# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In today's media-saturated world, nothing goes unseen. And now that we are all stuck inside because of the Coronavirus, that is even more true. This isn't a good thing for 17-year-old rapper and internet personality Bhad Bhabie, whose recent appearances in the media have drawn backlash over cultural appropriation.

You might know Danielle Bregoli, also known as Bhad Bhabie, from her 2016 appearance on Dr. Phil. She became known as the "catch-me-outside girl" after she reacted to heckling in the crowd with, "Catch me outside, how about that?", or "Cash me outside, howbowdah?" as it came out in her Floridian accent.

Bregoli never caught a glimpse of any good that can come from the spotlight, not since that debut. Many people have despised her since early on. Even the music manager who signed her in 2017 received criticism.

Most recently, she has upset individuals from the Black community with her recent attempts to make herself appear darker on social media posts, and for wearing box braids. Bregoli is the child of a Jewish father and a mother of Italian descent. The cultural appropriation accusations started to boil over after a video was posted by Bhad Bhabie where she had applied foundation to darken her skin.

Asyera Clarke reminds us that this is a case of modern-day blackface. "People can just say it's makeup," Clarke said, "but no, if you want to appear darker, get a spray tan. There is no reason I should be seeing white people picking and choosing [when] they want to appear darker when we wear our skin every day through all oppression with pride."

After facing a huge wave of negative responses, Bad Bhabie went live to tackle and clear up all of the racism accusations. Unfortunately, her response was tone-deaf. She started addressing the comments that she wanted to be black. Bad Bhabie then started to compare growing up in the hood to the jungle.

"Maybe the reason for [appearing black] is because I grew up in the hood," she said. "Tarzan...he grew up around the bears in the jungle. He didn't know any better! ... That's all he knows! When someone grows up in a certain area or a certain place, they're a part of their environment."

Understandably, the Black community grew angry with the fact that she compared growing up in the hood to living with wild animals.

Keesha Bernadin reminds us that Bhad Bhabie preaches that she doesn't want to be Black, but her actions don't match her words. Jael Goldfine from Paper Mag notes that Bregoli has parodied Black women since her initial appearance on Dr. Phil, which was full of African-American Vernacular English.

It is disappointing to Bernadin to go on social media every day and see hairstyles she grew up wearing essentially being gentrified in the media. Women of color wear these styles to protect their hair, while Bad Bhabie and others wear it as a fashion choice.

"It is really hard to understand how many Black women grow up trying to normalize a hairstyle from when they were younger," Bernadin said. "There are many cases where individuals made fun of my classmates for wearing 'horse hair.'"

A Tik Tok rant video surfaced of student Madison Payne explaining the topic of cultural appropriation after Bhad Bhabie blew up in the media. She explains the problem many of us know all too well.

"First things first," Payne says, "They are protective hairstyles to protect a person of color's hair. And for people of color, especially black people, those hairstyles are so deeply ingrained into the history and culture of who they are."

Y oung white teens make Tik Tok videos playing Black people on the screen with hair extensions. Those same teens can't respond to Black people "wanting it back" by claiming that Black women who straighten their hair are doing the same thing. Payne reminds us, "You can not appropriate white culture."

Her goal with the video explaining cultural appropriation is not to tear down anyone, but to bring emotional clarity to others who did not grow up Black, and to explain how it may feel to see a white person acting this way. The goal is to be less ignorant and more educated on the topic of blackfishing and cultural appropriation.

Photo by Irina Iriser on Unsplash

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In today's media-saturated world, nothing goes unseen. And now that we are all stuck inside because of the Coronavirus, that is even more true. This isn't a good thing for 17-year-old rapper and internet personality Bhad Bhabie, whose recent appearances in the media have drawn backlash over cultural appropriation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's long been suspected that black girls are perceived as more adult-like and less innocent than white girls in school and other environments, and a new report offers further confirmation that this is the case.

Researchers with the Initiative on Gender Justice and Opportunity at Georgetown Law's Center on Poverty and Inequality spoke directly toblack girls and women across the country about how they are forced to deal with harmful perceptions - like that black girls are more mature and less in need of protection than other students - from a young age.

This phenomenon, which the researchers refer to as "adultification bias," was examined in a 2017 report from the same team. The latest report builds on those findings by including the lived experiences of black women and girls. It's also worth noting that manyof the women cited in the report recalled dealing with the same sorts of issues in their childhoods, showing that this is far from a new problem.

According to participants in the Georgetown study, which was released on Wednesday, "when Black girls express strong or contrary views, adults view them as challenging authority or, more fundamentally, simply assume a girl's character is just plain 'bad.'"

This bias also likely plays a role in the increasing use of discipline against black girls in the classroom, by law enforcement, and in interactions with authority figures, even though they are no more likely to misbehave than white girls.

"It's really striking that in the context of childhood, which is the epitome of innocence, black girls are not getting the benefits of being viewed as innocent," Rebecca Epstein, the executive director of the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, told Vox.

Black girls say they are often given less support than their peers - and that authority figures often react to them more harshly

In their first report on this issue in 2017, the Georgetown Law researchers found that black girls as young as 5 years old are already seen as less innocent, and needing less support, than white girls of the same age. This presumption led teachers and other authority figures to treat black girls as older than they actually are and more harshly than white female students, with the disparity being particularly wide for 10- to 14-year-olds.

