The Social Construction of Black Masculinity

Steven Randolph Cureton

The Social Construction of
Black Masculinity

An Ethnographic Study

PETER LANG

New York • Bern • Berlin

Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Control Number: 2019008796

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

ISBN 978-1-4331-5487-4 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4331-5488-1 (ebook pdf)

ISBN 978-1-4331-5489-8 (epub)

ISBN 978-1-4331-5490-4 (mobi)

DOI 10.3726/b13348

© 2019 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006

www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.

Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

About the author

Steven Randolph Cureton is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Cureton earned his doctorate from Washington State University. His research interests include African-Americans’ life course chances and outcomes, particularly the social construction of black masculinity.

About the book

The Social Construction of Black Masculinity examines the legacy of negotiating black masculinity in a relatively free society that forced black men to justify claims of equitable humanity. The book represents an unapologetic narrative about behavioral choices by black men, which were framed by a history of forced distancing from their covenant with God, deliberate character assassinations, and emasculation in plain sight of their women and children.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Table of contents

Introduction: It Has Always Been About Race

Chapter 1. Scholarly Identity: A Research Note

Chapter 2. I Will Dig a Ditch, Just Give Me My Good Name Back

Chapter 3. Du Bois’ Souls of Black and White Folk: Can’t Out Run Caste in America

Chapter 4. Policing Black Bodies: Lethal Predatory Habits

Chapter 5. Protest Spirit: Bastardized Activism in Gangsterism

Chapter 6. Edge Research: Taking in Ganglands and Violent Scenes

Chapter 7. Hulking Out: White Males’ Response to Bullying, Humiliation, Rejection, Isolation and Perceived Injustice in an Academic Setting

Chapter 8. A Love of Our Own: The Manner in Which Black Men Love

Chapter 9. Closure Is All I Need to Get By

Chapter 0.References

Chapter 0.Index←vii | viii→ ←viii | 1→

Introduction

It Has Always Been About Race