Barack Obama just told the world that boys need gay men in their lives. As you can probably imagine, his mentions are in shambles…and some of the loudest voices are Black men.
On July 16, the former president gave his explosive take alongside his wife of 33 years, Michelle Obama, during an episode of “IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson.” But it wasn’t the family banter that had people talking — it was what he claimed might elevate young boys to be better men.
“That’s one of the things that I think — a lot of the time — boys need. Not just exposure to one dad — no matter how good the dad is — he can’t be everything. That boy may need somebody to give the boy some perspective on the dad,” Obama, 63, began. “One of the most valuable things I’ve learned, as a [random pause] guy, was I had a gay professor in college — at a time when openly gay folks still were not allowed — who became one of my favorite professors, and was a great guy and would call me out when I started saying stuff that was ignorant.”
He continued: “You need that! To show empathy and kindness. And BTW, you need that person in your friend group so that if you then have a boy whose gay, or non-binary, or what have you…they have somebody that they can go, ‘Okay, I’m not alone in this.’”
While some saw the statement as inclusive and forward-thinking, others are calling it a straight-up slap in the face to Black masculinity and fatherhood. Many questioned why Obama chose to elevate queer mentorship as some sort of correction to Black fatherhood. Needless to say, Black men sounded off, unapologetically.
One TikTok user, Dr. Cassius V. Stuart, said “Barack Hussein Obama is a disgrace to the Black race,” arguing that young boys learn empathy from their mothers, and spoke against an “agenda” he feels Obama seeks to push.
Another TikTok user, Hassan Campbell 833, gave his experience on what happened when he had a gay man in his life, and unfortunately claimed he didn’t have Obama’s positive perspective. “Keep your children away from men that don’t wanna be with women, cause chances are — they wanna be with your child,” he boldly stated.
User President Dontae called the former 44th president “Barack ‘Insane’ Obama,” calling his perspective “a slippery slope.” He emphasized the importance of “balance” in a child’s life between a mother and a father — and went so far as to suggest that Black men may have made a mistake voting for him at all. Oop!
As hard as it is to find Black men on the internet who defended Obama’s statements, user @monkavelli cut through the homophobia to explain what he actually meant: “Obama did not say ‘Your son needs a gay man.’ What he said was young boys need role models from all walks of life.”
