African American Masculinity

Masculinity, also referenced as manhood, is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with boys and men, though it is distinct from the definition of the male biological sex, as both males and females can exhibit masculine traits. Masculine traits in Western society include strength, courage, independence, leadership, and assertiveness. Masculinity is closely associated with male roles, of which traditional or hegemonic masculinity is grouped in White culture. African American masculinity is also implicated because aspects of African American masculinity, such as sexism and homophobia, are central components of hegemonic masculinity. Masculinity socialization and formation are culturally laden and policed across multiple contexts. For African American males, the adoption of masculine attributes is simultaneously crucial for escape from various individual and institutional sources of victimization while targeting them for individual and institutional sources of victimization. Beginning during childhood, African American boys are closely scrutinized by mothers and grandmothers in particular for discernable “aberrant or questionable” actions and behavior in family settings that deviate from the development of a traditional masculine persona. Adult leaders, classmates, and peers in school settings, informal play, and league sports, as well as artistic endeavors, also frame the parameters of this gaze across developmental stages. African American males’ participation in religious instruction and activities are under the watchful eye of instructors and fellow participants attuned to identifying leanings and deviance away from nonsecular teaching, often enshrouded in traditional masculinity. Traditional masculinity is expressed in culturally bound gender norms that include socially constructed ideas, scripts, and expectations for being a man or woman. For African Americans, their centuries’ subjugation as chattel slaves, their subsequent seven-year “freedom” and tentative experience with the entitlements of US citizenship before the imposition of Jim Crow laws and practices throughout the nation, and the ongoing fight for civil rights has uniquely impacted their socialization as individuals and community. Virtually every aspect of African American being, including its unique cultural narrative is, to some degree, socially constructed in opposition, resistance, or adaptation to a dominant cultural masculinity narrative that operates largely to African Americans’ disadvantage or demise. African American masculinity is no exception. African American masculinity, at its best, reflects important dimensions of opposition and resistance as well as adaptation to a dominant, limiting, traditional masculine identity. Opposition to dominant oppressive structures often yields oppressive responses aimed at vulnerable individuals and resistance to engaging in a broader range and variations in masculinity. This life course trajectory is evidenced in multiple contexts and reinforced by family, peers, and state-sanctioned laws and practices.