Redefining black masculinity and manhood: Successful black gay men speak out

Abstract

manhood. Whenever someone asks me what the topic of my research is, ! normally take a deep breath and launch into my summary, which goes something like this: I'm looking at successful, black gay men and issues of social responsibility toward the larger black community. This summary is normally met by silence, after which I am invariably asked two questions, why? and how? Why did I decide to study gay men, and how did I go about finding them? It always intrigues me that out of all that I say in my summary the one thing that stands out most, and what I think most people react to, is the word gay. Interestingly enough, these two questions, why and how, do not change, whether the person asking is gay or straight, male or female. My own interests in understanding the complexities of the black experience in the United States fueled me. Having spent 10 years doing development work in West Africa, I felt it was time to study my own, meaning African Americans in the United States. Anthropology seemed the natural choice, given its unique qualitative approaches. I wanted to be able to explain as well as demonstrate the usefulness of anthropological methods in a way that black people, particularly, could understand and relate to in their daily lives.