For the new study, researchers held several focus groups with black women and girls, which were broken up by age - girls as young as 12 and women as old as 60 participated. They asked them to respond to many of the findings of the 2017 Georgetown Law report, and particularly asked them if the findings about adultification bias aligned with their own life experiences.

Their overwhelming response was yes. By and large, the women and girls in the focus groups said that they had a "well, of course" reaction to the 2017 report, confirming that they were often treated more harshly than their white peers and were often accused of having "attitudes" and being "aggressive" when they attempted to defend themselves or explain their points of view to authority figures.

"Black women and girls really attributed the source of this to the historical roots of slavery and the intersectionality of being black and a woman," says Jamilia Blake, a Texas A&M professor and a co-author of the report. "These issues didn't come out of the blue."

Women in the focus groups also added other suggestions for what could be behind this discriminatory treatment. They pointed to a number of factors, including "negative stereotypes of Black women, as well as racism, sexism, and poverty." They also shared a belief thateducators may be punishing black girls for failing to conform to "feminine" or "ladylike behavior" and forcing black girls to meet different standards.

The result is that across the country, when a black girl misbehaves, her behavior is often treated as a deliberate, calculated infraction, rather than as a child making a mistake. Comments from women and girls in the focus groups provide further insight into the ways black girls have experienced this in their daily lives.

One 15-year-old girl described a traffic stop where a police officer criticized her for not carrying identification, telling the girl that she was lying about her age, assuming that she was older. When the girl maintained that she was, in fact, 15, she was handcuffed and fingerprinted, and the officer told the girl that her actions put her in that situation. "He was like: 'Well, child, you know, don't lie to us. And if you tell us the real - your real age and real name, we wouldn't have to be going through none of this,'" the girl recalled in the report.

Women and girls also recalled being told that they were disrespecting authority for asking questions in schools. Black girls were often punished for vague things like "having an attitude" or "defiance."

"Most times when you try to, like, defend yourself, they see how you're talking back," a participant in a 17- to 23-year-old focus group said. "And then they'll be like, 'There's consequences,'" which could mean detention or suspension. "They always feel like you're talking back, but you're really not. You're just trying to defend, like, get your side across," she added.

Many of the women and girls who spoke to researchers also described having to deal with people's expectations that they were angry or aggressive. Starting in childhood, black girls are seen as "sassy," or accused of having attitude problems, perceptions often rooted in stereotypes of the "angry black woman."

In other cases, black girls are subjected to sexualization, with people accusing them of being "fast" or of trying to attract male attention with their clothes. The latter, which seems to align with the ways black women have historically been oversexualized and subjected to the "Jezebel" stereotype (a belief dating back to slavery that frames black women as hypersexual predators looking to corrupt men) has been linked to issues with school dress codes.

The National Women's Law Center noted in a 2018 report that black girls are more likely to be penalized for wearing the same things as other girls, and their bodies are often sexualized by teachers and school authority figures, who then punish them for minuscule or nonexistent clothing infractions.

Taken together, these presumptions lead to black girls being held to a different standard, and facing punishments for not fitting a specific definition of quiet, reserved femininity. In so many ways, a woman in one of the focus groups observed, "we're told to be smaller, quieter, lighter, prettier."

It's likely that these biases fuel a number of growing disparities that black girls face when interacting with law enforcement, schools, and the justice system, and this may have a heavy impact on their future.

A number of systems are failing black girls, and it's fueling inequality

The Georgetown Law report is just the latest in a growing body of research looking at the systemic ways black girls are penalized and discriminated against from a young age. And as a new report on the criminalization of black girls in USA Today notes, a large part of the problem is that institutional systems are simply not prepared to help them.

A 2012 report from the African American Policy Forum, for example, noted that when it comes to school discipline, black girls are often punished more severely in school because they are seen as more aggressive and less feminine than white girls.

And this institutional failure to address this problem means that more and more black girls are being pushed into the school-to-prison pipeline.

Federal civil rights data has found that black girls are five to six times more likely to be suspended from their schools than white girls. Black girls are a relatively small percentage of the national student population but accounted for more than 40 percent of girls with multiple out-of-school suspensions in the 2011-'12 school year, according to the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights. In every state in the country, black girls are more likely to be suspended or referred to the juvenile justice system than their white peers.

It's also likely that the perception of black girls as older and less needing of protection plays a role in high-profile incidents involving police use of force against black girls, like when a teenage girl was thrown in the classroom by a school resource officer in South Carolina in 2015, or more recent incidents, like an 11-year old girl being tasered by a police officer for allegedly shoplifting, a 14-year old black girl being struck and violently arrested by police in Coral Springs, Florida, or an incident this past January where four 12-year-old black and Latina girls were suspected of drug use and allegedly strip-searched in their New York school because they appeared "hyper and giddy."

And in some areas, like Washington, DC, the number of girls being pushed into the juvenile justice system is actually increasing even as efforts to help black boys leads to declines in their arrests.

While school discipline and interactions with law enforcement are among the most serious ways that misperceptions of black girls can negatively affect them, there are other ways that this bias can have an impact. For example, there's a possibility that black girls being seen as older can affect their access to mentorship and leadership opportunities in the future, since they're seen as less in need.

"Across all systems, this can have a negative impact," Blake says. "The individuals who are making these decisions are making high-stakes decisions, if they're operating under this bias and they're in decision-making positions, that can have significant impact on black girls and, eventually, black women."

