Table Of ContentHyper Sexual, Hyper MaSculine?
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Hyper Sexual, Hyper Masculine?
Gender, race and Sexuality in the
identities of contemporary Black Men
edited by
Brittany c. Slatton
Texas Southern University, USA
KaMeSHa SpateS
Kent State University, USA
© Brittany c. Slatton and Kamesha Spates and the contributors 2014
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Brittany c. Slatton and Kamesha Spates have asserted their right under the copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
published by
ashgate publishing limited ashgate publishing company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Slatton, Brittany c.
Hyper sexual, hyper masculine? : gender, race and sexuality in the identities of
contemporary Black men / [edited] by Brittany c. Slatton and Kamesha Spates.
pages cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
iSBn 978-1-4724-2512-6 (hardback : alk. paper) — iSBn 978-1-4724-2513-3 (ebook) —
iSBn 978-1-4724-2514-0 (epub) 1. african american men—Sexual behavior. 2. african
american men—attitudes. 3. Masculinity—united States. i. Spates, Kamesha. ii. title.
e185.86.H964 2014
305.38’896073—dc23
2013049232
iSBn 9781472425126 (hbk)
iSBn 9781472425133 (ebk-pDF)
iSBn 9781472425140 (ebk-epuB)
IV
printed in the united Kingdom by Henry ling limited,
at the Dorset press, Dorchester, Dt1 1HD
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Introduction: Blackness, Maleness, and Sexuality as Interwoven
Identities: Toward an Understanding of Contemporary
Black Male Identity Formation 1
Kamesha Spates and Brittany C. Slatton
Part I Challenges and ConstraInts of
MasCulIne and sexual IdentIty forMatIon
1 Notes from a Former Homophobe: An Introspective Narrative
on the Development of Masculinity of an Urban African American
Male 7
Earl Wright II
2 Growing Up Male: A Re-Examination of African American
Male Socialization 19
Candy Ratliff
3 The Black Box: Constrained Maneuvering
of Black Masculine Identity 33
Brittany C. Slatton
Part II negotIatIng unequal ground
4 Against All Odds: African American Male Athletes’
Pursuit of Professional Sports Careers 45
Krystal Beamon
5 Vagrant Frontiers: Black Gay Masculinity and a Quest
for Community—The Issues That Shape My Viewpoint 59
Le’Brian Patrick
vi Hyper Sexual, Hyper Masculine?
Part III CrItICal InterPretatIons of BlaCk Men
and genderIsM
6 Confronting Black Male Privilege 75
R. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy
7 Complexity Within and Similarity Across: Interpreting
Black Men’s Support of Gender Justice, amidst Cultural
Representations that Suggest Otherwise 85
Catherine E. Harnois
Part IV BlaCk Men’s Counter-narratIVes In
the struggle for MasCulIne and sexual
autonoMy
8 The Tears of Black Men: Black Masculinity, Sexuality,
and Sensitivity in R&B and Hip Hop 103
Cassandra Chaney
9 More than Meets the Eye: The Use of Counter-Narratives to
Expand Students’ Perceptions of Black Male Crack Dealers 133
Kamesha Spates
10 No Longer Silenced: Excerpts from Mirrored Invisible:
Race, Patriarchy, Masculinity and the Formation of Black
Male Identity 149
Kawatia Conway Arrington
11 ‘I just be myself’: Contradicting Hyper Masculine
and Hyper Sexual Stereotypes among Low-Income Black
Men in New York City 165
Michael Pass, Ellen Benoit, Eloise Dunlap
Index 183
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
7.1 Percentage of black and white men who disagree that
‘It is better for a man to work and for a woman to stay home’ 91
7.2 Percentage of black and white men who disagree that
‘A preschool child is likely to suffer if his or her mother works’ 92
7.3 Percentage of black and white men who disagree that ‘Most men
are better suited emotionally for politics than are most women’ 93
Tables
4.1 Participant background information 52
7.1 Black men’s and black women’s beliefs about gender equality 95
8.1 Song title, singer/s, year released, composer/s, and genre 112
8.2 Typology of sensitivity, definition, song title, artist,
and lyrical example 118
11.1 Participant Demographics (N=94) 173
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Notes on Contributors
Kamesha Spates is an assistant professor in the department of Sociology at Kent
State University. Her areas of specialization include the intersections of race,
class, and gender; the African American experience; criminology; and suicidality.
She is the author of, What Don’t Kill Us Makes Us Stronger: African American
and Suicide (2014). She has authored and co-authored several other works in the
areas of social inequality, corrections, and deviance.
Brittany Slatton earned her doctorate from Texas A&M University, College
Station, and is currently Assistant Professor of Sociology at Texas Southern
University. Her work examines the intersection of race, gender, class, and sexuality,
and relationship dynamics. She recently completed a book titled Mythologizing
Black Women: Unveiling White Men’s Deep Frame on Race and Gender, which
documents white men’s contemporary perspectives of black women. She has
also published an article (with Joe R. Feagin) in the New Blackwell Companion
to Sociology titled ‘Racial and Ethnic Issues: Critical Race Approaches in the
United States.’
Krystal Beamon is Assistant Professor of Sociology and faculty Associate in
the Center of African American Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington.
She received her Bachelors (Summa Cum Laude), Masters, and Ph.D. from
Oklahoma State University, where she was an All-American Track and Field
athlete. Her research interests are race and ethnicity, the sociology of sport,
and the contemporary African-American experience. Recent publications found
in the Journal of Black Studies, the Journal of African-American Studies, and
forthcoming book entitled The Enduring Color Line in U.S. Athletics (Routledge)
explore the intersection of race and sport while examining the experience of
African-American male elite athletes.
Ellen Benoit is a sociologist and principal investigator in the Institute for Special
Populations Research at NDRI, Inc. Her research is primarily qualitative and
concerns HIV risk and substance use in vulnerable populations. Her work includes
studies with behaviorally bisexual black men, high-risk heterosexual black men and
women and individuals returning from prison to low-income urban communities.
Cassandra Chaney is an Associate Professor in Child and Family Studies at
Louisiana State University. She examines the dynamics of black family life,
which includes emotional closeness and commitment among dating, cohabiting,
and married black couples, how religiosity and spirituality support blacks, and the
