Question Bridge
The Question Bridge Project is an innovative, transmedia project that uses video to facilitate a conversation among black men from diverse backgrounds. It was originally conceived by Chris Johnson in 1996. The project was revived by Hank Willis Thomas, in collaboration with Kamal Sinclair, and Bayeté Ross Smith in filming over 160 black men in nine American cities, each of whom asked and answered questions posed by other black men.
The Question Bridge Project includes various platforms, an interactive website and mobile app, as well as community roundtable conversations and a curriculum designed for high school learners. It assembles a series of questions posed to black men, by and for other black men, along with the corresponding responses and portraits of the participants. The questions range from the comic to the sublimely philosophical: from "Am I the only one who has problems eating chicken, watermelon, and bananas in front of white people?" to "Why is it so difficult for black American men in this culture to be themselves, their essential selves, and remain who they truly are?" The answers tackle the issues that continue to surround black male identity today in a uniquely honest, no-holds-barred manner.
While the ostensible subject is black men, the conversation that evolves in these pages is ultimately about the nature of living in a post-Obama, post-Ferguson, post-Voting Rights Act America. Question Bridge is about who we are and what we mean to one another. Most critically, it asks: how can we start to dismantle the myths and misconceptions that have evolved around race and gender in America--how can we reset the narrative about ourselves? (Retrieved from Question Bridge: Black males in America)
Selected Books on Race and Identity
Question Bridge by Call Number: Doheny Library: E185.625 .Q42 2015
The Man-Not by Call Number: Doheny Library : E185.86 .C986 2017Tommy J. Curry's provocative book The Man-Not is a justification for Black Male Studies. He posits that we should conceptualize the Black male as a victim, oppressed by his sex. The Man-Not, therefore,is a corrective of sorts, offering a concept of Black males that could challenge the existing accounts of Black men and boys desiring the power of white men who oppress them that has been proliferated throughout academic research across disciplines.Curry argues that Black men struggle with death and suicide, as well as abuse and rape, and their genred existence deserves study and theorization. This book offers intellectual, historical, sociological, and psychological evidence that the analysis of patriarchy offered by mainstream feminism (including Black feminism) does not yet fully understand the role that homoeroticism, sexual violence, and vulnerability play in the deaths and lives of Black males. Curry challenges how we think of and perceive the conditions that actually affect all Black males.
Identity and African American Men : exploring the content of our characterization by Call Number: Doheny Library : E185.625 .T95 2014Kenneth Maurice Tyler identifies and describes the multiple identity components of young African American men using theoretical and empirical literatures from education and the social sciences. Identity and African American Men: Exploring the Content of Our Characterization provides a comprehensive, research-based account of the ideologies and mindsets of many young African American men. The book critically discusses eight identity components that young African American men begin to negotiate during their adolescent years. These identity components include gender, sexual, racial, ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, athletic, and academic identity. Identity and African American Men makes a unique contribution to the literature by offering a conceptual framework that identifies the multiple identity components possessed by young African American men. Such a framework expands the conversation about African American men and their behaviors by broadening the understanding of who these individuals are, the identities they possess, and how their identity-based attitudes and orientations may influence the behaviors exhibited by them.
Black Mask-Ulinity: a framework for Black masculine caring by Call Number: Doheny Library : LC2717 .B564 2016Black Mask-ulinity: A Framework for Black Masculine Caring is a collection of research, narratives, essays, and conceptual works to lay the foundation for an important emerging theoretical framework: Black Masculine Caring (BMC). This framework facilitates an understanding of the teaching and leading styles of Black males, and seeks to improve the educational experiences of Black male students. This book is significant in that it builds upon feminist ethic of caring frameworks and takes readers on a journey toward understanding the ethic of caring through a masculine lens. Authors explore the experiences of caring school leaders; Black male students in need of care; Black males as caring fathers; Black males as caring spiritual leaders; and Black males as caring institutional leaders.
