Pimparchy: A system of control that is sexually, physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and financially exploitative and damaging to women and children for personal gain or benefit. Alongside it’s parent system Patriarchy.
Term coined by Fatou Diarra; Definition by Tanisha Coleman
Pimpology And Interpersonal Relations:
Pimpology: pimpology refers to the art of understanding the female psyche to the point of being able to “pimp” them, and that the man ( or woman ) with the ability to control and manipulate a woman through her choices. When I did some research on the “pimp/ho” relationship, I started to notice similar behaviors I see in normal relationship exchanges between men and women. I spoke with several men who themselves have expressed to me that many have read articles and books were authored by self-proclaimed pimps or sex traffickers themselves. Looking at the socialization between black males and females I witness much pimp/ho behavior in ordinary men (the pimp archetype), and assimilated behavior in the women (the hoe archetype). I have traced such behavior to what is taught and instilled into black girls/women and boys/men. In this blog I will break down where I believe such behavior could possibly stem from, as well as the contribution pimp/ho culture has to conflicting relations between black men and women. Thus, creating the cultural system of pimparchy.
Pimping Black Consciousness:
When I began my journey into discovering “Who Am I?”, one of the first groups I aligned myself with were apart of the “black conscious” movement. RBG, Black Power, or Black Pride, etc… I realize they all have adopted much pimpology into their movements, spiritual teachings, and their agenda for black families. I became entangled with these groups when I first decided to leave the church. I left the church after months of being told to find a “good man” there and align myself with a faith I have lost. At that time I was also apart of many “black conscious” groups, debate forums, and discussions. Within these circles one concern that is commonly shared in these groups is the hatred towards religion, specifically Christianity. One day I sat in church, and asked myself “who did Black people pray to before slavery?”. From there I decided to leave and explore for my own. Not only that, but I began to see some of the pimpology of the black church, and didn’t know whether I was being preach to, awakened, or pimped in the game of Pimparchy. Yet, after leaving the Pimparchy of the church, I found a new one in black conscious movements.
One thing that is a common practice within black conscious movements are the debates, seminars, lectures, and classes that many groups and organizations have to offer. While many of these lectures and debates can offer a wide variety of useful knowledge, after a while you begin to realize that many of the leaders within these groups are similar to pastors in the church. Both black churches, and black conscious groups are heavily black male led, full of preaching, and often you find yourself aligning with religious/spiritual guidelines. The black conscious community is a church and in many instances a cult, depending on the direction you go towards. Where pimping comes into play in the black conscious community is when it comes to what is expected of the black male and female relationship. Many of the individuals within these circles, though they claim to be separate from indoctrinated religion, still maintain the same relationship/marriage traditions shared with religion.
When I first aligned myself with black conscious groups, one of the first things suggested to me was to watch, “Hidden Colors“, which was a documentary created by Tariq Nasheed. As a black woman who loves to learn history, I was impressed by the knowledge that himself, and many black scholars presented to black people. I first learned of Tariq Nasheed in search for black knowledge, but was later surprised by his blatant misogynistic views about black women and relationships. I soon learned that not only was he pushing (preaching) black knowledge as a scholar, but also pushing pimp/mack game to his large male following. Considering the black family is one of the major importance of black pride movements, it’s disheartening to see how we allow to pimp narratives and relationship foundations to be simultaneously pushed alongside black knowledge. Yet, a black scholar despite his contributions to the black community, can openly preach about “mack game” and pimping to his black male followers. Especially considering the damages pimping our daughters is currently causing harm and damaging black girls’ livelihood.
Despite the damaging effects of pimping, I find it interested how black male scholars such as Tariq Nasheed thinks proper dating advice for black men is in the “Art of Macking“. Even though the narrative is “can’t turn a hoe in to a housewife”, the objective to turn a pimp/mack into a husband? Or is the suggestion that Pimps and husbands are one in the same? I digress…… Despite black conscious groups making promises for the mission of creating and build strong black families, I fear we fail to pay attention to the pimping going on in the black household. When I heard a podcast of Tariq Nasheed and Pearl Jr. (a black woman), I was completely shocked by his behavior and his misogynistic views about black women in general. During the entire debate, he made many references to men leading the household, while simultaneously preaching about teaching men game to run on women. He even resorted to threatening the black woman speaker and was combative with her the entire time, calling her out of her name several times. I have encountered similar with many black “conscious” men I even debated. Despite their push for stronger black families, they can not let go of their pimp mentality. Many still cling onto the pimp mentality to date and marry women. Even exposed after Umar Johnson’s stripper scandal, it seems that black “conscious” scholars are more focused on pimping black women, than being HONORABLE examples for young black males to follow. Is the objective to groom strong black men or more pimps?
