Reading Racial Fetischism

It would be an understatement to say that I am not a fan of Mapplethorpe's The Black Book. Since the days of slavery black men have been characterized as hyper sexual beings. Male slaves were often describe as well endowed, perpetrators who were prone to violence. Although The Black Book was supposed to portray black men as they were in present times, it really felt like less about the men in the photographs & more about what (white) society thinks of black. The subjects of the photographs were basically reduced to their penises, which is often the punching of stereotypical jokes about black men. "Each image thus nourishes the racialized and sexualized fantasy of appropriating the Other's body to be penetrated & possessed by an all powerful desire,"to probe & explore an alien body." This quote in particular captures the exact feeling I have about Mapplethorpe's intentions with these photographs. To put it frankly they're very "hey look! A black guy naked! Look at his genitals!!!" rather than a portrait about strength, or courage or anything positive about the Other. It's almost like some kind of educational program for white people on black male sexuality or what they perceive as black male sexuality. The photographs seem to be tryin to humanize people who are already human. As referenced in this passage, the black male is almost envied by only in body. Their physical strength, characteristics etc. are the object of envy for white males but that's is all. Black men have been reduced to the physical, like women in the staggering amount of nude photos taken of them for the male gaze. Mapplethorpe's photographs also have a scientific documentary feel in some of them, the way they seem to focus on the skull as if it were being measured. Doctors and scientists would use supposed science and psychology to prove that black people are physically and mentally inferior to white people. As noted in the passage, there is also a photograph, Roedel Middleton, that can be likened to a mugshot. Black men are often the victims of racial profiling and also receive harsher sentences compared to their white counterparts. Although Mapplethorpe's photographs of black men have been hailed as some as a representation of black males of the present time, I find it to be another white representation of black culture.