Why The Hood Bangs With Naruto

In high school, my friends and I started replacing the word n***a with ninja. I’m not sure why. We didn’t really care about the social-political reasons one might stop saying the N-word and we didn’t always exist in spaces where the word was not accessible or granted to us, so maybe it was cause NINJAS ARE THE SHIT AND YOU AINT A REAL N____ IF YOU DON’T WANNA BE A REAL NINJA.

Let me backtrack. Maybe we didn’t want to be ninjas. I couldn’t. I have a bad back and flat feet. I get winded when I think too hard, so being a ninja is probably not in the realm of what I physically can do. But the heart of the ninja, the Will of Fire, the desire to protect what must be protected in the ways in which Naruto Uzumaki does is so resonant with how we perform black masculinity its ridiculous. (If you don’t know who Naruto Uzumaki is 1. Get your life together you joyless ingrate and 2. Go google my national hero if you wanna follow along. Naruto, in his essence, is a Black man in America. Check some basic stats: -He is dedicated to succeeding in and protecting a homeland that fears him and pushes him to the margins. -Because of situations beyond his control that have been true since his birth, he is regarded as a monster in the eyes of his people and must constantly prove otherwise. -He is willing to die for the sake of people that would otherwise like to see him gone. Sound familiar? What makes Naruto’s position as a shinobi near the start of the series any different than that of a Black m…