not only exacerbates relational problems between women and men but also leads you astray spiritually.

The Black Manosphere worsens preexisting division between Black women and Black men, exploits both Black women and Black men, attacks marriage and the family unit, justifies violence against women and children, and seeks to normalize male manipulation and predatory behavior towards women and teenage girls.

The Black Manosphere contradicts the word of God on the subjects of human value and identity, marriage, sex, and the origin of interpersonal dysfunction between women and men. It proposes a false solution to the schism between women and men (more male supremacy, more male domination over women, or men going their own way). The Black Manosphere offers a false diagnosis of man’s problem and provides a false cure.

What is the Black Manosphere?

The word “Manosphere” is a generic umbrella term used to denote online communities of men who share core beliefs, common interests and goals, similar behaviors, and obsessive fixations. These commonalities (which I will describe in a moment) are the distinct theme, ethos, culture, “hive mind,” and overarching worldview of the Black Manosphere.

Like many other cult movements, the Black Manosphere isn’t monolithic or led by one sole leader. It isn’t organized and doesn’t have elected leaders or an official membership roster. The Black Manosphere is as diverse as the religious and political world.

It is composed of loose networks of men of different religions: professing Christian (Protestant, Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Reformed, Calvinist, Arminian, Apostolic Oneness, Charismatic Pentecostal, Word-Faith, non-denominational, etc.), Seventh-Day Adventist, Jehovah’s Witness, Hebrew Roots, Black Hebrew Israelite, Islamic, the Nation of Islam, the Nuwaubian Nation, the Nation of Gods and Earths (aka The Five Percenters), New Agers, Satanists, and practitioners of African spirituality. It’s also composed of Black men who aren’t religious at all (atheists and agnostics).

The Black Manosphere isn’t confined to the United States. The tentacles of its influence stretch as far as the United Kingdom, Canada, South America, the West Indies, and Africa. It has a seductive appeal to Black men of different ages (teenagers to senior citizens) and Black men with different political views along the right-wing spectrum (independent, libertarian, Republican, hard-right, etc.).

The Core Beliefs of the Manosphere

Let’s examine the core beliefs, common interests and goals, similar behaviors, and obsessive fixations that characterize the Black Manosphere and unite such a diverse group of Black men all over the world.

A Belief in Patriarchy

One of the most prominent characteristics of the Black Manosphere is a belief in patriarchy. Patriarchy is an ideology and social system of male rule and male dominance over women and girls.

In patriarchy, males are exalted to the place of God as superior to females and women are subjugated beneath men. Supporters of patriarchy believe that men have a Divine right or natural right to control every facet of female existence. 

In patriarchy, both women and men are expected to conform to sexist gender roles, and women, in particular, are expected to be servants of men.

A Belief that Western Civilization has been Corrupted by Feminism

Another prominent characteristic of the Black Manosphere is a core belief that Western civilization, the United States, and the Black American collective are dysfunctional, regressing, in a state of decline, and practically collapsed or destroyed beyond remedy.

In the Black Manosphere, the cause of this decline is attributed to a shift away from patriarchy and the world becoming increasingly feminist, gynocentric (woman-centered), and matriarchal.

In the Black Manosphere, there is a pervasive belief that life was better and that gender relations between Black women and Black men were more harmonious before second wave liberal feminism.

Practically every endeavor of women’s suffrage and modern feminism (e.g., women receiving the right to vote, the right to own property, the right to open a bank account on their own, domestic violence laws, rape laws, child support and alimony laws, sexual harassment laws, the sexual revolution, abortion, reproductive rights, birth control, the #MeToo movement, etc.) are all lumped together as overthrowing traditional gender roles, destroying gender relations between women and men, anti-male, and undermining traditional marriage and the family unit.

Black Manosphere followers make no distinction between the harmful impact and the positive impact of feminist movements. There is no honest historical discussion of the oppressive conditions that made feminism necessary for women and girls all over the world. There is no attempt to put feminist movements in historical context. There is no honest acknowledgment of how humanity has benefited from many feminist efforts. Instead, there’s a lot of “Black-and-white” thinking that all feminism is bad, evil, anti-male, misandrist, destroying society, and oppressive of males.