Of course, while awareness of these issues has increased in recent years, researchers also say it's necessary to examine the issue further, particularly when it comes to understanding the lasting effects this adultification bias has for black women.

The report does offer some solutions beyond raising awareness of the issue, adding that educators and authority figures must also take action by improving their cultural competence and learning how to communicate with black girls effectively. Researchers are also encouraging black women and girls to share their stories and talk about how this bias has affected them on an online platform that was launched alongside the new report.

Black women and girls involved in the focus groups agreed that these solutions are a helpful step in understanding the ways bias and racism affect them. But they also expressed skepticism that more data about the problem would be enough to change these biases. As one focus group participant explained, "[W]hat this will do is help me win the argument ... [but that] is different than getting them to do something about the problem."

As efforts to increase knowledge and force change continues, researchers say the most important thing is for people interacting with black girls to remember that they are just that: girls.

"Those in [positions of] authority over black girls lives need to treat girls based on their developmental age, not their race," Epstein said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A new report shows how racism and bias deny black girls their childhoods

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's long been suspected that black girls are perceived as more adult-like and less innocent than white girls in school and other environments, and a new report offers further confirmation that this is the case.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Abstract

This study's purpose was to explore the reasons Black women are disproportionately single according to the unique viewpoint of married Black men. The sample comprised 52 married Black men who resided in northeast Georgia (mean age = 43). Qualitative interviews were conducted in 2010 as part of the Pathways to Marriage study. The authors analyzed the data in a collaborative fashion and utilized content analyses to explore the relationships in the data which were derived from qualitative interviews with the men. Findings on the reasons for the disproportionality of singlehood among Black women reflected these four themes: gender relations, marriage education and socialization, individual development, and a preference for gay/lesbian relationships. Recommendations for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Black, singlehood, marriage patterns, women, qualitative

Recent estimates highlight an important trend--Black women are less likely to enter into marriage or remarry than are Black men or women from other racial and ethnic groups ( American Fact Finder, 2011; Banks, 2011; Taylor, Tucker, Chatters, & Jayakody, 1997; Wanzo, 2011). Furthermore, 7 out of 10 Black women are unmarried and 3 out of 10 may never marry ( Banks, 2011). Thus, the disproportionate number of Black women who are single has been well-documented. This demographic pattern is so noticeable, that it has even received considerable attention from popular media (e.g., CNN documentary titled, "Black in America;" ABC News Nightline special titled, "Why Can't a Successful Black Woman Find a Man?").

Social scientists have found considerable heterogeneity in Black women's reasons for remaining single. Among those desiring to marry, scholars have identified barriers related to economic instabilities, challenges that undermine long-term relationship success (e.g., difficulty trusting, current relationship problems, pain from past relationships, inequities in human capital between partners, fears of divorce) and concerns about readiness for marriage (e.g., lack of skills and preparedness for marriage) ( Banks, 2011; Bulcroft & Bulcroft, 1993; Edin & Reed, 2005; Gibson-Davis, Edin, & McLanahan, 2005; Hatchett, 1991; Holland, 2009; King, 1999; Marbley, 2003). Other work suggests that some women are happy to remain unmarried, given their uncertainties about the permanency of marriage or their desire to concentrate on their professional lives (e.g., education, jobs) and personal responsibilities (e.g., parenting) ( Banks, 2011; Collins, 2000; Holland, 2009; King, 1999). Boyd-Franklin and Franklin (1998) have counseled Black women in clinical settings on these issues. They have noted that Black women are frequently provided with conflicting messages about intimate relationships by elders in their families and communities. Boyd-Franklin and Franklin (1998) wrote:

One is a message of independence (e.g., 'God bless the child who has her own.'), with its implication that Black men cannot be trusted to stay with and provide for women. The other is a message that a woman's utmost goal is to find a Black man who will take care of her ( Boyd-Franklin & Franklin, 1998, p. 272).

These contradictory statements have created situations in which either women do not form lasting intimate relationships with men or women experience difficulties in their intimate ties ( Boyd-Franklin & Franklin, 1998).

Though prior work has sampled Black women to learn more about reasons for remaining single, very few studies consider the perspectives of married Black men. We focused on the opinions of these men for three reasons. First, while previous research has examined union formation from the perspective of Black women, rarely is the perspective of married Black men reported in studies of marriage patterns in the Black community ( Marks, Hopkins-Williams, Chaney, Neseruk, & Sasser, 2010; Taylor, Chatters, Tucker, & Lewis, 1990). The voices and perspectives of Black men who could provide in-depth accounts are largely absent from the literature ( Marks, 2005; Michael & Tuma, 1985). To respond to our inquiry, the men in the present study offered opinions about relationships by reflecting on their own dating and marital histories, as well as their observations of intimate ties in their families and communities. We obtained perspectives from men who value marriage, as evidenced by their commitment to enrolling in and completing a marriage enrichment program. From this perspective, obtaining the opinions of married men is particularly important since men traditionally initiate marriage proposals. Second, as parents/caregivers and mentors, these men play an important role in teaching younger generations about relationships (author citation; Elder, 1997; Furstenburg & Hughes, 1995). Third, Black men's opinions could help researchers better understand the factors that continue to challenge relationships between Black men and women.

