Deconstruction & Analysis: Reframing & Legitimizing the Complexity of Black Masculinity

Deconstruction & AnalysisReframing & Legitimizing the Complexity of Black Masculinity O'Shan D. Gadsden, PhD (bio) and Travis T. Harris, PhD (bio) A Step Toward Legitimating Black Masculinity Black males continue to occupy the identity space of marginalization; often not afforded a full range of complexity and humanity. The insidious assignment of pathology upon our personage often does not afford Black males the space needed to develop and navigate their lives in ways that foster the expansion of being a fully complex human being. Consequently, Black males often find themselves second guessing themselves, consistently dodging multiple forms of cultural invalidation, while trying to manage the mounting anxiety that results as a consequence of internalizing the constant psychological, cultural, relational, and physical terrorism that seems to be historically and currently assigned to being Black and male. These assaultive experiences often leave Black men feeling invisible, muzzled, misunderstood; while also finding themselves perceived as adjectival problematic identities (Guy, 2014). The inter-generational internalization of this "problematic identity" has enacted a vicious collective cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy, negatively impacting the psyche of Black men, while reifying their social location as belonging outside of the privileges of normal socio-political-psychological engagement and mobility. Lewis Gordon argued in his article, Problematic People and Epistemic Decolonization, that this extrasystemic identity in effect often has positioned Black men to "belong nowhere. . … and their problems, being themselves, mean that they cannot gain the legitimating force of recognition. It is the notion of a complete perfect {white hetero-normative patriarchal} system that enables members of the system to deny the existence of problems within the system (pg.125)." One need to only observe critically the US's history of engagement with Black males to understand the disastrous effects of [End Page 1] such engagement on the ability of Black males to psychologically-culturally-spiritually survive and thrive. My field, applied psychology specifically and the mental health field more broadly, has been in step with and colluded with the problematizing of Black males. This has been and continues to be enacted by psychological-clinical models and interventions being normed on Non-Black populations and presented as a set of universally true theories and clinical practices that are efficacious in both explaining and responding to the "human" condition; often in direct disregard of the psycho-cultural-spiritual realities and needs of Black males. It is my argument that this blatant disregard for the specific subjectivities and needs for Black folxs deny Black males a space to be properly understood culturally and clinically. As such, the field of applied psychology and the western/European mental health field respectively, have both been accessories and contributors to the domination and oppression of Black males via cognitive, emotional, academic, and clinical colonization. It is my contention, like many other critical theorists and practitioners; that the field of applied psychology and mental health broadly, has accomplished the above by placing themselves, their conceptualizations, theoretical models, and clinical interventions as the standard by which all non-western/european/white cultures (and, Black males) are to be understood, compared, and acted upon (i.e., research questions/methodologies and clinical interventions). As such, many of these western/european/white models are no more than a cultural narcissistic mirroring of themselves and their consciousness; implicitly and explicitly enforced. Considering this, one can see the imperativeness of decolonized models of mental health and identity that are epistemologically, ontologically, and qualitatively dissimilar to western/european mental health models. Decolonized models that are free of "conceptual incarceration" (i.e., distorted [cultural] conceptions of reality that have negative psycho-cultural-spiritual consequences) for Black males (Nobles, 2013). This, can only become reality when we have explicit Black male centered decolonizing research-methodological frameworks that can transcend discipline, theoretical purpose, and be enacted via praxis for the ultimate psychological-cultural-political-spiritual empowerment of Black males. These type of radical Black male centered frameworks demand that researchers and practitioners alike come to their work with Black males understanding, internalizing, and practically utilizing several assumptions and suppositions as they approach such work. [End Page 2] As such, decolonized Black male centered frameworks must articulate the following assumptions: 1. Normative research often misses a fuller nuanced...