Whether we are talking about divorce rates, declining marriage rates, out-of-wedlock birth rates, the percentage of single mother-headed households, failing public schools, high illiteracy rates, crime rates in the Black American collective, impoverished Black neighborhoods, the mass incarceration rate of Black men, STD rates, or troubled Black youth…the Black Manosphere manages to pin all of this on feminism, American women collectively, Black American women specifically (primarily single Black mothers, Black feminists, and now, single never-married child-free Black women), and “weak” men (whom they refer to as emasculated men, manginas, beta males, soy boys, “blue-pilled” men, simps, and cucks).

A Belief that Western Civilization is Gynocentric and Matriarchal

According to Black Manosphere ideology–Western Civilization, the United States, and the Black American collective are all gynocentric and matriarchal. It is further claimed that every aspect of modern society (the family court system, the educational system, the mainstream media, corporate America, the American church, and the government sector) is biased in favor of women, biased against men, and oppressive of men and boys.

A Belief that Black Women Have Betrayed Black Men

The Black Manosphere is full of revisionist history and false narratives that serve to prop up its racist-misogynistic ideology. One such false narrative is that Black women have betrayed Black men by putting Black fathers out of the home in exchange for government assistance and by joining the second-wave liberal feminist movement in collusion with White supremacy.

This alleged betrayal supposedly caused the decline of Black traditional marriages and Black nuclear families, the deterioration of Black neighborhoods, the emasculation and oppression of Black men, the masculinization of Black women and Black girls, and the reversal of traditional gender roles.

A Belief that Black American Women are Inferior

One of the most sacred tenets of the Black Manosphere is their belief that Black American women are inferior–inferior to all men, non-Black women, and foreign women.

A great deal of Black Manosphere content promotes the message that Black American women are less attractive than other women (physically, and in just about every way), less desirable than other women, less suitable for marriage than other women, less “feminine” and “submissive” than other women, less nurturing, and make the worst mothers.

There are entire Black Manosphere platforms that are devoted to re-posting negative news stories and footage of Black American women and girls to support their belief that Black American women are inferior and serve to reinforce negative racist-sexist stereotypes that Black American women are unfeminine, masculine or manly, hard, aggressive, combative, loudmouthed, ghetto, promiscuous, and insubmissive. Popular Black Manosphere influencer Tommy Sotomayor, for example, is notorious for re-posting footage of Black American women and girls in “hood fights” or engaging in other inappropriate behavior.

In this same vein, Black Manosphere influencers create content pedestalizing non-Black women and foreign women as more sweet, soft, friendly, feminine, cooperative, submissive, nurturing, better mothers, more suitable as wives, and more physically attractive than Black American women.

Not only are Black American men aggressively discouraged from dating and marrying Black American women, but they’re also cautioned not to date or marry mixed women with Black mothers because Black mothers, in their opinion, are inferior to White mothers and pass down undesirable traits to their children.

A Belief that Men are the True Victims and an Oppressed Class

Unsubstantiated conspiracy theories abound in the Black Manosphere. One such conspiracy theory is that men are the true victims and an oppressed class (oppressed by feminism, feminists, and Western women, who are all carrying out an anti-male, anti-family agenda for powerful globalist elites, such as George Soros). Black Manosphere followers claim that Black “Marxist-minded”/feminist women are colluding with White supremacists to “keep the Black man down” and “drive a wedge of division between Black men and Black women.”

Any accomplishments, strides, or positive progress that Black women make are considered a “White supremacist conspiracy against the Black man,” evil, immoral, anti-male, oppressive of Black men, undermining or emasculating Black men, reversing traditional gender roles, gynocentric, or evidence that we are living in a matriarchy.

The Black American collective is referred to as a “matriarchy” in which Black women are dominant over Black men and wield an excessive amount of power, resources, and control over Black men. The political left allegedly assists Black women in maintaining their dominance over Black men and upholding a gynocentric Black matriarchy, because it benefits their White supremacist/Marxist/globalist political agenda.

If Black men are the true victims and an oppressed class, then it logically follows that women in general and Black women specifically are merely “playing the victim” and “falsely accusing men” when they disclose intimate partner violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, street harassment, sexist discrimination, and sexist oppression. Black Manosphere content often minimizes or completely denies the existence of male-to-female intimate partner violence, rape culture, sexual harassment, sexist discrimination, and sexist oppression of women and girls.

For example, deceased Black Manosphere influencer Kevin Samuels went so far as to say that he doesn’t believe that Black women get abused because he doesn’t know any Black women who are victims of intimate partner violence. He claimed that he only knows men who were abused by women.

