Being Black, Being Male on Campus

Understanding and Confronting Black Male Collegiate Experiences

Derrick R. Brooms

• Editorial: SUNY Press
• Año: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781438464015
• Categoría: Didattica
• Categoría: Istruzione superiore

This work marks a radical shift away from the pervasive focus on the challenges that Black male students face and the deficit rhetoric that often limits perspectives about them. Instead, Derrick R. Brooms offers reflective counter-narratives of success. Being Black, Being Male on Campus uses in-depth interviews to investigate the collegiate experiences of Black male students at historically White institutions. Framed through Critical Race Theory and Blackmaleness, the study provides new analysis on the utility and importance of Black Male Initiatives (BMIs). This work explores Black men's perceptions, identity constructions, and ambitions, while it speaks meaningfully to how race and gender intersect as they influence students' experiences.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Making Space to Hear Black Men

I had some teachers, I think everybody has that one teacher that tells them that they’re not going to make it. Mines was different. My teacher was a professor; I’m not going to say that she don’t like Black folks because that’s too extreme. She had a bad experience with a Black male in her class before and that sorta put a wall up … She was a White teacher, she told me “You know Jordan, many African Americans don’t pass my class.”

—Jordan1

I’m still trying to fit in; I’m still trying to figure out what’s my niche at the school so that I’ll be the best at who I am.

—Byron

It’s been a little back and forth. Like I said, I met some great people networking wise; I made some good connections regarding career wise—switching my major. But with me being in my fraternity and the stereotypes that they have there’s been a little bump with that. I’ve really been trying to get my grades up and get my fraternity back active on campus. People have the stereotypes of fraternities but our fraternity has the highest GPA on campus across all the fraternities and sororities. It just astonishes me how people can place a label on someone without knowing them. That’s more of an insulting thing and a baffling thing. So, it’s a little back and forth.

—Bannon

I thought I was going to be alone. I didn’t think I was going to succeed; I just thought I was going to try [college] and see how it went. I didn’t really expect to make it as far as I am now. I probably expected to live on campus all four years and I didn’t expect to be part of any organizations or things like that.

—Donald

These are the words of Black2 men about their time in college, from their concerns and expectations to their general and specific experiences on campus. The men were full-time college students who were involved in campus life and had experienced varying degrees of “success.” In many ways, they are statistics; the retention and completion rates of Black men have been tracked closely for the past two decades and their success (and “lack” of it) has been fodder for ongoing conversations, debates, and discussions (e.g., see Cuyjet, 2006; Garibaldi, 2007; Harper, 2014; Wood & Palmer, 2015).3 Predictably, Black male success in higher education—like all students—is about statistics, primarily tracked by retention and graduation data with the latter given much more weight within public and institutional discourse. To be sure, the men in this study do share graduating from college as a common goal. Yet, in many ways, how they envision their college experiences and successes, navigate college from the time of their initial enrollment, and make sense of their time on campus are critical to better understanding what the data reveal—and hide. Jordan, a fourth-year political science major, expressed conflictions about his college experiences. He was highly motivated to attend college but he was not accepted to the flagship university in his home state, which was his top choice while in high school. He had early difficulties in college because he wanted to go home; being in college was his first time away. He leaned on his spiritual beliefs in “trusting God” whenever he was faced with challenges. Jordan initially began school at a local community college, a decision he made so that he could be closer to his ailing aunt. He recounted his ability to balance the emotional and spiritual demands of his aunt’s poor health with his college requirements as evidence of his potential. As he related his time on campus thus far, he focused on a particular in-class interaction with a White female professor that challenged his identity and academic ability. Without ever evaluating any of Jordan’s work, or seeming to have the most basic insight into who he is, the professor essentialized his racial identity and clearly expressed a denigrated expectation because of his social identities.

Byron, a third-year business major, has seen his progression through his college years. He, too, attended a community college prior to his current four-year university. His decision to attend community college was twofold. First, school was not stressed in his family and he shared that no one in his home communicated to him the importance of school or a higher education degree. Also, he felt that his high school did not prepare him for college, so he did not have a strong foundation or belief in college success. His experiences at the community college highlighted the academic areas that he needed to strengthen, exposed him to a variety of fields, and helped him mature as both a student and person. Even though he has made great strides, Byron stresses the importance of belonging on campus; he shared that he is still trying to find his place in college “so that I’ll be the best at who I am.” He believes that finding his place, or establishing a sense of belonging, is the key to his self-actualization.