Marriage uniquely offers benefits in physical, psychological, and financial well-being ( Blackman, Clayton, Glenn, Malone-Colon, & Roberts, 2005; Malone-Colon, 2007). Children raised in marriage-based households also exhibit more favorable developmental outcomes over time ( Blackman et al., 2005; Malone-Colon, 2007; Marks et al., 2010). For many Black adults who do wish to marry, marriage seems an elusive goal ( Allen & James, 1998; McLoyd, Cauce, Takeuchi, & Wilson, 2000; Taylor et al., 1997). They are not turning away from marriage; on the contrary, members of the Black community still respect the institution of marriage and its symbolic value ( Banks, 2011; Edin & Reed, 2005; Marks et al., 2008). Given that stable, satisfying marriages have been associated with positive outcomes (e.g., Blackman et al., 2005, Malone-Colon, 2007), single Black women may not be reaping the rewards that marriage offers.

Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore reasons that Black women are disproportionately single; we explore those reasons using the perspectives of 52 married Black men. Married Black men offer a unique perspective on this important demographic trend in our country. Very few studies of relationships include the opinions and voices of men, particularly Black men. In this respect, this investigation makes an important contribution to the literature. Next, we outline relevant literature concerning the influence of macro-level (e.g., education, employment, sex ratio) and micro-level factors (e.g., gender relations, interpersonal trust) on relationships.

Background

The Mundane Environmental Stress Model served as a conceptual guide to help elucidate the processes by which structural factors may impact intimate relationships. The Mundane Environmental Stress Model describes how mundane stress, in addition to ongoing experiences with discrimination and racially-linked events, impact psychological well-being and relationship orientations ( Carroll, 1998; Clark & Haldane, 2000; Peters & Massey, 1983). Another comparable framework-the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation Model-is a useful tool for understanding factors that could explain non-marriage among Black women. The model emphasizes three components-stressful events (e.g., economic inequality, incarceration), adaptive processes (e.g., strategies for responding to relationship stress such as independent spirit and focus on completing one's education), and enduring vulnerabilities (e.g., individual characteristics that shape the relationship like personal history and experiences) ( Chambers & Kravitz, 2011). Both models highlight how structural inequalities in education, employment, sex ratio, and incarceration may set in motion family processes that undergird men and women's abilities to form and maintain stable unions ( Ooms & Wilson, 2004; Pinderhughes, 2002; Waller, 1999). For example, observable challenges might be reflected in an individual's inability to meet roles and responsibilities because of structural inequalities. Therefore, it is critical to consider the influence of such macro-level influences on intimate ties and understand how these influences differentially shape relationship experiences for men and women ( Clark & Haldane, 1990). Next, we discuss empirical work on the impact of education, employment, sex ratio, and incarceration on relationships.

Education and employment

Educational achievement and employability have been linked to Blacks' entry into marriage and their marital satisfaction ( Banks, 2011; Bowleg, 2004; Lichter, LeClere, & McLaughlin, 1991). Particularly among men, as incomes rise and jobs become more secure, the probability of marriage increases ( Gibson-Davis et al., 2005; Hill, 2009; Smock, Manning, & Porter, 2005). Though marriage is delayed when Black men pursue postsecondary education, the probability of marriage increases ( Marks et al., 2008; Marbley, 2003; Oppenheimer, 2003).

Among Black men, scholars have noted a decline in well-paying jobs, and consequentially, a rise in unemployment and underemployment ( Browning, 1999; Marks et al., 2008; Staples, 1985). Ethnographic work has highlighted how compromised educational and economic opportunities, as well as perceived loss of freedom, undermined the likelihood that men will marry ( Anderson, 1999). Furthermore, economic opportunities have waned for Black men and Black women with criminal records; blocked opportunities in the labor market and the continuous surveillance and follow-up often required after imprisonment hinders one's ability to participate in the workforce ( Clayton & Moore, 2003). This reduction in employment prospects for Black men has been termed the "depletion effect" ( Clayton & Moore, 2003). This effect undermines family formation and promotes joblessness and loss of power in relationships ( Clayton & Moore, 2003).

Recently, there has been evidence to suggest that Black women have advanced more in education and job opportunities relative to Black men ( Banks, 2011; Burton & Tucker, 2009; Cazenave, 1983; Chambers & Kravitz, 2011). Dickson (1993) noted that women are encouraged to pursue education, secure employment, and be self-reliant in communities where there is a shortage of marriageable men, as in the Black community. Black women have traditionally worked in the labor force to help sustain their families, but over time, they have become even more independent and less likely to marry solely for financial support ( Hill, 2004; Jones, 1985; Taylor et al.,, 1990). As the discrepancy between education and employment prospects for Black men and Black women increases, greater challenges in their formation and maintenance of intimate relationships could follow ( Burton & Tucker, 2009; Chambers & Kravitz, 2011; Pinderhughes, 2002).

Black women's upward social mobility may not always be celebrated by Black men, who may view themselves in competition with Black women for similar educational and employment opportunities or may have difficulty relating to women who might otherwise be viewed as intimidating ( Cazenave, 1983; Collins, 2000; Marbley, 2003). Cazenave (1983) documented a sentiment among Black men that Black women helped block social mobility for Black men; they attributed these women's efforts to Black women's low regard for their male peers.

