Читать книгу Black Mens Studies - Serie McDougal III - Страница 15
ОглавлениеThe close relationships that Black males engage in have strong influences on their health and success. Additionally, those relationships represent Black males’ contributions to Black families and communities. Not enough is known about these relationships. Moreover, much of the research is focused on problems within intimate relationships and ignores solutions to the challenges that Black males face in their relationships. Recognizing the close and intimate relationships Black males have with one another, their environments, and other people facilitates an understanding of health and success of Black males and Black families and communities. Black male friendships and peer relationships are rooted in the legacy of pre-colonial African traditions of brotherhood and fellowship. Building on their African heritage, Black males’ social and romantic relations are also shaped by their unique cultural creations, struggles for freedom, and struggles with oppressive anti-Black male people, institutions, and ideas. The focus of this chapter is exploring Black males’ relationships including sexual identities and experiences.
The Legacy of Black Brotherhood
Many Black boys share a common heritage, lifestyles, and survival strategies that, in part, explain their references to one another using familial terms such as brotha, bruh, cuz, homie, fam, blood, folks and peoples, etc. (White & Cones, 1999). Staples (1976) observed that Black males tend to treat other unrelated Black males as kin to various degrees. This familial outlook is an extension of Black males’ traditions of brotherhood. African ethnic groups developed a variety of elaborate rituals and rites to socialize males into age grades or peer groups that defined themselves as lifelong brotherhoods. These groups provided mentors and leaders who took responsibility for younger boys in their communities (Collins & Burns, 2007; Mbuvi, 2009a; Shujaa, 2009). Formalized in-group rites of passage fostered the formation of male friendships starting in adolescence (Lussana, 2016). Male rituals consisting of learning activities and difficult trials and tests were expected to draw young males together into lifelong ←85 | 86→relationships. As Franklin (2004) explains, African American models of friendship are extensions of African manhood rituals, and the relationships formed between unrelated African men from different ethnic groups during slavery. During the period of enslavement, resistance, and resilience, unrelated Black children learned from their elders to refer to one another using the language of family and to act accordingly. Enslaved Black parents taught their children to see and refer to other enslaved Black children as brother and sister. This instilled the principle that they were all part of a community that was responsible for each other (Mintz, 2004, p. 26). Language symbolizing family bonds has changed over time. Enslaved Blacks typically preferred to refer to one another as “bro” and “sis” rather than “nigger” (Roberts, 1989, p. 181). Today many Black males continue this tradition.
In the American context, Black male’s friendships with one another have been shaped in the crucible of spiritual, social, and political struggle. Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass spoke of the importance of his fellow enslaved friends during his time in bondage.
For much of the happiness, or absence of misery, with which I passed this year, I am indebted to the genial temper and ardent friendship of my brother slaves. They were every one of them manly, generous, and brave; yes, I say they were brave, and I will add fine looking. It is seldom the lot of any to have truer and better friends than were the slaves on this farm. It was not uncommon to charge slaves with great treachery toward each other, but I must say I never loved, esteemed, or confided in men more than I did in these. They were as true as steel, and no band of brothers could be more loving. There were no mean advantages taken of each other, no tattling, no giving each other bad names to Mr. Freeland, and no elevating one at the expense of the other. We never undertook anything of any importance which was likely to affect each other, without mutual consultation. We were generally a unit, and moved together. (Douglass & Ruffin, 2001, p. 189)
Lussana’s (2016) narrative explains that the above testimonial from Frederick Douglass is an illustration of the importance friendship has played in the lives of African American men’s lives throughout their experience in the American context. Enslaved Black males created their own social networks and subculture of brotherhood. They recognized their interdependence and formed all-male networks of cooperation, masculine identity construction, and resistance (Lussana, 2016). They often formed friendships under duress and surveillance, and covertly met to spread news of rebellion, or even drink, gamble, and organize social events (Lussana, 2016). During slavery, Black males’ friendships provided them “hope, comfort, and relief from the drudgery and horrors of their enslavement” (Lussana, 2016, p. 99). Males trusted one another to share their conspiratorial thoughts and nurture their opposition to slavery. Running away during slavery was a gendered form of resistance—the vast majority of escapees were Black men (Lussana, 2016). Trust and loyalty were vital to Black male friendships given the consequences of sharing thoughts, plans, or generally unsanctioned activities could be fatal. Plus, male friendships were a buffer against oppression (Lussana, 2016). Henry Brown, a fugitive from enslavement said this about their importance:
We love our friends more than White people love theirs, for we risk more to save them from suffering. Many of our number who have escaped from bondage ourselves, have jeopardized our own liberty, in order to release our friends, and sometimes we have been retaken and made slaves again while endeavoring to rescue our friends from slavery’s iron jaws … A slave’s friends are all he possesses that is of value to him. He cannot read, he has no property, he cannot be a teacher of truth or a politician; he cannot be very religious, and all that remains to him, aside from the hope of freedom, that ever-present deity, forever inspiring him in his most terrible hours of despair, is the society of his friends. (Brown & Ernest, 2008, p. 34)
After slavery, Black male friendships were continued in formal men’s clubs, fraternal lodges, political parties, and businesses.
