Written by Nicole J.

I spend a lot of time online in black women circles. The topics are vast, ranging from hair and makeup to keto recipes to cleaning products to jobs, and everything in between. Another hot button topic is that of men, particularly of the chocolate variety. And all too often, there will be a thread full of women just piling on praise on men they may not even know, just for being black, and a man (and usually handsome). Take for instance T’s post yesterday, which tackled this very phenomenon.

Someone please explain this to me. What do women gain from singing the praises of black men, who, while attractive, have done nothing other than 1) be black and 2) hit the gym with semi-regular frequency? I’d wager to say 95% of the time black women are manstroking black men in comment sections and on threads, it’s not because they did something really impressive, like created a successful start-up or was the first black man to do some historical, record-breaking feat. In fact, the comment sections I saw about Roy Allela, the Kenyan mastermind behind a glove that turns sign language into audible speech, a man who invented something literally life-changing was pretty empty, when he actually did something deserving of the “black king” moniker that’s thrown around all willy nilly.

The comment sections about the likes of Kofi Siriboe and Broderick Hunter and other highly visible black men, who, while admittedly more famous, are full to the brim with black women fawning all over them. They don’t have to do much but have nice pecs and pose shirtless. Is that all it takes?

Do black women fail to realize how absolutely DESPERATE this incessant manstroking makes us ALL look on the global stage? We sycophantically praise a collective of men who almost never do the same for us. The threads, videos, and comments of black men uplifting black women in similar frequency and ferocity is SIGNIFICANTLY lower. Practically absent. This in turn makes the black male collective arrogant, since they can rely on black women to constantly uplift them without doing anything to merit it. And to top it all off, black women will be aghast when their potential beau to be offers them a Wendy’s 4 for $4 as a reasonable first date. Why wouldn’t he?

As Kendall St. Charles always asks, “Cui bono?” Who benefits from this manstroking?

What do you think?

Disclaimer: This blog was written by me, Nicole, and my ideas are not necessarily reflective of Christelyn Karazin or other writers on this platform.