Sex ratio

There are 91 Black males per 100 Black females ( American Fact Finder, 2012). Available Black females outnumber Black males as a result of mortality, morbidity, and imprisonment among Black males and increased longevity for Black females ( Lane et al., 2004; Marks et al., 2008). When there are more women than men, the likelihood of marriage for women is poorer ( Harknett & McLanahan, 2004). The availability of mates in the marriage market affects the likelihood of marital formation and longevity ( Hopkins-Williams, 2007). In marriage markets where women are outnumbered by men, men can be more selective when choosing a mate and exert more leverage in romantic ties, using their influence to control relationship formation and duration ( Dickson, 1993; Hill, 2004; Senn, Carey, Vanable, & Seward, 2009). The imbalance of males to females is further exacerbated by the increased likelihood that Black men will marry someone of another race (as compared to Black women), thereby further reducing the number of marriageable Black males available to wed Black females ( Banks, 2011; Batson, Qian, & Lichter, 2006; Bowleg, 2004; Crowder & Tolnay, 2000; Hill, 2004).

Incarceration

The higher proportion of incarcerated Black adults has been negatively linked to marriage ( Clayton & Moore, 2003; Lane et al., 2004). Blacks, and Black males in particular, have been imprisoned at higher rates than Whites or women ( Clayton & Moore, 2003). One third of Black men between the ages of 20 and 29 are in prison ( Clayton & Moore, 2003). The proportion of Black men and women incarcerated has been more strongly associated with non-marriage than with the sex ratio ( Banks, 2011; Harknett & McLanahan, 2004). Other work highlights specific ways in which romantic relationships deteriorate after a male is incarcerated, such as loss of instrumental and emotional support, as well as intimacy ( Roy & Dyson, 2005).

Despite considerable attention to macro-level influences that impact Black unions, only a fraction of the variations in relationship patterns can be attributed to structural factors such as employment, education, sex ratio, and incarceration ( Cherlin, 1992; Wilson, 1997). Therefore, it seems critical to reflect on other reasons, such as micro-level factors, that might shape the tenor of Black relationships such as gender relations and interpersonal trust ( Bennett, Bloom, & Craig, 1989; Cherlin, 1992; Tucker & Mitchell-Kernan, 1995). We review these two relationship dynamics next.

Gender Relations

Research suggests that slavery in the U.S. and its consequences explain some of the challenges in relationship formation and maintenance between Black men and women today ( Banks, 2011; Bowleg, 2004; Pinderhughes, 2002). Enslaved Black men were customarily removed from their families and communities, and thus, their function in family life was often more biological than social or financial ( Boyd-Franklin, 1993; Franklin, 1997; Staples, 1987). Slavery conditions may have significantly undermined the formation of permanent unions and the leadership roles of Black men in their families ( Pinderhughes, 2002). Given the marginal roles relegated to Black men within their families and the history of strained gender relations that may be attributable to harsh slavery conditions, communication challenges and confusion about gender roles between Black men and women developed ( Franklin, 1997; Hatchett, 1991; Pinderhughes, 2002). This confusion in the gender roles between Black men and women can be traced to fluidity in gender roles between the two genders; gender roles were flexible out of economic necessity. Pinderhughes (2002) attributed the existence of "deep scars" in relational ties between Black men and Black women to the conditions of slavery as well as to their contemporary experiences of racism and discrimination (p. 272). Relational challenges, negative orientations and attitudes, and difficult interactional styles between Black men and Black women were passed on to younger generations through socialization ( Boyd-Franklin, 2003; Browning, 1999; Johnson, 2007).

Gender relations between Black men and Black women have been characterized as tense ( Collins, 2000; Edin & Reed, 2005). Strain in gender relations may be rooted in slavery and discrimination; as such, various manifestations may have resulted in generalized distrust, an inability to effectively communicate with one another, and navigating non-complementary gender roles ( Cazenave, 1983; Chambers & Kravitz, 2011; Dickson, 1993; Edin & Reed, 2005). Franklin (1984) offers an illustration of how conflicting sex roles may operate: "A Black woman may feel that her Black man is supposed to assume a dominant role, but she also may be inclined to exhibit behaviors that are opposed to his dominance and her sub ordinance" (p. 143).

In addition, the spirit of independence and a sense of personal rights among Black women, which developed out of the necessity for coping with persistent inequality, may strain couple relationships between Black men and Black women ( Hill, 2004; Johnson, 2007). Moreover, these relational dispositions may challenge a Black woman's ability to establish a long-term, interdependent, committed relationship with a Black man. In addition to gender relations, another micro-level factor to consider relates to interpersonal trust, which we address next.

Interpersonal Trust

Interpersonal trust, defined as one's expectation of the predictability and dependability of another's actions, words, or written statements, is a critical aspect of forming and maintaining intimate ties. Scholars underscore the salience of interpersonal trust in studies of Black relationships ( Burton, Cherlin, Winn, Estacion, & Holder-Taylor, 2009; Edin, 2000; Wilson 1997). For example, women's distrust of men was linked to their relationship histories; firsthand experiences with infidelity, financial irresponsibility, and desertion led women to be wary of men ( Edin, 2000; Edin & Kefalas, 2011; Gibson-Davis et al., 2005). Wilson (1997) documented Black women's distrust of men and their doubts of men's commitment to family life and ability to maintain stable employment. Women's distrust of men contributed to their pessimism about having a satisfying marriage ( Wilson, 1997). In sum, though many women desire to marry, relational concerns about whether men can be trusted create anxieties about entering long-term unions like marriage ( Edin & Kefalas, 2011; Gibson-Davis et al., 2005; Wilson, 1997). Having considered macro-level and micro-level factors that impact Black relationships, we now turn our attention to the rationale for this study.

