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The role of ‘cool’ in Black America
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WHAT IS COOL? Understanding Black Manhood in
America By Marlene Connor. Publication date: May
24, 1995. 224 pages, S2O. ISBN: 0-517-799650
“I grew up in Central Harlem, and attended public school
there until fourth grade, when I was recruited to attend an all
white school in Manhattan’s Upper East Side,” says Marlene
Connor, author of WHAT IS COOL? Understanding Black
Manhood in America (Crown Publishers, May 24, 1995). “It was
only a few miles from my home and former school, but exposed
me to a world completely different than the one I knew.” Most
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obvious to Connor was that the men in these two worlds were
different. It was this revelation that led her to explore the
disparities between what defines manhood in White America,
and what is required to be a man in Black America.
WHAT IS COOL? takes an in-depth look at the alternative
definition of manhood that black men have created for them
selves, one based on both a legacy of disrespect for the white
version, and blacks’ exclusion from the tools, rituals, and
support necessary to achieve traditional manhood. This con
cept of manhood works in their environment and with their
peers, and the leading indicator of it is one thing: the ability
to be cool. “This requirement is nothing so frivolous as
following fads, wearing the right fashions, or striking tough
poses,” says Connor. “Rather, cool has become so important
that black males live largely by its dictates.”
WHAT IS COOL? draws on interviews (including a lengthy
discussion with Andrew Young), history, and popular culture
to find the origins of cool and its evolution over the decades, as
the face of black America has changed with the Civil Rights
Movement. WHAT IS COOL? also analyzes cool in its various
forms, as seen in Street Cool, Revolutionary Cool, Middle
Class Cool, and Electronic Cool —the images from TV and
radio that shape our ideas daily. “Cool became a major force
in the lives of black men for all the right reasons,” says Connor.
“It was an adaptation critical to survival, and has spurred
great change on our society. But in the last decade, it seems
cool has turned cold: lack of affect now reflects lack of feeling.
The current model of cool no longer seems to serve the black
male very well.”
Besides looking at how cool is expressed, WHAT IS COOL?
also examines the role cool plays in relationships between men
and the women in their lives, and the major impact it has on
any single black mother struggling to raise a son. “I was
watching a talk show recently, and black mothers were throw
ing up their hands in frustration that all their sons wanted to
do was to be cool,” say Connor. “These mothers had tried what
they thought was everything — having a responsible man talk
to their boys, making them go to church. . . but not one of them
had stopped to ask, “Why is being cool so important? What
purpose does cool serve in their lives?” These same boys, as
adults, continue to be a source of frustration, this time to the
women who try to have relationships with them. “Black
women are exempt from the rules of cool, for various reasons,”
says Connor. “If cool is not examined, it will remain tough for
them to understand and, therefore, empathize with their
men.”
“I want WHAT IS COOL? to act as a bridge to America, to
help it to understand black men — those who seem to be just
hanging out as well as those sitting across from them in the
conference room,” says Connor. “Being cool is to be a man
among his peers. Until America becomes his peer group, until
it incorporates him into its system with the requisite support
and acceptance, cool will define his manhood.”
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