Bannon, a third-year student, is an applied engineering major and is highly involved on campus. He is a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity and is engaged in several African-American student organizations on campus as well, such as the Black Student Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Bannon shared that he was a high school football player and chose his current university because he could continue his football participation; additionally, he cited family dynamics, costs, and proximity to home to be factors as well. He noted that his college experience has had both its high and low points. The people that he has met while in college along with the networking connections have contributed positively to his college career. The stereotyping and profiling he has experienced due to his fraternity affiliation, however, have dulled these positive experiences. Expressing surprise to the stereotyping of his fraternity, Bannon felt insulted that people would think lowly of his fraternal organization—even though they perform well academically. Thus, for Bannon, his sense of belonging has shifted based on the social spaces and contexts that he navigates, yielding both positive and negative outcomes.

Donald, a junior political science major and executive board member of his campus’s Black Male Initiative program, approached entering college with ambivalence; he thought he would give it a try and see what results he could muster. He expressed concern about being alone or mattering in college and chose his current institution primarily because it was located in the same city as his home. He held no expectations of being involved on campus prior to arriving and did not envision himself making it to his third year. Like many students, he was unsure of his major and also unsure of his future plans regarding employment and career. Although he performed well in high school, he felt unprepared for college and had not given significant consideration to the college experience—or succeeding in college.

Confronting the Narrative

Much has been written about educating Black males across the K-20 pipeline. In fact, current research has noted once again that the underachievement of Black men in education is directly correlated with their lack of inclusion within American society. Over and over, we are promulgated with data and stories of Black male failures, the widening achievement gap, and what education scholar Pedro Noguera has identified as “the trouble with Black boys.”4 En masse, Black men have been viewed in pathological ways within educational arenas and wider society. The stories told within public media often focus on their presumed deficiencies and the “trouble” that entraps their lives. Additionally, within educational contexts, Black males often are perceived and defined by those within the group who perform less well. The negative framing of Black males and constant focus on their punishment, expulsion, or engagement with the criminal justice system have led to a deficit rhetoric that predominates views and discussions of the entire group. These sweeping judgments and primary focus on retention and graduation data mean that in many instances the actual experiences of Black males in educational settings often are unheard. In specifically examining their experiences in higher education, data from previous research left two fundamental questions: Where are the Black men and why are so few on our college campuses? By extension, a related question permeates: Does higher education matter to Black men? Without a more nuanced exploration into their experiences and their own perceptions, the men cited above would seem to reflect the status quo of the seemingly disinterested, disengaged Black male that many education professionals and researchers have written off. Men such as Jordan, Byron, Bannon, and Donald, along with many of their peers, offer insights that complicate the generalities often offered about Black male collegians and confront the deficit framing of Black men. These men often critically reflect on their experiences, social identities, and college careers. Unfortunately, their efforts and thoughts—and how they make sense of their educational experiences—have been overlooked and overshadowed too often in wider discussions.

Studies on Black male educational experiences have often posed them as the problem. Conceptions of their presumed deficiencies and opposition to learning and education have been used often to justify their achievement indices. For instance, Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu (1986) suggested that due to past discriminatory practices and limited educational resources, some Black students develop an “oppositional” culture to academic achievement. These types of theorizations led to focusing on the presumed values and norms adopted by the students within their schooling experience, giving primacy to their behaviors and actions while less attention was paid to their own conceptions, narratives, and understandings of their experiences and neglected to investigate institutional cultures and structures. A focus on Black male behaviors and expressions have allowed for discussions of their “difference” in educational settings and within the research arena as well. In institutional settings, this difference often has meant that efforts needed to be taken to get Black males to behave “correctly” or act “right” as well as demonstrating the values and norms outlined by mainstream society.5 Said differently, the primal focus has resulted in a rhetoric of how Black males ought to act in schools and across campuses and has not given enough attention to how Black males see and experience how institutions act upon them. Even as efforts focused on Black male success have increased in the past two decades, much more attention has been given to why Black male collegians do not achieve as opposed to examining reasons why they believe they are and can be successful, how they experience college, and their achievement efforts.

A second arena of inquiry that is ripe for investigation is examining their experiences in student-centered programming, such as Black Male Initiative programs. In response to the data and reports on Black male (under)achievement, institutions have bolstered their programming efforts to include initiatives to strategically target the Black male population. Institutions such as Jackson College (Men of Merit), Parkland College (Brothers United Network), and Prairie State College (Protégé) are just a few examples of the institutional work related to addressing earlier shortcomings at the community college level. Several colleges and universities have committed institutional space (via cultural or research centers), created initiatives, and established holistic programs to increase the retention and academic achievement of these students (for instance, Ohio State University created the Bell Resource Center and UCLA created the Black Male Institute). Additionally, student-led organizations have been created at multiple campuses including Arizona State University (African American Men of Arizona State University) and Rutgers University (Black Men’s Collective); and collegiate chapters of 100 Black Men of America and the Student African American Brotherhood (200+ campuses) are national organizational models that focus on Black male success and peer support as well. Some stakeholders have created system-based models such as the University System of Georgia’s African American Male Initiative (26 institutions) and the Arkansas African American Male Initiative (17 institutions) to name a few. Finally, some institutions have created conferences to convene stakeholders around the theme of Black male success such as the annual Black Male Summit hosted by the University of Akron. While these programs have been profiled and discussed—for instance, nine chapters of Michael Cuyjet’s (2006) edited volume profile such programs—very few efforts have been reported on how Black males experience their time engaged in these programs. Thus, increasing Black male retention, graduation, and achievement requires that we examine their experiences in campus-based activities specifically designed to achieve these goals. Taken collectively, more work is needed that adds depth to the experiential realities of Black males on college campuses.6

