By Aaron Fountain
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Anti-Defamation League have both documented the inextricable link between misogyny and white supremacy. Labeling it as a “male supremacy†movement, the SPLC defines this as the ideology that “all women as genetically inferior, manipulative and stupid and reduces them to their reproductive or sexual function.†The movement is linked to the “manosphere,†an informal online network of websites, blogs, forums, podcasts, and social media personalities all united by anti-feminism.
Given the overt racism within this community, both reports overlooked the presence of men of color in this subculture, and focused strictly on white men.
But non-white men have always existed in the manosphere. Black, Asian, and Latino male supremacists—whether they have identified as incels, MGTOW (men going their own way), men’s rights activists, or pick-up artists—have all addressed problems they faced from women of their own racial or ethnic group. To keep ignoring them neglects the many women of color who are subjected to these men’s violence even more so than their white counterparts.
As a gateway drug to white supremacist movements, the presence of non-white men in these online communities might come across as puzzling, but they’re not an anomaly. Rather, they have contributed to expanding online radicalization to communities of color that hate-tracking groups and journalists have yet to investigate.
Despite the fact that the manosphere is a majority white space, it has had a diverse following in its online presence since at least the late 2000s. Men’s concerns differed by racial and ethnic background, but everyone agreed that feminism was the problem in their romantic lives. However, internal divisions flourished as white men routinely expressed racist attitudes towards men of color, particularly to Black men. “The white guys figured that the black guys could still smash their girl,†recalled YouTuber LARmovement about the racial rifts. The hostility led some Black men to form a quasi-separate group called the Black Manosphere. It shares the same red pill ideology—a worldview that believes men are oppressed by women—but is geared exclusively towards Black men.
Outside of uplifting articles about self-improvement on sites such as negromanosphere.com, blackavenger.tv, and onyxtruth.com, much of the Black Manosphere’s content deals with Black women and dating. The subculture believes that Black women’s behavior alone has inflicted harm upon Black culture. Such critiques of course turns to politics and other misogynoiristic fringe ideas. In various video recordings, these men such as Oshay Duke Jackson and Donovan Sharpe have attacked Democratic candidate Kamala Harris for having a white husband, and even argued that college degrees are worthless because Black women make up a disproportionate number of enrollment numbers.
In articles for negromanosphere.com, Sharpe claimed that street harassment is a non-issue for Black women because they’re at the “bottom of the sexual food chain.†Jackson, while asking Black women to stop messing with “thugs,†proclaimed, “It is no fucking secret that Black women are incoherent, lost, repetitively stupid, and extremely vulnerable.†He also claimed that “Most (Black women) have been raised by an [sic] dysfunctional prescription drug addicted mother who behaves vehemently towards Black men.†Despite such a violent statement, these men—Jackson and Sharpe—are not under the radar of hate-tracking groups.
Having an online community makes Black men the most organized racial group outside of the majority white manosphere, but other marginalized groups of men have a presence as well.
Latinos in the Manosphere are scattered. Sites that are dedicated to them have barely launched. Instead, they’re found among forms and a few Youtube channels. One prominent person is HeedandSucceed, a Mexican American from Riverside, California, who has published hundreds of videos about his romantic difficulties. On forums, men discuss their belief that machismo is under attack and must be defended.
South Asian men have created the Indian Manosphere. Outside of India, it largely consists of first- and second-generation immigrants residing in North America and Europe. Without trying to challenge the respective cultural aesthetics, these men express feelings of unattractiveness in majority white societies. Notably, those who identify as incel refer to themselves as “currycels,†essentially blaming their cultural heritage for their inability to attract women.
Other Asian men in the manosphere routinely demonize Asian women for dating interracially. Writer Celeste Ng spoke to numerous Asian women who shared derogatory messages they received from men harassing them for being with non-Asian men. On Reddit forums and YouTube channels, these men charge women for white worshiping and possessing self-hate, as well as declaring that their children will hate the Asian half of themselves. Compilation videos meant to shame “WMAF†(white men, Asian female) couples are prevalent, but never when the genders are switched. “When I see these couples in public,†began YouTuber Ricepill, a self-described 31-year-old Asian incel, “I get very insecure about myself.â€
There are also hapas, which refers to biracial Asian men. They scoff at their white parent for not having children with another white person. Believing that if they were fully white, women would view them as attractive and their dating prospects would improve. As much as non-white men in the manosphere attack non-white women their relationships with white men, they still fully uphold notions of white supremacy.
Of course, there are others who challenge this defeatist attitude. They tell these men to reclaim their masculinity and seek to reveal the “true nature†of Indian women to dispel conservative notions of sexuality. “A strong belief that Indian girls don’t ride the cock carousel is blind faith because they do,†claimed London-based blogger Bojangles. The “cock carousel†refers to the misogynistic idea that women remain promiscuous in their twenties before they look to settle down in their thirties as their looks fade.
Despite racism having an omnipotent presence throughout the manosphere, many men of color use right-wing talking points and possess a strict adherence to individualism when discussing race. Although they largely agree that racism exists, they think its implications have been overblown even while associating with white racists and anti-Semitic individuals.
Black men in the manosphere blame Black culture on Black people’s inability to get ahead and ridicule “pro-Blacks†for being race hustlers. Social media personality and Indian-American Avishek Saha, who on Youtube goes by YogiOabs, believes that racism will go away if no one talks about it. In communicating with their followers, they encourage them not to blame race for life’s difficulties.
If most male supremacists are concerned about the declining status of white men, men of color want to establish a dominance that society never bequeathed to them. Giving the weight of history, these groups have long struggled to assert their masculinity in a society that has denied them access to white supremacist concepts of manhood through racial terrorism and stereotypes.
In an attempt to claim this manhood for themselves, these men seek various solutions: establishing dominance in a relationship, getting validation from white women or from women in a foreign country, or doing away with women romantically and working on themselves. Even if they have not called for physical violence against the women in their culture, the psychological violence and placing sexual conquest as a defining feature of their identity can negatively affect both the men and women around them.
At least two men have committed acts of physical violence that received national media coverage. Upset about his virginity and lacking a partner, Christopher Harper-Mencer murdered nine people at Umpqua Community College in Oregon in 2015. The biracial shooter left behind a manifeso where he expressed his hatred for Black men, writing “girls just didn’t want me. As I said before they went for the thug blacks.â€Â Anthony Powell uploaded videos onto Youtube where he ranted against Black women. In 2009, he murdered YouTuber Asia McGowan at a community college in Detroit after stalking her on social media.
 Many men are drawn to these communities because of their frustrations with a common human experience. But uninterrupted indoctrination about the alpha/beta male binary, “sexual market value,†“select and non-select men,†and other simplistic notions can make some individuals feel defeated and gradually come to embrace more pernicious ideas.
Frustrations with gender roles are facts of life. But the Internet has allowed these misogynist communities to spread rapidly into more dangerous territory. By only focusing on white men, hate-tracking groups and journalists show their neglect of the online radicalization occurring among men of color and the very real possibility of violence against women.Â
Suggested Readings:
Celeste Ng, “When Asian Women are Harassed for Marrying non-Asian Men“, The Cut, 2018
Aaron Fountain, “It’s not just white incels. We need to talk about the Black Manosphere, too“, Black Youth Project, 2018
All Things Considered, “Troll Watch: Online Harassment Toward Women“, NPR 2019
Aaron G. Fountain Jr. is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. His writings have appeared in Al Jazeera America, Latino Rebels, The Hill, Black Perspectives, Occupy, and the Black Youth Project. He tweets from https://twitter.com/aaronfountainjr