This type of gaslighting and denial of Black women’s humanity, well-documented suffering at the hands of Black men, and history of female oppression originates with a racist-misogynistic stereotype dating all the way back to U.S. chattel slavery.

This stereotype promoted a dangerous dehumanizing message that Black women are so masculine, so unfeminine, so aggressive, and sexually available that it is practically impossible to abuse them or sexually violate them, because they invite their own mistreatment by being masculine and hyper-sexual. Therefore, Black men are justified in using violence to subjugate them and keep them under control.

It is common to hear Black Manosphere influencers and followers say that Black men must use violence to “keep Black women in check” because they are manly, unfeminine, hard-headed, insubmissive, aggressive, and combative.

A Belief in Restoring Traditional Manhood/Masculinity and Womanhood/Femininity

According to Black Manosphere ideology, modern men have been weakened, emasculated, and feminized by feminism and single mothers. Feminism has allegedly demonized true masculinity as “toxic masculinity” and socializes boys and men to repress their natural masculine inclinations (i.e., leading, protecting, providing, being tough, strong, logical, assertive, powerful, and dominant). It is claimed that feminism encourages and socializes males to be feminine, soft, passive, docile, wimpy, emotional, sensitive, submissive to women, beta males, simps, manginas, and cucks.

The proposed solution is for men to “take the red pill” and wake up to the “reality” that they are emasculated, repressed, and oppressed, and take their power back, recover their traditional gender role as macho masculine men, and reclaim their rightful place in the home and society as superior to women and “alpha males.” Some Black Manosphere influencers make a pretty penny publishing books, teaching courses, doing live streams, one-on-one mentoring and coaching, and posting videos teaching other Black men how to recover their manhood/masculinity and become “alpha males.”

According to Black Manosphere ideology, modern women have been masculinized, empowered over men, and lured by feminism away from their traditional gender role as feminine, submissive, stay-at-home wives and mothers whose sole focus is child-rearing, catering to their husbands, and the domestic arts.

Modern women are allegedly “trying to wear the pants,” “be manly,” and “do everything that men can do” by working outside of the home (in exchange for financial compensation), pursuing a formal education and professional training, having a career, launching businesses, owning their own homes, putting off marriage and motherhood, having their own money, and being “too independent.”

American women are referred to as damaged beyond repair, destroyed, ruined, and corrupted by feminism. Their only hope and redemption is seeking personal reform by denouncing their feminist ways, conforming to traditional patriarchal gender roles for women, recovering their femininity, and learning how to be sweet, soft, friendly, cooperative, and submissive to men.

Black women who internalize the false narratives of the Black Manosphere perpetuate this belief on social media, publicly denounce feminism, and have platforms centered around harshly criticizing Black women, teaching “femininity” courses, and uplifting Black men and patriarchy.

A Belief that Feminism and Black Women are the Enemies

According to Black Manosphere ideology, the most destructive forces in the Black American collective are feminism, Black women (especially Black feminists, single Black women, and single Black mothers), and the Progressive Left.

Black Manosphere followers blame all of the adverse outcomes of Black children, Black men, Black marriages, and Black Americans collectively, on Black women and feminism. Black women are considered the archenemies of Black men and the cause of all of Black men’s problems, which explains why Black Manosphere followers spend a lot of their time online targeting, attacking, and fighting Black women.

A Belief that Men Need to be “Red-pilled”

In the 1999 Sci-Fi flick “The Matrix,” Morpheus offered Neo the choice between taking the blue pill and going back to sleep and returning to his boring life as usual in the Matrix, or taking the red pill and waking up to reality and being set free from the illusions of the Matrix.

The reference to the blue pill and the red pill found their way into the original Manosphere and the Black Manosphere, with the blue pill meaning a man who is asleep to “the truth,” emasculated, and under the power and control of women and feminism…and the red pill meaning a man who has awakened to the “truth” that men are an oppressed victim class living in a gynocentric, feminist, matriarchal society that is biased against men.

More Disturbing Themes in the Black Manosphere

Aside from these core beliefs, other disturbing themes run throughout the Black Manosphere.

The Promotion of Sex Tourism and Human Trafficking

Earlier, I stated that the Black Manosphere is a gateway to sexual perversion. How does this happen? Young Black men come across content from the Black Manosphere, such as a YouTube video of Kevin Samuels or Alpha Male Strategies giving ‘relationship advice.’ Once they fall down this dark rabbit hole, one video tends to lead to another. Next thing you know, they are listening to a video or podcast telling them that Black American women are so horrible and irredeemable that they need to go overseas to a developing country that is a sex tourism (human trafficking) hotspot and find a feminine, submissive woman who still respects men.

