Explaining Mainstream Success

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25
Author(s):  
Loralie L. Wiebold ◽  
Marwin Spiller
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
Black Men ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Personal Motivation ◽  
Sociological Work ◽  
Mainstream Society ◽  
Individual Choices ◽  
Depth Interviews

The bulk of sociological work examines African American men who are young, unemployed, and poorly educated. In contrast, we offer a nuanced look at Black men living and working in mainstream society—men in the American mainstream although not always identifying as middle class. From 25 in-depth interviews, our data show an apparent contradiction. We find that men account for their success through their individual choices and declared personal motivation to succeed. Yet, throughout their interviews, these men revealed ways they were exposed to critical interactions and opportunities to a larger social network that provided them with tools for mainstream success. In talking about their experiences, these men shared instances in which their racial identity was questioned.

scholarly journals Does Diversity Matter for Health? Experimental Evidence from Oakland

2019 ◽  
Vol 109 (12) ◽  
pp. 4071-4111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcella Alsan ◽  
Owen Garrick ◽  
Grant Graziani
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Preventive Care ◽  
Cardiovascular Mortality ◽  
Black Male ◽  
African American Men ◽  
White Male ◽  
Physician Workforce ◽  
Medical Doctors ◽  
Stage Design

We study the effect of physician workforce diversity on the demand for preventive care among African American men. In an experiment in Oakland, California, we randomize black men to black or non-black male medical doctors. We use a two-stage design, measuring decisions before (pre-consultation) and after (post-consultation) meeting their assigned doctor. Subjects select a similar number of preventives in the pre-consultation stage, but are much more likely to select every preventive service, particularly invasive services, once meeting with a racially concordant doctor. Our findings suggest black doctors could reduce the black-white male gap in cardiovascular mortality by 19 percent. (JEL I12, I14, C93)

Racial Identity and Its Assessment in a Sample of African-American Men in Treatment for Cocaine Dependence

2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
José M. Peña ◽  
Irma J. Bland ◽  
Denese Shervington ◽  
Janet C. Rice ◽  
Edward F. Foulks
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Cocaine Dependence

scholarly journals Cultural Mistrust and Counseling: A Review of Factors Impacting African Americans Males

2020 ◽  
pp. 128-134
Author(s):  
Nathalie Mizelle ◽  
James L. Maiden ◽  
Jody C. Grady ◽  
Delarious O. Stewart ◽  
Brian Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
African American ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
African American Males ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Cultural Mistrust ◽  
Community Ties ◽  
History Of ◽  
Significant Factors

African American males are less likely to engage in mental health services. Racial discrimination, cultural mistrust, mental health disparities, and racial identity roles are significant factors impeding African American men from pursuing or continuing counseling. Unfortunately, counselors subliminally acknowledge the stereotypical labels ascribed to African American males lead to a poor or non-existing rapport, and tend to create solutions for the clients, disregarding their intrinsic motivation and autonomy. This conceptual article discussed racial discrimination, microaggression, and community ties as the barriers to counseling engagement among African American males. The article also highlighted the history of counseling African American males and the present urgency for a culturally sensitive model using the concepts of Motivational Interviewing for encouraging counseling engagement and autonomous resolution of ambivalence.

The Challenge to White Manhood

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Meyer
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Black Men ◽  
African American Men ◽  
White Men ◽  
Traditionally White ◽  
Workplace Equity ◽  
White Manhood ◽  
Gain Access

This chapter considers how the increase in numbers of African American men at the workplace brought differing and contentious visions of manhood to the automotive factory. White men, who had long dominated the better jobs, divided into two groups: those who strove for the respectability of high-paid union jobs and those who resented others, fearing the loss of their exclusive white privileges. When black men fought for workplace equity, the more conservative whites conducted racial hate strikes to protect traditionally “white” jobs. In reaction, African American workers conducted what might best be labeled “pride strikes” to gain access to better jobs and later to improve the inequitable situation of black women in the automobile factories. These workplace struggles involved robust clashes over differing visions of manhood.

Structural Health and the Politics of African American Masculinity

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 68S-72S ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Metzl
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Men ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Barriers To Health

This commentary describes ways in which notions of African American men’s “health” attained by individual choice—embedded in the notion that African American men should visit doctors or engage in fewer risky behaviors—are at times in tension with larger cultural, economic, and political notions of “health.” It argues that efforts to improve the health of Black men must take structural factors into account, and failure to do so circumvents even well-intentioned efforts to improve health outcomes. Using historical examples, the article shows how attempts to identify and intervene into what are now called social determinants of health are strengthened by addressing on-the-ground diagnostic disparities and also the structural violence and racism embedded within definitions of illness and health. And, that, as such, we need to monitor structural barriers to health that exist in institutions ostensibly set up to incarcerate or contain Black men and in institutions ostensibly set up to help them.

scholarly journals Work, Love, and the Family Involvement of African American Men

AmeriQuests ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vânia Penha-Lopes
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Black Fathers ◽  
Love Relationships ◽  
Division Of Housework ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

Considerable variation exists in African American men’s involvement in family life. In-depth interviews were conducted with forty-five Black fathers of young children regarding their life histories and self-reported contribution to the division of housework. This article examines the impact of men’s job experiences and love relationships on their family involvement. Paternal involvement is both a function of structural constraints and of men’s interpretations and actions about them. Of paramount importance are how men construe their experiences on the job market and how they feel about the breadwinning ethic. In addition, women affect men’s behavior by mediating their connections with their children, either as former lovers or as current partners. For those who lived with women, their participation in housework is also related to their partners’ employment status.

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