Polygamy is the New Pimp/Ho Culture
The polygamist agenda is the new pimp/ ho culture. Black culture have embraced too many toxic ideas of black relationships over a Lifetime, especially with the glorification of pimps/hos. Probably about 3% (and I’m being courteous) of today’s black men have the spiritual, mental, and economical wealth to be able to pull polygamy off without it damaging (emotionally, physically, spiritually, etc) one or more of their wives and their children. Black men are programmed with many toxic ideas about relationships with black women, and how to treat black women in general. Unless he does years of extensive mental unpacking and deep soul searching, he will more than likely continue to view black women through sexist lenses. This applies to both men and women that are programmed with black female hating narratives, however I don’t see many women asking for more the one husband. This goes back to the narrative of “Pimp/Ho” structures within Pimparchy. Only the male can be seen as logical to have multiple women in any relationship capacity or title. Even a woman with more than one man, will more than likely be continuously seen as the “hoe”, verses the “virtuous wife” she is expected to be. A man with one or more woman, can always be viewed as the “pimp” in any relationship situation. Very rarely do these narratives and roles switch between male and female. No matter the social group setting (church, black conscious groups, families) in Pimparchy (black communities).
When I see black men advocating hard for polygamy, my immediate thought is that he is trying to ruin the lives multiple black women at the same time. And repeat the cycle with replacement sister wives. The black race is still in battle to eliminate poverty from their communities, and men in poverty can not fully carry out the original traditions of polygamy. Poverty is not only threatening to the resources of a polygamist family, but poverty is also known to intersect and increase the chance of crime, and domestic violence. The objective of any healthy family would be to ensure that you can raise children in a safe environment, as well as ensure their basic needs and future security is met. Yet, I have heard many of the horror stories of many polygamist unions. Many with the agenda to “nation build”, yet the treatment of women within these unions are often abusive and traumatic. Take example a recent story of another black male who is a polygamist, Yada, and his abuse against one of his wives. I can only imagine the effects it would have on any children produced from these arrangements.
Black Consciousness Movements and Misogynoir
The black conscious groups that I have been around today are a direct extension of many issues of black male/female relations from other similar movements of black pride. After doing much research, the same issues of misogynoir and mistreatment of black women was also present in the Black Panther movement. There are known instances where hatred from black male leaders was exposed. In his Autobiography, Soul On Ice, Black Panther Party leader Eldridge Cleaver wrote about his brutal actions against black girls/women and how he used rape for power and dominance. He wrote: ”I became a rapist. To refine my technique and modus operandi, I started out by practicing on black girls in the ghetto — in the black ghetto where dark and vicious deeds appear not as aberrations or deviations from the norm, but as part of the sufficiency of the Evil of the day — and when I considered myself smooth enough, I crossed the tracks and sought out white prey. I did this consciously, deliberately, willfully, methodically — though looking back I see that I was in a frantic, wild and completely abandoned frame of mind. Rape was an insurrectionary act. It delighted me that I was defying and trampling upon the white man’s law, upon his system of values, and that I was defiling his women — and this point, I believe, was the most satisfying to me because I was very resentful over the historical fact of how the white man has used the black woman. I felt I was getting revenge.”
The open hatred and misogynoir against black women is often desensitized or minimized to far and few black men that many will not publicly name. It’s normalized within many black groups that openly expressed hatred or abuse of black women is not a concern or a priority issue to resolve. In the Black Panther Party, Elaine Brown gave more detail on the treatment of the women within the party in her novel, A Taste Of Power. She was directly confronted with sexism when “Regina Davis, who managed the Panthers’ highly praised school, ended up in the hospital. “The Brothers” had beaten Davis up and broken her jaw because she reprimanded a male colleague for not carrying out an assignment. Brown writes that when she told Huey P. Newton (Party Founder/Leader) of her anger over the attack, he refused to break solidarity with the men, challenging her to a debate in the Central Committee. Believing the other women would collapse in a direct confrontation over sexism, Brown says, she literally ran away from the fight, leaving the problem of women’s role in the party unaddressed and unresolved.” Similar to the situations I have read in previous black conscious/liberation groups, is what I have also heard of and witnessed in present day groups. Over the years, I have heard of many acts of violence taken against black women in many groups and communities.
Not only do black women have to be concerned of pimp/mack structures in certain black conscious groups, but many of these groups have issues of abuse within their members. Especially towards black women and children. It’s also very common for such issues to not be fully addressed and there is a lack of accountability against the black male offenders. Often I have heard where many black women were discouraged from going to the police to avoid, “throwing a black man in jail”. Yet the community wouldn’t directly reprimand the offenders. Where can black women find a safe space and community where she can avoid abuse, mistreatment and being pimped?
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