Pimps, Wimps, Studs, Thugs and Gentlemen by Call Number: Cinematic Arts Library : PN1995.9.M34 P56 2009With essays ranging in topic from the films of Neil LaBute to the sexual politics of Major League Baseball, this diverse collection of essays examines the multi-faceted media images of contemporary masculinity from a variety of perspectives and academic disciplines. The book's first half focuses on the issue of racialized masculinity and its various manifestations, with essays covering, among other topics, the ever-present image of black male buffoonery in the neo-minstrel performances of VH1's Flavor of Love. The book's second half explores the issue of contemporary mediated performance and the cultural politics of masculinity, with essays focusing on popular media representations of men in a variety of gendered roles, from homemakers and househusbands to valorous war heroes and athletic demigods.
If We Must Die : from Bigger Thomas to Biggie Smalls by Call Number: Ebook Available and Doheny Library : E185.86.E436 2011In "If We Must Die: From Bigger Thomas to Biggie Smalls," author Aimé J. Ellis argues that throughout slavery, the Jim Crow era, and more recently in the proliferation of the prison industrial complex, the violent threat of death has functioned as a coercive disciplinary practice of social control over black men. In this provocative volume, Ellis delves into a variety of literary and cultural texts to consider unlawful and extralegal violence like lynching, mob violence, and "white riots," in addition to state violence such as state-sanctioned execution, the unregulated use of force by police and prison guards, state neglect or inaction, and denial of human and civil rights. Focusing primarily on young black men who are depicted or see themselves as "bad niggers," gangbangers, thugs, social outcasts, high school drop-outs, or prison inmates, Ellis looks at the self-affirming embrace of deathly violence and death--defiance-both imagined and lived-in a diverse body of cultural works. From Richard Wright's literary classic Native Son, Eldridge Cleaver's prison memoir Soul on Ice, and Nathan McCall's autobiography Makes Me Wanna Holler to the hip hop music of Eazy-E, Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., and D'Angelo, Ellis investigates black men's representational identifications with and attachments to death, violence, and death--defiance as a way of coping with and negotiating late-twentieth and early twenty-first century culture. Distinct from a sociological study of the material conditions that impact urban black life, If We Must Die investigates the many ways that those material conditions and lived experiences profoundly shape black male identity and self-image.
Selected Articles on Black Masculinity
- Am I a Man?: A Literature Review Engaging the Sociohistorical Dynamics of Black Manhood in the United StatesBush, Lawson. "Am I a man?: a literature review engaging the sociohistorical dynamics of black manhood in the United States." Western Journal of Black Studies 23, no. 1 (1999): 49.
- Boys to Men: Getting Personal about Black Manhood, Sexuality, and EmpowermentIkard, David. "Boys to men: Getting personal about black manhood, sexuality, and empowerment." Palimpsest 2, no. 1 (2013): 59-73.
- Understanding development of African American boys and young men: Moving from risks to positive youth development.Gaylord-Harden, Noni K., Oscar Barbarin, Patrick H. Tolan, and Velma McBride Murry. "Understanding development of African American boys and young men: Moving from risks to positive youth development." American Psychologist 73, no. 6 (2018): 753.
- Lessons learned from examining how African American males experience developing a sense of masculinity (Dissertation)Murphy, James J. "Lessons learned from examining how African American males experience developing a sense of masculinity." PhD diss., Capella University, 2017.
Other articles can be found in journals such as the Journal of Men's Studies, the The Western Journal of Black Studies, and many others.
Related Databases
- Gender: Identity and Social Change This link opens in a new windowEssential primary sources documenting the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. This collection offers sources for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the men’s movement, employment, education, the body, the family, and government and politics. The resource is provided by Adam Matthew.
- Diversity Studies Collection This link opens in a new windowDiversity Studies Collection provides access to scholarly journals and magazines that explore cultural differences, contributions, and influences in the global community.
- America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new windowThe definitive index to articles and other literature (books, dissertations, book reviews, etc.) covering the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada, from the 15th century to the present. Indexes nearly 1,800 journals from 1860s to present, including all key journals in the discipline, state and local history publications, and selected articles from scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities.