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Peer-Group Influence on Black Males
Black males are influenced by their peer groups at levels that change over the course of their lives for various reasons; some are common to males of other ethnic groups and some are unique. Peer groups are those individuals who share common interests, ages, and/or social positions. People usually select their close friends from their peer groups. During adolescence, males spend an increasing amount of unsupervised time with their peers who provide them with support and guidance (White & Cones, 1999). Most adolescents spend over 50% of their waking hours with peers, with younger adolescents (ages 11–15) the most susceptible to peer influence. The older boys become, the greater influence their peer groups have on them. Starting with late childhood through early adulthood, Black boys’ peer groups become major influences on behaviors, values, masculine styles, understandings of racism, and what it means to be Black (White & Cones, 1999). However, during middle adolescence (roughly ages 14–15), boys begin to develop the psychological and social strength to resist peer influence.
Culture also influences the ways that Black males relate to their peers. For example, Giordano, Cernkovich, and DeMaris (1993) compared the friendships of White and Black adolescents and discovered that African American adolescents felt less peer pressure than Whites and reported less need for peer approval. Independent thinking is an attribute that Black parents emphasize in their socialization of Black males. One of the strengths of Black male peer relationships is their balance between brotherhood and independence. Thus, it is critical that social interventions and manhood training programs build on this Black male strength.
Important Needs That Peers Meet
Peer support is critical to the well-being of Black male youth (Spielberg, 2014a). Although caregivers provide adolescents with attachment and intimacy, as young males grow older the peer group begins to fulfill these needs more and more. Peer friends provide young Black males with basic needs for intimacy, belongingness, social skills, and excitement. Friends also provide a safe zone where males can be themselves (Bonner, 2014). Peer groups sometimes rebel against social norms and learn and set trends with one another. Black boys in particular are often on the cusp of cultural creation, spurred on by the validation they get from their peers—validation they typically would not get from their elders. For example, Afrika Baby Bam of the Jungle Brothers, arguably one of most influential hip-hop groups, stated:
The school talent shows are a tradition. It’s just that when we came on the scene, we added something new to the tradition, which was hip hop. Here’s a stage where we could do something that ninety percent of our peers know what we’re doing but our elders don’t. We can get on the mic and we can perform our lyrics and be just stars in the high school. (Ogg & Upshal, 1999, p. 105)
Because peer relationships are between equals, they provide Black boys with a sense of closeness and relatedness that is difficult to achieve in parent–child relationships. However, although peers may have more influence on short-term behavior (single events), parents still have more influence on long-term behavior (i.e., attending college) (Belgrave & Brevard, 2014; Davies & Kandel, 1981). Young men gain contact with peers in many settings including classes, teams, neighborhoods, gangs, etc. Peer groups’ influence can be beneficial, harmful, or both. Some peer groups can present Black males with life-altering challenges and can influence them to engage in high-risk, self-destructive behaviors and adopt antisocial attitudes.
Black Males and Gang Involvement
Studying Black male gang involvement can provide valuable insight into the needs of some young Black males. Blacks and Latinos make up a disproportionate percentage of male gang membership in ←87 | 88→the U.S. (National Youth Gang Survey, 1999). However, the image of Black males in gangs is stereotypical and frequently exaggerated. While law enforcement agencies think Blacks and Latinos comprise the majority of gang membership, national youth surveys paint a different picture. For example, a 2006 National Survey of Law Enforcement indicated 90% of gang members in the U.S. were minorities, with 35% African American and 49% Latino. Contrarily, results of the National Survey of Youth indicated 42% of gang members were White, 24% Latino, and 27% Black (Huey, McDaniel, Smith, Pearson, & Griffin, 2014). Although African American youth are overrepresented, only a small percentage belong to gangs and most are involved for only a short period of their lives, before transitioning out (Belgrave & Brevard, 2014).
Yet, gang involvement is important to study for many reasons. Gangs can channel young Black males’ potential into negative actions via exposure to violence, injury, and deadly circumstances (Huey et al., 2014). Youth involvement in violence and the illegal drug economy increases young Black males’ likelihood of incarceration and death (White & Cones, 1999). Overrepresentation in gangs combined with disproportionate and racially targeted policing results in Black males absorbing a lopsided amount of the negative consequences. Within some gangs, characteristics such as bravery, intelligence, violence, and brutality are rewarded. A range of external factors can intensify these characteristics. Historically, forces such as increased gang expansion are related to the proliferation of guns and drugs (White & Cones, 1999). But there are many factors that can influence youth to join gangs or resist them, including personal/individual, peer, family/adult, neighborhood, and macro-level socioeconomic factors.
