Men in Black

This article is about Men in Black in UFO conspiracies. For other uses, see Men in Black (disambiguation).

Men in Black (MIB), in American popular culture and in UFO conspiracy theories, are men dressed in black suits who claim to be government agents who harass or threaten UFO witnesses to keep them quiet about what they have seen. It is sometimes implied that they may be aliens themselves. The term is also frequently used to describe mysterious men working for unknown organizations, as well as to various branches of government allegedly designed to protect secrets or perform other strange activities. The term is generic, used for any unusual, threatening or strangely behaved individual whose appearance on the scene can be linked in some fashion with a UFO sighting.

Behavior

According to the accounts of those reporting encountering them, Men in Black always seem to have detailed information on the persons they contact, as if the individual had been under surveillance for a long period of time. They have been described as seeming confused by the nature of everyday items such as pens, eating utensils or food, as well as using outdated slang, though accounts on the behavior of Men in Black vary widely. Accounts indicate that they often claim to be from an agency collecting information on the unexplained phenomenon their subject has encountered. In other accounts, they seem to be trying to suppress information by, for instance, trying to convince their subject the phenomenon never existed. They have been described as behaving in either an exceedingly furtive manner or a completely outgoing one, with wide grins and disconcerting giggles. This behavior suggests that the "gigglers" were pranksters, or perhaps people just having a joke around. Conspiracies about groups of people, like MiB here, are often preyed upon to use as pranks, just like sometimes people impersonate others for either scandal or enjoyment.

Possible explanations

Folkloric explanations

Although the phenomenon was initially and most frequently reported in the 1950s and 1960s, some researchers—John Keel and others—have suggested similarities between Men in Black reports and earlier demonic accounts. Keel suggests that MiBs are a modern-day manifestation of the same phenomena that were earlier interpreted as the devil or encounters with fairies. Similarly, folklorist Peter Rojcewicz noted that many Men in Black accounts parallel tales of people encountering the devil: Neither Men in Black nor the devil are quite human, and witnesses often discover this fact midway through an encounter. The meaning of this parallel, however, has been the subject of debate. Even so, the term "the black man" was used for centuries in reference to the Devil,^{[citation needed]} up until contemporary times when "black man" was used to replace the term "Negro" and the satanic sense was lost. A telling example may be found in an 1837 report in The Morning Chronicle. A certain John Henning, charged with running away with a chest of tea, defended himself with the claim that "he was ordered to carry it by a gentleman in black" who told him to carry it to Petticoat-lane.

"The LORD MAYOR: Pray what sort of gentleman was he? - Prisoner: I can't just tell, please you, my lord; I only know he was in black. The LORD MAYOR: I am afraid it was the gentleman in black that directed you in this matter. Had he a tail? - Prisoner: A tail! A pig-tail, do you mean, please you, my lord? No, I can't say as he had. The LORD MAYOR: Did you look at his feet? What sort were they? - like a cow's [a laugh]?"

In witchcraft trials "The Black Man" was often reported as meeting with the accused and having sexual intercourse with them. In Washington Irving's story "The Devil and Tom Walker" set in 1727, Irving tells how Tom asks "the black man" who he is. The man says he goes by many names and is called the black miner sometimes or the black woodsman. He says that since the Indians are gone, he presides over the persecutions of various religious sects, supports slave-dealers and is the master of the Salem witches. Tom replies that he must be "Old Scratch", which is another name for the devil, and the black man acknowledges that he is Old Scratch. In 1932, H. P. Lovecraft also used the figure of The Black Man in his tale "The Dreams in the Witch-House" as a synonym for the Devil, but he also uses the term and description for Nyarlathotep, a malevolent entity of his own creation. In the Middle Ages The Black Man was not a man with African features, but rather a man colored black and dressed in black.

Military/CIA explanations

More prosaically, Clark cites Bill Moore, who asserts that "the Men in Black are really government agents in disguise ... members of a rather bizarre unit of Air Force Intelligence known currently as the Air Force Special Activities Center (AFSAC) ... As of 1991, the AFSAC, headquartered in Fort Belvoir, Virginia," and "under the operational authority of Air Force Intelligence Command centered at Kelly Air Force Base in Texas." (Clark, 321–22) Curiously, Moore also reports that AFSAC was inspired by the tales of Men in Black from the 1950s, and had nothing to do with those early accounts. Similarly, Clark notes that Dr. Michael D. Swords has speculated that the Barker/Bender Men in Black case (occurring shortly after the CIA-directed Robertson Panel issued its recommendations to spy on civilian UFO groups) might have been a psychological warfare experiment.

