Using Black Women's Literature to Heal and Cultivate Black Males' Emotional Identities

• In Event: Researchers Building: Advancing the Literate Identities of Black Students Across Multiple Sites and Spaces

Abstract

As a Black male scholar I had the opportunity to examine a predominantly Black population high school I employed Black women's literature as an instructional tool to re-examine the ways that Black males are taught and express masculinity. Tenth grade students addressed the urgent need to re-evaluate the ways they are learning how to become men. This idea germinated from the exponential-growth literacy model. During one particular session using the model, I became emotional. One boy appeared to be struggling to make sense of one aspect of the model because the class discussion was not accommodating his need to talk about the passing of his mother, which was causing obvious emotional distress. In that moment I realized that I, as a Black male instructor, lacked the tools needed to provide an intentional space for a Black boy to vulnerably express his experience of his mother’s recent passing. There was clearly a need to encourage a space to give voice to his pain (Ginwright, 2010). Findings suggest that the model offered an intentional space to challenge Black males identities’ cognitively, but one of the major components needed to maximize impact for student growth academically was challenging their emotional identities as well (Tatum, 2005).
bell hooks (2004) explains that Black Feminist literature can be used as healing wisdom in which Black males can employ as tools of practice to develop new forms of self-actualization and emotional intelligence.
From this experience and using Black Feminist theory as my lens, I created and implemented literacy instruction that offered new strategies of dealing with internalized pain for Black males. During data analysis, four dialogue shifts emerged, Black adolescent males are (1) more drawn to Black male role models who display more vulnerability and empathy than their traditional masculine male role models, (2) Black males are open to newer ways of knowing how to love and be loved, (3) Black males are seeking spaces to practice emotional empathy and vulnerability for the purpose of healing, and (4) Black males desired to read more texts by Black women.
There is a need to re-examine the emotional intelligence of Black males or the lack thereof for the purpose of self-actualization, healing, and emotionally evolving, which may impact their literate identities and growth.

Author

• Durrell Jamerson, The University of Texas at Austin