Cool Pose

The Black male has been faced with many challenges since his arrival in America. Currently the Black community is in crisis due to poverty, poor education, high unemployment, and increasing morbidity rates. For example, in comparison to their White counterparts, Black males are 6 times more likely to die through violence. Among Black males ages 15 to 24 years old, homicide is the number one cause of death. The legacies of slavery, oppression, and discrimination have forced the Black male to adapt and reinvent himself, and the result has been the cool pose. The cool pose is the creation of an alternate persona that shields Black males against the constant barrage of racial discrimination in American society. On the one hand, it raises self-esteem, and, on the other, it further marginalizes him and may even reinforce negative stereotypes because it is outside the norm and is viewed as unacceptable.

The concept of the cool pose originated with the Harvard University Pathways to Identity Project during the 1960s and 1970s. Using the project data, one of the participants, Janet Mancini Billson, wrote an article in 1981 about how Black males in the inner city cope with everyday struggles. A decade later, her coauthor Richard Majors wrote a book chapter on the cool pose as it relates to Black males in sports. Their collaboration, titled Cool Pose: The Dilemmas of Black Manhood in America, provides an overall framework for the cool pose, its development, what it means, and its consequences.

Through a history of oppression of Blacks by Whites, Black males have been left powerless due to their lack of success in the familial, social, and financial realms. There is a huge gap between the desired status of the American dream and the means to achieve that station in life. The cool pose is a rejection of the definitions imposed upon the Black man by White dominant culture. It is the creation of a new identity. Further, it is the Black males' play on masculinity. This identity was formed out of a sense of survival and is the Black male presentation of self to greater society.

The cool pose is Black masculinity personified and involves role playing based on urban conventions of dress, speech, and behavior. Actors control interactions with an air that observers may view as arrogance but is grounded in honor and dignity. It embraces elements of the prison subculture, wearing pants low on the waist, poorly groomed hairstyles, and misogynistic comments. This stance is more prevalent among disadvantaged males and is a cultural, physical, and social detachment from everyday negative life. The cool pose, however, is an external projection and belies the internal pain and struggle of the actor.

The cool pose has its roots in West African culture, which is very expressive and emphasizes spirituality and strength. While the use of masks is prevalent among West African tribes, Black males create a symbolic mask through facial expressions and the overall image they portray. Outward symbols of expression are extremely important. Therefore, having the most stylish and expensive clothes, jewelry, cars, and hairstyles is very important. Verbalizations and body language also follow a script that epitomizes coolness, such as the way Black males greet one another with a hand clap, hand shake, and fast embrace. Cool pose is a response to the stress they face in society to mask their true inner feelings.

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