“You’re Too Smart to Be Straight, You Must Be Gay”: Black Masculinity, Academic Identity Regulation, and Gender Performance in Alabama’s Black Belt

• In Event: “We are not a monolith”: Expanding Blackness Through the Intersections

Abstract

This study examines how academic identity, gender performance, and Black masculinity intersect in the lives of Black gay and queer men from Alabama’s Black Belt, a region shaped by deep racial, historical, and cultural legacies. Using narrative inquiry and Southern Queeroscopic Interactionism Theory (SQIT), it finds academic success often serves as both a site of social conflict and queer resistance. Participants navigate hypermasculine expectations, homophobia, and community norms linking intelligence with queerness, femininity, and weakness. Schools emerge as battlegrounds where masculinity and intellect are policed, prompting boys, regardless of sexuality, to adjust their identities. Lastly, the study urges reimagining Black masculinity to embrace emotional depth and intellectual engagement, and calls for inclusive education that affirms diverse identities and dismantles oppression.

Author

• Shelton K. Johnson, SUNY New Paltz