This book explores how Black male college students manage and negotiate their college years, working to find their place on campus, experiencing the social milieu, engaging in Black male student-centered activities, and persisting toward graduation. The book addresses the following questions: How do Black men articulate and make meaning of their experiences in college? In terms of their identities, how do Black males experience their race and gender on campus? What strategies do they employ in order to persist toward graduation? And, finally, how does participating in a Black Male Initiative program matter in their college experience?

To understand their experiences and tease out the nuances of various campus spaces, I conducted in-depth interviews with 40 Black male students at two different institutions and complemented these interviews with participant observation in some of their student-centered programs. Thirty-seven of the men in this study participated in the Black Male Initiative program on their campus. I spent some time attending meetings, attending events on and off campus, collaborating with program coordinators, and assisting the men in some of their programming efforts. The first institution, Lincoln State University, is a rural, medium-sized, historically White institution7; among the 10,000 students on campus, White students account for just over 70 percent of the population while Black students account for about 15 percent of the students. The school is located in Jefferson, which has a population of just over 20,000 residents and can be considered a college town. The median age in the city is 23 as compared to the state median of 42. Within the city, Whites account for 87 percent of the population while Blacks (7%), Hispanics (3%), and Asians (1.5%) account for the other major racial groups. Lincoln State is a master’s level granting institution. The second institution, Monroe State University, is a large, public, research-focused institution, located in a metropolitan urban city. White students account for about 85 percent while Blacks account for 7 percent of the more than 20,000 students in the school’s population. Monroe State is located in a city of over 600,000 people. The median age in the city is 37, which reflects the median of the state (38). Whites and Blacks account for the overwhelming majority of city residents; Whites make up 70 percent of the population while Blacks are just over 20 percent. Hispanics and Asians make up a small percentage of the city population as they account for 4 and 2 percent, respectively. Lincoln State and Monroe State report strong trends in student retention; over the past decade, Lincoln State has retained about 80 percent of its students annually while Monroe State’s retention is similar at about 77 percent. Additionally, Lincoln State has graduated about 60 percent of its students steadily over a 6-year period and Monroe State, in response to targeted efforts, has steadily increased its graduation rate, which now stands near 55 percent.

As both institutions revere their (increasing) racial and ethnic diversity on campus, celebrated through student programming and various cultural events, they also have made strategic plans to improve the experiences of their diverse populations. More specifically, the Black male student population is a group that both institutions have targeted for increased retention and graduation rates. In an effort to achieve these goals, both of the institutions have an active Black Male Initiative (BMI) program on campus. Lincoln State University’s program, Mighty Men Mentoring, is organized through the Student Affairs office. The program is not a registered student organization, which means that they do not receive funding through student government. Three staff members, all Black males during the years that I observed, coordinated the weekly meetings while Mighty Men members initiated and developed the majority of the program’s events and activities. In the fall, Mighty Men hosts a welcome event for Black male students and during the spring the men are engaged in a program retreat that focuses on the men’s health and well-being. They also conduct programing for Black History Month as well and collaborate with other organizations on campus when possible.

According to Monroe State University’s recently developed Diversity Plan, several initiatives are included to focus on particular student groups, one of which is Black males. The Brothers & Scholars program, established within the past few years and coordinated by one Black male staff member, is charged with researching and implementing strategies to improve the retention and graduation of undergraduate Black males. In attempting to achieve its goals, Brothers & Scholars sponsors activities and events that directly address the needs of their Black male student population. Students are engaged in monthly meetings, social outings, community service, academic study tables, and various other activities as well. Both Mighty Men and Brothers & Scholars are academic and social cohesion programs that focus on peer group development while serving to help students transition to the university and support them throughout their collegiate careers. These efforts, both individually and collectively, are aimed at building a microcommunity for Black male students that provides an academic, social, and personal support network. I report my findings in the context of both campuses.

Most of Being Black, Being Male on Campus focuses on how the men narrate and make meaning from their college experiences. Although the campuses are distinct in their location and size, students from both universities characterize much of their on-campus experiences with race and gender similarly. The stories shared in this book examine their academic aspirations and early colle...