In many instances, young Black men are following this advice and traveling overseas not to find a wife but to participate in sexual debauchery and human trafficking with economically oppressed women, which is sex slavery. Based on the photos and videos of their travels, they are traveling to developing countries to take advantage of women with less economic opportunities, less socioeconomic mobility, less human rights, less advocacy, and fewer legal protections than American women. This is a predatory practice, exploitation, sexist oppression, and sexual perversion.

It’s not unusual to see men from the Manosphere in the comments section beneath YouTube videos of Christian ministries, non-profit organizations, and radical feminists who are against human trafficking and the legalization of prostitution, arguing in defense of legalizing prostitution. Some men in the Manosphere argue that prostitution should be nationally legalized at the federal level because sexual access to women (commodifying women’s bodies) can be used to “prevent mass shootings.”

The twisted reasoning behind this is that if men (particularly incels, who have been linked to mass shootings) have sexual access to women, they won’t get angry over female rejection and unleash their rage by murdering innocent people. They believe that prostitution prevents male violence, which is a total lie. It never has and never will. Prostitution is a form of male violence and reinforces men using the unequal power dynamic between women and men to commodify and exploit women’s bodies for selfish gratification. Feeding a man’s lusts leads to more violence, not less.

The Obsession with Sexual Access to Women

A large bulk of Black Manosphere content is about how to gain sexual access to women, how to attract women (for sex), how to emotionally manipulate women (for sex), and how to psychologically control and dominate women (for sex).

In the Manosphere, Pick-Up Artists (who are narcissists and sociopaths) teach Black men how to project a false persona and run game on women. However, the obsession with sexual access to women isn’t exclusive to Pick-Up Artist content. It is so widespread that you can find this kind of content on just about any Black Manosphere platform.

One thing is very clear from Black Manosphere content: Black men in the Black Manosphere think that they are entitled to sexual access to women (including Black American women, whom they claim are unattractive and undesirable).

They measure themselves against men that they think are worse than them (“thugs”) to deem themselves “good men,” “nice guys,” or “high-value men,” then falsely claim that (Black) women “only want thugs” because they got rejected.

They view dating and marriage as tools to gain sexual access to women, and they resent that women can reject their sexual advances and don’t have to date or marry them out of economic necessity.

The Obsession with Dystopian Scenarios

One of the weirdest twisted themes that I came across in the Black Manosphere was their sick wishful anticipation of a social meltdown in the United States so that “men could be in power over women again” and freely rape women and underage girls. The obsession with sexual access to women and girls is directly related to their obsessive fixation with dystopian scenarios, which some Black men hope places women at the mercy of men.

In the minds of some Black Manosphere followers, a social meltdown would lead to a breakdown in law and order, and women (especially Black women) would resort to selling their bodies in exchange for basic needs (food, shelter, water, medical supplies, and male protection from gangs and violence). They are actually hoping for more human trafficking.

Some Black Manosphere followers would gleefully talk about a social meltdown so that they could seek revenge upon Black women and finally make them “submit” to men in a dystopian patriarchy.

Black Hebrew Israelite men in the Black Manosphere openly stand on street corners spewing their hateful, violent desire to sexually assault Black women, Black girls, and White women (to force them into submission and to seek revenge upon the “Edomite/White man”) in the event of a social collapse in the United States.

The Promotion of Intimate Partner Violence and Black Femicide

More than a few Black Manosphere influencers have had restraining orders placed against them for intimate partner violence and family violence, or they were convicted in a court of law for battery, assault, child sexual assault, robbery, and other violent crimes. So, we should find it as no surprise that they teach their predominantly Black male audiences to engage in behaviors that are abusive, violent, and criminal.

One particular Black Manosphere influencer encourages his followers to threaten, intimidate, and, if necessary, murder the mothers of their children as a means of avoiding what he calls “forced fatherhood” and paying child support to a “baby mama terrorist.”

Black Manosphere followers on social media can be found posting the hashtags #BabyMamaTerrorist and #ForcedFatherhood. These depraved men view unwanted children and child support payments as a form of anti-male oppression and female terrorism against men.

Their proposed solution is for men to murder the mothers of their children to “free” themselves from “tyranny.” They idolize abusive Black men such as OJ Simpson and Rae Carruth and celebrated Carruth’s release from prison with the hashtag #WelcomeHomeRae.

