Queer Care: The Culturally Responsive Pedagogies of Black Queer Male Mentors

• In Event: Anxiety and Agency at the Intersections: The Educational Plights and Possibilities of Black Queer Males

Abstract

Objectives

This paper describes how five Black queer male mentors empowered Black queer youth at a community-based HIV/AIDS prevention center, and it calls upon K-12 schools to consider these men, their strategies, and centers like the one featured in this paper as resources for supporting Black queer youth.


Framework

A rich corpus of scholarship has credited Black teachers for developing culturally responsive pedagogies that invoke racial bonds and emic understandings of Black culture to effectively engage Black students (Foster, 1994; Irvine, 2002). Unfortunately, heteronormative narratives on race have produced a blind eye in this literature toward the intersections of race and sexual orientation in Black educational experiences (Brockenbrough, 2012). This paper invokes culturally responsive pedagogy as an analytic framework for understanding how Black queer male mentors at an HIV/AIDS prevention center addressed the intersections of racism, homophobia, and poverty that shaped the educational needs of Black queer youth.


Methods & Data Sources

This paper presents a set of findings from a seven-month ethnography of a community-based HIV/AIDS prevention center serving LGBT communities of color in a midsize city in the northeastern United States. Data collection included one-on-one interviews with ten youth and seven adult staff members/volunteers, observations and field notes on youth-oriented programming, and the collection of the Center’s reports, newsletters, fliers, and other relevant materials. All data sources were analyzed over multiple phases of data analysis, and preliminary findings were presented to study participants and scholarly colleagues to refine data analysis.


Results

Three themes characterized the pedagogical work of the five Black queer men who mentored youth at the Center.

1) Background and Mission: All five men had prior educational and professional experiences (e.g. degrees in social service fields, employment in Black queer advocacy groups) that afforded them unique frameworks for understanding and addressing the intersectional realities of Black queer youth. These background experiences were complemented by their personal sense of mission as Black queer men to mentor Black queer youth.

2) Youth Challenges and Assets: All five men articulated nuanced understandings of the multiple, intersecting challenges that Black queer youth faced (e.g., HIV, hunger, joblessness). They also articulated assets-oriented views of the youths’ ability to overcome those challenges.

3) Three Modes of Service: Three modes of serving the youth at the Center were employed by the men in this study: providing emotional, psychological, and spiritual care; providing information and resources that addressed the specific needs of Black queer youth (e.g. safer sex information, how to obtain housing); and mentoring youth who were pursuing various educational and career opportunities.


Scholarly Significance

This paper challenges the heteronormativity of extant discourses on culturally responsive pedagogy, thus creating an opportunity to consider pedagogical strategies that more fully address the intersectional positionalities of Black queer youth. Additionally, it counters homophobic, pedophilic discourses on queer educators (Griffin & Ouellett, 2003) by positioning Black queer men as caring adults with unique insights into the needs of Black queer youth—insights that warrant serious consideration by other educational stakeholders.

Author

• Edward Brockenbrough, University of Rochester