Why Black Males Join Gangs: The Influence of Peers, Families, Communities, and Larger Society
Black males, like their peers, need a sense of belonging. Some gain it from their families, communities, and other sources. However, for those who lack a sense of belonging, gangs can provide it by acting as a surrogate family or support system. Other individual-level factors like antisocial beliefs and drug use can also put Black males at risk for gang involvement. Peer rejection also is associated with greater likelihood of delinquency, and eventually gang involvement (Belgrave & Brevard, 2014). Peers who are already in gangs or involved in high-risk behaviors can pressure non-involved young males to join gangs. Those who are affiliated with delinquent peers are more likely to join gangs (Huey et al., 2014). Such peer networks may provide no negative stigmatization to being arrested, instead romanticizing incarceration. In fact, some might celebrate incarceration.
Families influence gang involvement as well. Although peers influence adolescent drug use in the general population, some research shows that African American adolescent Black male drug use is more influenced by parental relationships than peer influence (Belgrave & Brevard, 2014). Family-level factors such as lack of supervision or intimacy can place some Black males at greater-than-average risk for gang involvement (Huey et al., 2014). Neglected and alienated boys are most vulnerable to gang recruitment, especially when the gang offers more opportunity, support, protection, and guidance than families and communities can. In his autobiography, Sanyika Shakur (1993) explains the familial role played by his fellow gang members:
My homeboys became my family—the older ones were father figures. Each time I shot someone, each time I put another gun on the set, each time I successfully recruited a combat soldier, I was congratulated by my older homeboys. (p. 25)
On the contrary, Black males are less vulnerable when they are nurtured, protected, acknowledged, heard, and exposed to positive adult models of success, and provided greater levels of parental supervision and monitoring (Huey et al., 2014; White & Cones, 1999). However, it is important not to put ←88 | 89→too much onus on parents because they do exist in a larger social context in which they have relatively little power.
The neighborhoods in which families lives affect the likelihood that young males will join negative peer networks. Related to this is the fact that the reasons for joining gangs differ by race. Thornberry’s (2003) research found that both Blacks and Whites were most likely to have joined gangs because of friend/family influence (59% and 63% respectively). However, the second most common reason for Blacks was protection (19%) while for Whites it was just to be in it (29%). Black males in low-income environments can be exposed to more negative peer influences because gangs provide protection in dangerous neighborhoods (Spielberg, 2014a; White & Cones, 1999).
Larger socioeconomic forces like racism and economic oppression drive Black male toward gang involvement. Gangs provide some benefits for Black males outside mainstream society that may partially offset these forces. Gangs can offer young men status/reputation, racial solidarity, brotherhood, and money (Spielberg, 2014a; White & Cones, 1999). Access to quality education and gender-related factors affect vulnerability to gang influence as well. For example, high-achieving Black males are more likely to experience negative peer pressure compared to high-achieving Black females (Whiting, 2009). This is especially true for pressure to join gangs.
Black males with little education or skill are unsupported by the larger society’s political, economic, and educational institutions (Franklin, 1994b). It is important to note that White males transition out of gang life more quickly than Black youth, in large part because jobs, opportunity, and privilege are more available to Whites (Huey et al., 2014). The drug economy has a major influence on the ability of Black youth to transition out of the gang life:
Gang research showed that young males without fathers would join gangs, but eventually, they would grow out of gangs and secure a job and begin to develop a family. Life in gangs has now become indefinite because of drugs. Gangs have become almost like a pharmaceutical sales force. Young boys are recruited in gangs as early as six years of age and many of them remain gang members for the rest of their lives, or as long as they can continue to sell drugs. (Kunjufu, 2009, p. 78)
Gangs can provide Black males living in poverty with money. Employment is also a major factor influencing transition out of gangs and should be a key part of youth intervention programs. When young men gain access to employment they are less likely to be involved with gangs. According to Huey et al. (2014), most effective gang intervention programs involve suppression (consequences, selective punishment) and service (providing skills and opportunity).
A misconception about gangs is that they are all criminal organizations. In fact, Belgrave and Brevard (2015) distinguish between youth gangs, drug gangs, and prison gangs. The sale of illicit drugs is sometimes used by Black males to provide for close friends and family members (Spates, 2014). Only a few youth gangs are well-organized criminal institutions. Kontos, Brotherton, and Barrios (2012) conceptualize gangs as social movements, challenging the notion that they are all about criminality. Their research shows that many gangs have political goals, community advancement goals, spiritual values, and ideologies of challenging oppression.