On a regular basis, abusive, misogynistic Black men are murdering pregnant Black women and pregnant Black teenage girls to end a pregnancy or avoid paying child support. At a time when Black women are most vulnerable and should be honored for bringing forth new life, it can be the most dangerous and stressful time if their child’s father is abusive and under the influence of racist-misogynistic rhetoric from the Black Manosphere.

The Black Manosphere is a Twilight Zone of moral schizophrenia where men who claim to be “pro-life” will create and share content justifying violence against Black women and girls for having unwanted children, for seeking financial support from the fathers of their children, and for leaving the relationship. 

In the Black Manosphere, Black women are referred to by dehumanizing racist-misogynistic slurs such as “she-boons,” “hair-hatted hooligans,” “Jezzies (short for “Jezebel”), “Black beasties,” “ghetto gaggers,” “scraggle daggles,” “bed wenches,” and “baby mama terrorists.”

The purpose of these slurs is to portray Black women as subhuman, less womanly than other women, feral animals, undeserving of protection, needing to be controlled or “put in check,” and deserving of violence, aggression, and extermination.

Black women with internalized misogyny who follow Black Manosphere ideology would agree with all of these dehumanizing slurs, apply these slurs to Black women, condone male violence and abuse towards Black women, and encourage Black women to submit to abusive behavior as “tough love” “discipline” “order” “correction” and “strong masculine leadership.”

The Obsession Fixation with Black Women’s Hair and Beauty Regimens

Have you ever seen Black men and women on social media sharing memes, videos, and posts about Black women wearing weave, makeup, fake eyelashes, fake fingernails, colored hair extensions, perming their hair, getting plastic surgery, or telling them to wear their hair natural? If so, chances are that they were sharing content from the Black Manosphere.

Many Black Manosphere influencers and followers have a strange obsession with Black women’s hair and what we do to make ourselves feel beautiful, be it shaving our head, wearing a teeny weeny afro, dreadlocks, twenty-inch hair, lace front wigs, hair extensions, perming our hair, wearing our natural hair texture, dying our hair blonde/blue/or purple, getting our nails done, wearing fake eyelashes, colored contact lenses, wearing a full face of makeup, getting a tummy tuck, breast augmentation, or a Brazilian butt lift.

No matter how a Black woman chooses to enhance her beauty there are Black men in the Black Manosphere who will tell her that she is unattractive, unfeminine, self-hating, materialistic, too high maintenance, trying to “look White,” too dark, nappy-headed, masculine-looking, that she should wear her hair natural or wear her hair silky and straight, that she’s wearing too much (or too little) makeup, etc. The goalposts of “desirability” are constantly being moved.

The contradiction is that when non-Black women engage in the very same beauty practices as Black women, they are praised by Black men in the Black Manosphere as beautiful, feminine, sexy, and exotic. So it appears that the Black Manosphere has a double standard for Black women and non-Black women. It’s okay if non-Black women wear weave, makeup, fake eyelashes, and get plastic surgery, but when Black women do so, it’s unattractive, unnatural, unfeminine, and low class…because they’re Black.

A false diagnosis leads to a false cure.

Considering that the false diagnosis of the Black Manosphere is that the decline of the West and the Black American collective was caused by society drifting away from patriarchy, it logically follows that the false cure (according to the Black manosphere) is for both women and men to “discard feminism, gynocentrism, and matriarchy,” and return to the patriarchal order (male-rule and patriarchal gender roles) so that Black women, Black men, the family unit, and the Black American collective can be restored back to its former “glory.”

As you can see, the Black Manosphere is basically a male supremacist religion. It has its high priests, its own revisionist history, its tenets or beliefs, and a common agenda (restoring “aggressive patriarchy,” as they call it, and overturning all feminist progress and women’s rights so that men can be totally dominant over women once again and have women at their mercy for our survival).

In conclusion, understanding the Manosphere requires a nuanced approach that recognizes both the legitimate concerns about men’s issues and the potential for harmful ideologies to flourish within these communities.

By critically examining the false narratives and beliefs propagated by the Manosphere, we can foster more informed and balanced discussions about gender dynamics, relationships, and societal norms.

It is essential to approach this topic with an open mind and a critical eye, ensuring that we promote healthy, respectful interactions between women and men. Stay tuned to our blog for further insights and in-depth analyses on the complex world of the Manosphere.