Study Purpose

Few investigations of relationships have adopted a within-group analysis approach and focused exclusively on Black men. There are gaps in the literature on Black men, particularly with regard to type of samples and kind of methodologies employed. Much of the research in this area has employed quantitative methodology with larger samples, and has focused on the influential role of education, employment, intermarriage, and nonmarital childbearing on marital behavior. Several qualitative studies have been conducted but have primarily used samples of women or couples (e.g., Banks, 2011; Edin, 2000; Gibson-Davis et al., 2005; Holland, 2009; Johnson, 2007; Lane et al., 2004). No study of which we are aware has sought the perspective of married Black men to better understand why a disproportionate number of Black women are single. Although Black women may offer the best insight on these experiences, we interviewed Black men to capture their unique perspectives on the issues. Therefore, we believe that the results of this study add to the literature. We used qualitative methodology to deeply explore Black men's opinions about the disproportionality in singlehood among Black women. We felt that a qualitative inquiry could provide a richer understanding of these issues elucidated by Black men than had been obtained using survey measurements in quantitative studies.

Method

Qualitative data were gathered from 52 married Black men who participated in the Program for Strong African American Marriages (ProSAAM), a five-year randomized study of 393 couples begun in 2006. The purpose of ProSAAM was to examine the role of prayer and skill-based intervention in strengthening African American marital relationships. The sample was recruited from metropolitan Atlanta and northeast Georgia through referrals and advertisements at churches, community centers, radio shows, print media, and local businesses frequented by Black couples and families (for more details, visit http://www.uga.edu/prosaam).

Of the 393 couples who participated in ProSAAM, 109 husbands had completed their three-year follow-up assessment by December 1, 2009, marking their completion of the larger ProSAAM study and were thus eligible for participation in the present study called Pathways to Marriage. Recruitment brochures describing the project's focus, eligibility criteria, risks and benefits, interview procedures, and study contact information were mailed to these 109 men. Fifty-two men consented to participate. The men were enrolled on a first-come, first-served basis. Participating husbands were compensated $75 for completing one interview of approximately two hours in duration.

Sample

A brief survey was administered to the participants to collect demographic information. The mean age for the study participants was 43 (range 27-62). All men reported their race as Black; one man identified himself as a Cuban American while all the others self-identified as African American. (Black was used to describe the race of the sample in order to include ethnicities such as Cuban American and African American.) All of the men were married. Relative to schooling, 8% reported less than a high school education, 21% had finished high school, 27% had completed some college or technical school education, 19% had earned a college degree, 10% had received some graduate education, and 15% had achieved a graduate or advanced degree. The mean individual annual income among the men was $30,000 - $39,999; individual incomes ranged widely, however, with a few earning less than $5,000 per year while others earned more than $80,000 per year. The mean household annual income was $50,000 - $59,999. About 68% attended a Christian church while 22% went to nondenominational Christian centers. One man (2%) reported no religion and four men (8%) offered no response to the religious affiliation question. Most men fathered two biological children (range 0 -7). One man (2%) did not respond when asked if he had children. Most men reported living in a home with two children (range 0 - 3).

This sample of Black men recalled being romantically involved (including dating and marriage) with their wives for 16 years on average (range 3 - 41 years; one participant gave no response). Seventy-three percent of the men had not been married previously. One-fifth (21%) of the men were married for a second time, 2 men (4%) were in their third marriage, and one man (2%) was in his fourth. The average length of their current marriage was 14 years (range 2 - 35).

Procedures

The 52 men were interviewed in their homes or another setting of their choice (e.g., a private room at a coffee shop or church office). The interviews were semi-structured, and were the primary method of data collection. Each interviewee was assured anonymity and strict confidentiality of the data collected.

Two married Black male interviewers conducted the interviews between January and April 2010. To help facilitate rapport during the interviews, and given the sensitive nature of the questions that were asked of the husbands about their marriages, the interviewers and participants were matched by race and gender (see Cooney, Small, & O'Connor, 2007; McCurdy & Daro, 2001). The men were asked about the meaning of marriage, marital socialization, their motivations for marrying and staying married, factors that helped to encourage and sustain marriage, barriers to or challenges in staying married, commitment attitudes, and their participation in ProSAAM ( Hurt, 2012). For these analyses, we examined the advice men provided regarding the disproportionate number of Black women who are single. After explaining that Black women represent the greatest number of women not married in this country and that approximately 42% of Black women were not married, we asked them to share their perspectives and the reasons for this trend. The two interviewers digitally recorded each interview, and the recordings were electronically submitted to a transcriber. Undergraduate research interns listened to the digital recordings and read the transcripts simultaneously to verify complete transcription since the transcriber was not a member of the research team ( Carlson, 2010). The interview transcripts were used for the data analyses.

The two interviewers underwent extensive training with the first author, learning interviewing techniques and the ethical collection and handling of interview data. The interviewers also listened to eligibility requirements for the men's participation. The men must have been (1) married, (2) self-identified their ethnicity as African American or been married to an African American spouse, (3) took part in ProSAAM, and (4) completed their 3-year follow-up interview. The first author also reviewed study goals, the interview protocol, and the background for each question with the interviewers.