Friendships Among Black Male Youth
African American youth choose friends based on ethnicity, in addition to values, attitudes, location, and behaviors (Belgrave & Brevard, 2015). Currarini, Jackson, and Pin (2010) used the Add Health national data set to investigate racial patterns in friendship networks in a set of American high schools. They discovered that Black youth valued friendships with non-Blacks less than Whites and Asians valued different-race friendships. However, Pica-Smith (2011) found that African American children report more positive perceptions of interracial friendships than White American children do. ←89 | 90→In comparing sexes, African American males are less likely to have different-race friends compared to African American females (Way & Chen, 2000). But why might Black males be hesitant to form interracial friendships? In interracial schools, Black males often experience racism from their White peers in the form of stereotypical questions about topics such as where to buy guns and drugs, and whether they’ve witnessed violent crimes or are in a gang (Owens, 2014). These experiences can be made worse by a power dynamic in interracial friendships that can mirror the larger social power dynamic (Owens, 2014).
Quality of Black Male Friendships
Black male friendships are characterized by high levels of support and intimacy compared to other male friendships. Female friendships are typically more intimate than male friendships across race. However, African American adolescent male friendships have been found to involve more sharing of personal thoughts and feelings compared to Mexican–American and European American adolescents (Jones, Costin, & Richard, 1994). According to Staples (1986), African American youth are also less homosocial, associating with opposite sex peers more than White youth. Generally, adolescents tend to socialize with same-gender peers until mid-to-late adolescence, after which they begin to interact with peers of the opposite sex (Belgrave & Brevard, 2014). However, Staples (1986) explains that gender segregation is less prominent among African American youth who are commonly less homosocial than other ethnic groups.
Neighborhoods are central to African American children’s friendship formation. For example, Dubois and Hirsch’s (1990) investigation of the school and neighborhood friendships of 292 Black and White children attending an integrated junior high school revealed African American children tended to spend more time with neighborhood peers.
Close adult friendships usually develop between people of the same sex; female friendships tend to be more intimate, and share emotions more (Franklin, 1992). Yet, Black men are usually more heterosocial, having more friendships with both males and females relative to White men. In general, male friends tend to be more centered on common activities and tasks, and lack emotional disclosure and social support (Franklin, 1992). Interestingly, both males and females are more likely to self-disclose feelings and emotions to females. Yet this may not necessarily be true for Black males. Franklin (1992) studied adult Black male friendships by interviewing males who were working-class and upwardly mobile. He found that working-class African American males often shared personal thoughts and feelings with their male friends. Working-class Black male friendships are based on shared experience, commonality in struggle and extended-family relationships. These friendships tend to be warmer and more personal and intimate than is commonly seen among men in Western society. This is even more so among upwardly mobile Black men, who also tend to have high expectations for their male friends to be loyal, altruistic, and close. These relationships can be intense when there is a violation of those expectations. More upwardly mobile Black men tend to be more competitive and less personal and intimate in their close male friendships, relative to their working-class Black male peers (C. W. Franklin, 1992).
It has also been discovered that marital status is related to Black male same-sex friendships. Married Black men tend to have fewer friends than single Black men (Nock, 2003). Some research suggests the reason for this is married men needing to spend more time and resources on their relatives, perhaps due to the expectations of husbands being mature and faithful providers for immediate and extended-family members (Nock, 2003). Additionally, through the lens of sexual orientation, the sociality or collectivism of Black male culture is apparent. For example, in comparison to White gay males, gay Black men have been found to spend less time by themselves and have more people they describe as good friends (Staples, 2006).
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Affirming Black Men Through Friendships
Social and cultural programs (i.e., counseling) seeking to improve African American male relationships must take advantage of the strengths of Black males’ peer networks to address challenges in culturally responsive ways (Caldwell & White, 2014). Moreover, it is critical to ensure Black males are a part of friendship networks that (1) promote behaviors and attitudes that do not perpetuate negative stereotypes but instead empower and enhance Black males and advance their consciousness; (2) involve people who do not place males at risk but do contribute to their growth and development, and; (3) include people who help Black males’ families and communities (Franklin, 2004).
African American marital relationships are stabilized by several unique cultural strengths such as mutuality, collectivism, and spirituality, and characterized by valuing collaboration (Orbuch, Veroff, & Hunter, 1998). Collectivism and social support provided by African American extended families are also critical to the functioning and understanding of African American relationships (Thomas, Barrie, & Tynes, 2009). African American married couples also commonly identify spirituality as a factor that helps them to maintain their marriages (Carolan & Allen, 1999).
