Have you heard about the latest stereotype of black men? No, not that one. I’m talking about the new stereotype. The one black men can actually embrace.
That’s what Marquelle Turner, Olushola Bashorun, and Brandon Bryant set out to do when they collaborated on The New Stereotype, a creative project that promotes positive visual imagery of black men. Turner had recently come back to the states from several months of international travel when he took an interest in various social issues that were currently plaguing this country. He’d spent a semester studying abroad in Sophia Antipolis, France during grad school. “Being away for almost half a year was like a wake up call for me. I was able to see life in a way that I didn’t knew existed. It made me appreciate America a lot more, but also shined a light on its immorality-stained hands.”
As racial tensions in urban areas grew increasingly troubling, Turner knew he needed to take some sort of action but was uncertain about what form his activism would take. He decided to use something he loved and worked with every day as an assistant buyer for a luxury fashion company in downtown Manhattan—style. “Style allowed me to come out of my shell and be engaging without saying much.”
So he conceptualized a visual movement called The New Stereotype. The New Stereotype uses stylish, photographic imagery to paint “new” pictures of and highlight the positive aspects, diversity, and strength of the Black man. “Some, inside and
outside the Black community, aren’t aware of the many layers that Black people have and only view Black life through a singular lens,” explains Turner. “I’m not saying you have to wear a suit everyday, but I want people to know that Black men do wear suits and that it’s a part of who we are. It is possible that we may have on a double-breasted suit while listening to Future in our headphones. We are not one- dimensional people. The suit is only a vessel used to spread the message.”(Continued on next page)
Turner reached out to his friend and colleague Olushola “Shola” Bashorun, a photographer who understood style
and how his friend wanted to use it. Bashorun works as a sales specialist at an Hermes of Paris boutique in New York City. “I exercise my creative side with photography. I have a strong love for the art behind picture taking. There’s something special about capturing a subject’s emotions and creating memoirs that take half a second to evoke but last a lifetime. Photography is a mode of communication for me.”Turner reached out to a few other friends and colleagues to help him with his artistic activism, including Brandon Bryant who ran a startup suit shop when he was a student at Ohio State University. The shop was called Pursuit and Bryant focused on putting young professionals in their first suit. Now an investment banker in New York City, Bryant runs a menswear blog called Wallstreet-paper.com that has been featured in many notable news outlets, including GQ
, Complex, and Fader.A photo shoot took place in New York City’s financial district and went viral after being shared on Blavity.com. It received more than 100,000 shares from Blavity and more than 6,000 on Facebook.
Turner is currently in the planning stages of Part 2 of the men’s installment and has plans to create an uplifting, visual project that features women. He’d also like to produce a gentleman’s forum and plan a community service initiative.
Turner is pleased at the support and feedback his visual activism has received. “I’m excited about continuing to use a simple idea to celebrate black life and its many layers.” And we are excited to see what he creates next.