For some the hoodie is just comfortable sports apparel – something easy to just fling on for a trip to the gym or that bop to the shop. But in recent years, the hoodie has become a symbol of violence; something to be feared. And if you are a black man wearing it, there’s nothing easy or comfortable about its connotations. In the last decade hoodies have been banned from shopping centres and more recently from several schools in England and Wales. Across the Atlantic, the Million Hoodie March was prompted by the unlawful death of an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, who was profiled as a perpetrator because of who he was and what he was wearing.
Fed up with the negative portrayal of black men, South-East Londoner Cephas Williams has created an arresting visual campaign entitled 56 Black Men. It features 56 portraits of notably successful black men from a range of professions (finance, arts, law and more), each of them wearing a hoodie. The photos are captioned with their name and their occupation, e.g. David Lammy MP.
At a live event to promote the campaign, Cephas Williams pointed out the significance of the number 56: “it’s taken from a Sky report that was published last year detailing the number of black people that were murdered.”
In just a year the 56 Black Men campaign has been featured on 56 billboards around the country. It made the headlines in national newspapers and companies such as @ClearChannelUK have purchased the portraits to display in their offices throughout Black History Month. ClearChannelUK has since partnered with @McSaatchiLondon to house the 56 Black Men exhibition.
Michelle Harris speaks to Cephas Williams, founder of 56 BlackMen
I asked Cephas what he planned to do next. “We’re thinking about a part 2,” he explained, “spotlighting another 56 successful black men.
“I want to create the change we all want to see and the revenue stream for sustainable change to exist. But this is not just about being seen, it’s about changing the narrative, and the principle is to have black men leading the conversations.”
As the brand grows Williams hopes “the campaign will give birth to a platform which will help black women as well as men, on a primary, secondary and tertiary level.
“Our information informs our understanding, our understanding informs our beliefs and our beliefs inform our actions, so for me its about how we diversify that information at every level, and that’s why we need platforms like this otherwise nothing ever changes.”
The 56 Black Men Live event featured many of the men behind the campaign, including @James Chuka who shared his story about how he survived cancer at a young age. There were many talented spoken words artists in the room. @SickleKan spoke about living with Sickle Cell disease.
Not all superheroes wear capes, some wear hoodies too.
