Reconstituting the object: Black male studies and the problem of studying black men and boys within patriarchal gender theory

Abstract

Contemporary theories of Black masculinity often insist that Black men and boys seek to imitate white patriarchy through violence and deviance. These arguments rely on outdated criminological assumptions such as subculture of violence theory. Consequently, feminist gender theories restate classist and racist interpretations of Black males that are out of line with contemporary social scientific research. Black men and boys are objects defined by lack and interpreted as being in need of remedy from Black maleness. This chapter introduces Black Male Studies as a challenge to the mimetic theories of Black masculinity found within contemporary feminist and intersectional research. Through a historiographic reconstruction of the mid-twentieth century idea of gender, and an alternative account of patriarchy as a race-sex kinship system, this chapter argues that Black Male Studies provides a more accurate and verifiable account of Black male life and death in Western patriarchal societies.