Hoax explanation

In his article, "Gray Barker: My Friend, the Myth-Maker," John C. Sherwood claims that at age 18, he cooperated when Gray Barker urged him in the late 1960s to develop a hoax — which Barker subsequently published — about what Barker called "blackmen", three mysterious UFO inhabitants who silenced Sherwood's pseudonymous identity, "Dr. Richard H. Pratt".

In popular culture

Men in Black (1997), starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as Agent K and Agent J, was based on Lowell Cunningham's comic book about a secret organization that monitors and suppresses paranormal activity on Earth - The Men in Black from Aircel Comics. The film was followed by Men in Black: The Series and its 2002 sequel Men in Black II. Men in Black 3 was released on May 25th, 2012. Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, who published the comic book, took the property to Sony to become a billion-dollar film franchise. Will Smith made a song called "Men in Black" for the movie Men in Black in 1997, and "Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head)" for its sequel in 2002.

The Adult Swim animated television series The Venture Bros. features two recurring characters, Agents John Doe and Card Holder, that exhibit most of the aforementioned stereotypical traits and behavior of Men in Black.

Between January 10 and March 27, 2012, a Japanese anime series by the title Ano Natsu de Matteru (あの夏で待ってる) "Waiting in the Summer" aired in which an extraterrestrial girl landed on earth and quickly entered into a romantic love story with a Japanese boy. In the series, the protagonists make a film featuring "Men in Black" much in the fashion of the 1997 film, and at the very end one of the protagonists is revealed to be the director of the Japanese MIB branch office which, again, looks just like the MIB office in the 1997 and 2002 films.

The Silence from Doctor Who may also be the Men in Black. They wear black suits and ties, and those who have had an encounter have no memory of the encounter until they see the Silence again. These are both characteristics of the Men in Black.

In Deus Ex, JC Denton encounters multiple Men and Women in Black throughout the story. They are strong, lethal enemies that have extremely pale and gray skin, as well as echoed voices and an eye tattooed on the back of their neck. They are not completely robotic as they bleed when attacked and when they explode upon death.

See also

• Agent (The Matrix - film)
• Black helicopter
• G-Man (Half-Life - video game)
• Gray Barker (writer)
• Grey alien
• Majestic 12
• Men in Black (The X-Files - TV series)
• Neuralyzer
• NID (Stargate - TV series)
• Reptilian alien
• S.H.I.E.L.D. (comics)
• Section 31 (TV series)
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  • Star Trek: Enterprise
• Silence (Doctor Who - TV series)
• The Brother from Another Planet (film)
• The Observer (Fringe - TV series)

References

• Clark, Jerome (1996). The UFO Encyclopedia, volume 3: High Strangeness, UFO’s from 1960 through 1979. Omnigraphis. ISBN 1-55888-742-3. 
• Barker, Gray (1956). They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers. New York: University Books. ISBN 1-881532-10-0. 
• Barker, Gray (2012). Men in Black: The Secret Terror Among Us. CreateSpace. ISBN 1-4505-6966-8. 
• Buckley, Timothy (2012). Mystery of the Men in Black: The UFO Silencers. Inner Light - Global Communications. ISBN 0-938294-87-3. 
• Condon, Edward; Daniel S. Gilmor, ed. (1968). Final Report of the Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects. New York: Batnam. ISBN 0-552-04747-3. ISBN. 
• Dash, Mike (2000). Borderlands: The Ultimate Exploration of the Unknown. Overlook. ISBN 0-87951-724-7. 
• Druffel, Ann; Dwight Connelly, ed. (February 2006). "Heflin's 1965 Photos Validated". MUFON UFO Journal (Mutual UFO Network) (454). 
• Evans, Beriah (March 1905). "Merionethshire Mysteries". The Occult Review (William Rider and Sons) 1 (3). 
• Keel, John (1971). Our Haunted Planet. Fawcett. ISBN 1-880090-16-3. ISBN. 
• Keel, John (1976). The Mothman Prophecies. Saturday Review Press. ISBN 0-7653-4197-2. 
• Randles, Jenny; Peter Houghe (1994). The Complete Book of UFOs: An Investigation into Alien Contact and Encounters. Sterling. ISBN 0-8069-8132-6. 
• Randles, Jenny (1997). The Truth Behind Men in Black: Government Agents -- or Visitors from Beyond. St. Martin's. ISBN 0-312-96521-4. 
• Redfern, Nick (2011). The Real Men In Black: Evidence, Famous Cases, and True Stories of These Mysterious Men and their Connection to UFO Phenomena. New Page Books. ISBN 1-60163-157-X. 
• Wallace, Chevon. "Albert Bender and the M.I.B. Mystery". Bridgeport Public Schools. http://bridgeport.ct.schoolwebpages.com/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=25228. Retrieved 2006-09-10. 

External links

• Men in Black/MIB's at maar.us
• Men In Black Are Aliens