Men In Black: Real or Not?

While looking up information on strange creatures and UFO’s they keep bringing up the MEN IN BLACK.  Why do these people dressed in black suits always show up in places that a supernatural occurance happens?  My previous article about Mothman even had them.  I love the Men In Black movies but is that a true part of the American history with just a scifi spin on it to make it a box office smash or are they true?  Are they really aliens?  How about some more information?

The term Men in Black (MIB), in popular culture, is used in UFO conspiracy theories to describe men dressed in black suits claiming to be government agents who attempt to harass or threaten UFO witnesses into silence. According to UFO historian Jerome Clark, “All MIB are not necessarily garbed in dark suits. The term is a generic one, used to refer to any unusual, threatening or strangely behaved individual whose appearance on the scene can be linked in some fashion with a UFO sighting.”

The phenomenon was initially and most frequently reported in the 1950s and 1960s; it is contemporaneous with many other conspiracy theories. According to Clark, the archetypal men in black encounter was alleged to have occurred in 1953, when publisher Albert K. Bender asserted that he’d uncovered the secret behind flying saucers, but had been threatened by three men who wore black suits and hats. Initially, Bender clearly implied the men were U.S. Government agents, but his later accounts blended supernatural features with UFO lore.

The term has also been adopted as a tongue-in-cheek term in geek culture for any generic suited government/corporate official. This usage has its roots in both the popularity of shows such as The X-Files and UFO culture, and the “threat” to hackers of Men in Black actually coming for them (in the form of the FBI or other cybercrime institutions).

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 prolonged 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described as seeming confused by the nature of everyday items such as pens, eating utensils or food, as well as using outdated slang, though accounts on the behavior of Men in Black vary widely.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 some cases they are said to use unidentifiable instruments to wipe the memories of their subjects clean, which is unlikely because of the very fact the subject remembered it. While 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.  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 simply a modern-day manifestation of the same phenomenon that was earlier interpreted as the devil. 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.

More prosaically, Clark cites Bill Moore, who asserts that “the Men in Black are really government people 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. On a more practical note, most US government law enforcement and intelligence agencies such as the FBI have strict dress codes that ordinarily require their members to wear suits in dark, non-obtrusive colors.