Odell Beckham Jr. is not gay.

 

Or maybe he is.

 

Which brings me to two points: Black men are still archaic when it comes to anything remotely outside the male-centered construction of masculinity, and we really need to grow up.

 

In the staunch and limited definition of black maleness as defined by most black men, there are only two categories in which men’s behaviors live: straight and gay. You’re either one or the other, and there is little room for debate.

 

Undefined sexuality doesn’t live in the barbershop conversation of black masculinity. So because Beckham’s antics, his shirtless dancing and hot tub shenanigans can’t be identified on the straight scale, he must be gay. Don’t believe me? His friend and former Louisiana State University teammate Kavahra Holmes, who danced with Beckham in one of his viral online posts, had to speak about his sexuality because the internet just wouldn’t chill.

 

“It’s crazy how we been brothers for so long and if anybody really knows us know anywhere we go they see us being clowns and dancing but of course it’s made as ‘we gay,’” Holmes wrote on Instagram.

 

“Strictly brotherhood and just cuz we dancing having fun don’t make us gay.. I dance with our [sic] without him and vice versa so the ‘gay’ comments really funny .. We laughing … But we gone keep dancing lol,” he continued.

When black men delve into their insecurities because of questions they have of their own sexuality, they unwittingly uphold the toxicity of white supremacy. They are reducing themselves to sex objects incapable of operating outside a tiny box of hetreonormativity, where feelings are for pussies, heckling other men is an acceptable display of maturity, coming to blows over a disagreement is par for the course, and date rape isn’t a crime.