Sophisticated Practitioners: Black Fraternity Men’s Treatment of Women

Abstract

This paper aims to fill an important gap in the literature on BGLOs—how black fraternity men treat women. Analyzing interview and observation data from a 9-month study including 28 black fraternity men, I find that the level of accountability, visibility, and personalization elicited by the small black community at PWIs leads to black fraternity men acting as “sophisticated practitioners” to strategize about the best ways to romantically and sexually engage women. Three factors—perception of the type of woman being engaged, desired relationship status, and structural conditions—facilitate the strategies (i.e., language usage and “reverse psychology”) they employ. Still, black fraternity men treat women more respectfully than white fraternity men and other black men due to the socialization process that black fraternity men normally undergo to be members of their organization.