The interviewers were trained to ask the questions in the interview protocol and then follow up as needed to obtain a fuller understanding of the participant's viewpoints. When the interviewers sensed that the men could say more about their experiences and offer a more detailed account of their perspectives or experiences during the interviews, they frequently encouraged the interviewee to talk more specifically about the issue. In such instances, the interviewer often relied on non-verbal cues and other observations of the manner in which the respondent answered the question. The interviewers were trained to ask questions in an open-ended way so that the participants would share their opinions and experiences more fully. The interviewers followed a consistent line of questioning and only probed where necessary. This style of interviewing permitted a more holistic understanding of what the participants thought and felt about the issue under study. Nonetheless, in light of the more individualized nature of qualitative inquiry and the semi-structured method of interviewing, the interviewers adapted their line of questioning with the men, re-articulating questions or phrasing them differently to ensure the participants understood what was being asked.

Communication between the first author and the interviewers was maintained throughout the 4-month data collection process. The interviewers met semi-monthly in person with the research team and communicated weekly with the first author about their progress in the field. Through in-person meetings, emails, phone conversations, and documented reflections on the digital recorders, the interviewers reported important themes and impressions from their field observations. The research team regularly checked the interview recordings to make certain that the interviewers were following the interview protocol in their lines of inquiry and were practicing effective interviewing techniques.

Data Analyses

In the spirit of transparency and reflexivity, we present information pertaining to the authors' backgrounds ( Carlson, 2010). During the analysis phase, the authors shared the following demographic characteristics: all were women, native-born American citizens, heterosexual, highly-educated, and engaged in long-term relationships of different commitment levels (2 were dating, 2 were engaged, and 1 was married). This group included four Black women and one White woman.

The team of authors analyzed the interview data in a collaborative way. Over a period of 18 months, the authors met for data retreats every 2 to 3 months in person. The authors analyzed interview data that had been collected, transcribed, and archived. The husbands' responses to the question of interest were identified first, and then arranged by individual case and laid out in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Each row included the respondent's identification number, the interviewer's reflections, the duration of the man's marriage, a description of the husband's path to marriage, and the respondent's response to the interview question on the disproportionate number of single Black women. We conducted data reduction; that is, after reviewing the full data set, we selected only those data that were pertinent to the current analyses ( Huberman & Miles, 1994). Content analysis was employed in order to better understand the men's perspectives. In doing so, the authors closely examined the data to understand the participants' responses ( Brantlinger, Jimenez, Klingner, Pugach, & Richardson, 2005).

Next, data selection and condensation were carried out. Each author independently evaluated, compared, and contrasted data across the 52 respondents and developed a list of data summaries, coding, themes, and clusters that emerged from her review of the data ( Huberman & Miles, 1994). Specifically, the authors looked at each case alone to examine the background characteristics relative to the participant's length of marriage, age, and family upbringing; the goal was to look for any factors or processes that could explain the men's responses to the question of interest. The authors also reviewed the interview transcripts to better understand the men's life experiences ( Huberman & Miles, 1994). Each author recorded her own self-reflections and interpretations in exploring the data for themes. The authors created independent audit trails to establish credibility; each audit trail included reflections about the transcripts, notes on themes in the data, data interpretations, and analytic memos to record the process ( Carlson, 2010; Huberman & Miles, 1994). It was important for each author to record her work to minimize the challenges associated with different scholars analyzing the data in dissimilar ways ( Saldaña, 2013).

At the data retreats, the authors compared findings from their independent analyses, discussed emergent themes observed in the data, engaged in collaborative descriptive coding by sharing codes that reflected the basic topic of each man's response to the interview question, and selected notable themes in the data ( Saldaña, 2013). The authors grouped men who shared similar sentiments regarding why Black women were disproportionately single ( LeCompte & Schensul, 1999). The authors reconciled any differences in coding to create a consensus; there were no unresolved analytic differences ( Saldaña, 2013). The themes emerged from the authors' discussions about the data over time. Overall, this analytic process established dependability in data coding, which is analogous to reliability in the quantitative paradigm ( Anfara, Brown, & Mangione, 2002). Moreover, the analytical procedures involved iterative sequences of reviewing, categorizing, verifying, and drawing conclusions from the data ( Huberman & Miles, 1994).

In the spirit of member-checking, the two interviewers who gathered the data were asked to validate themes the authors identified in the data. The interviewers were contacted via e-mail and asked to review a manuscript draft in which the results were detailed. Previous work has highlighted that member checking is best conducted when a finished product can be reviewed and interpretations are offered for themes and patterns ( Carlson, 2010). The interviewers reflected on the meetings they had with the husbands and agreed with the themes. They believed that the authors had accurately reflected the men's perspectives (see Creswell, 2007). Next, we outline the study's results.

Results

The 52 Black men cited various factors for the disproportionate occurrence of unmarried Black women; these factors were grouped into four themes: gender relations, marriage education and socialization, individual development, and preferences for gay/lesbian relationships. We present these four themes, without consideration to the men's ages, marital experiences, or life histories; the authors could not identify any differences in the men's backgrounds to explain why they thought more Black women were single than other groups. All participants quoted below have been given pseudonyms to protect their identities. In addition, we organize the categories in hierarchical fashion, presenting the percentages of men who are assigned to each theme ( Saldaña, 2013). Within each theme, the number of men who offered responses is detailed. In some cases, participants provided more than one reason for the disproportionality in singlehood among Black women. As such, the number of responses may not necessarily equal the number of men (expressed as percentage or sample size) within each theme.

Lastly, most perspectives shared by the men are included in the results; we only omitted two responses. Two respondents described the role of drug use in hindering a male's ability to marry. Collectively, the authors regarded these two responses as outliers, and not reflective of primary themes in the data.

Gender Relations

Over three-fourths of the men (79%) discussed gender conflict between men and women in the Black community. The husbands noted that many women are misguided in their approaches to attracting and keeping a mate. The men also discussed the negative effects of incarceration on relationships. Further, the respondents underscored how the strong independent nature among some Black women challenges relationship formation and maintenance. Other respondents cited Black men's failures to meet their responsibilities and pursue education and training as well as how lack of trust challenges relationship formation and maintenance. The men also described how a decline in labor market opportunities impacts relationships. These factors are discussed in detail next.

Women's approach to men is misguided

Seventy-three percent of the respondents in the gender relations category indicated that the Black woman's approach to men is misguided, as it relates to patterns of pursuing a man for a relationship and not exhibiting ladylike behavior (e.g., cursing, wearing revealing clothing) (n=2), setting standards too high and placing more value on men who can offer material possessions and status (n=12), engaging in controlling behavior (n=2), lowering their standards to attract a man's affection (n=4), and not being approachable (e.g., not friendly, bad attitude) (n=10). Regarding Black women pursuing men for relationships, Carter, 45 years old and married for 9 years, said, "If you get down to the bottom line, actually a woman don't suppose to look for a man no way." This reflected his sentiment that it is a man's responsibility to pursue a relationship, and that women who are seen as too aggressive in this context may be hurting their chances of a long-term, stable relationship. Forty-three-year-old Steve, who had been a husband for 18 years, recalled his observations of women's behavior at church, saying, "I laugh [when] I see some of them trying too hard to get married; [it] makes them look desperate...You notice when they dress differently, when they start doing things that are normally out of their character when a new guy shows up at church or something like that. They're trying to catch his attention or trying to get him; they're throwing themselves at him."

On the subject of setting standards too high or being a high maintenance woman, Steve also noted,

From what I've noticed, there are some women who are too anxious... their standards [are] set too high, I don't mean you should go for the gutter variety of guy, but a lot of them are looking for a man with the BMW, the large brick house, the two-hundred- thousand- dollar-a-year job, you know. I mean when I got married I didn't have any of that but, you know, my wife was perfectly happy to marry me.

Victor, a 32-year old who had been married for 5 years, agreed: "There's not really a shortage of men out there. It's that some of the women are raising their standards so high that they are missing out on that person for them." Paul, 32 years of age and married for 5 years, concurred: "[Women] look [at] what's on the outside and not what's on the inside. They [are] not looking at their character; they [do not] care about looking at what they [are] made of [on] the inside." Elvin, a 44-year-old who had been married for 8 years, shared, "It might be the way we dress, the way we walk, the way we talk, our life experiences... Cause [women] hold that stuff against you and I just think that they should just break it down a notch, just lower it a little bit... I do think they deserve the best, but you know it takes two." Forty-eight-year-old Xavier, married for 24 years, summed up his thoughts with, "You've got women who are not married; there's two ends to that pull. You've got [those with] high standards and [who look] down at all the guys, then you've got the other end, where, you know, anybody will do." Jerry, 46 years of age and married for 23 years, emphasized the importance of focusing on a man's future, asserting, "I just think that our young women have to start being able to assess potential in their mates and not [think] that they got to have everything already when you go into a relationship. How can you truly appreciate and work to sustain it if you didn't get it together?"

Much of the discussion in this area reflected the men's opinions of and firsthand experiences with women engaging in what they described as controlling and nagging behavior with partners. Marcus, married for 7 years and 38-years-old, said, "You know, no man wants somebody in his ear and fussing at him all the time, see, and Negro women tend to like to fuss in certain instances, based on where they're from. You can't [treat] me nice to get me, and then treat me bad and think I'm going to stay." Agreeing, 46-year-old Ronald, married for 13 years, stated,

A lot of Black women, they run their mates off nagging. Stop nagging and listen sometime and you don't have to worry about [not being married]. You got a lot of single women-no fathers and kids. The reason they got no mates is cause they probably ran them off, yakking and wanting this and wanting that. Stop all that complaining and fussing and fighting and arguing. 'Cause one day, you're going to really [want to] settle down as [you] get older. Right now, they're young and still feeling themselves and when they get older they going to see it. [It'll take] time to change.

Other men observed controlling behavior among women. For instance, Isaac, 40 years of age and married for 11 years, said, "When I was single, and a lot of my single guys talk about [this], a lot of women that I chose not to marry, it dealt a lot with controlling us...You need to do this, this, this, this, this, that...They wanted to control you and shape you to be what they wanted you to be." Finally, 49-year-old Danny who had been married for 25 years remarked,

I can't say for sure but I think the way the Black woman handles and approaches Black men sometimes has a lot to do with it. I've been a firm believer that a Black woman can get a man and get the right man, but the way they go about doing it is the reason why they don't get a man....I believe if you approach it right and you handle it right you're supposed to make the man say, 'I want this,' and bring him into a situation where he says, 'This is the best thing that ever happened to me.'

Other husbands pointed to the need for Black women to raise their standards, demand more from the relationships in which they find themselves, recognize potential in a man, and be patient for the relationship to develop (n=6). For example, Kelvin, married for 22 years and 44 years of age, recommended this:

[Women] should treat themselves as queens, [and] look at themselves as jewels, as prizes ....[Sometimes,] the guy can do whatever he wants to and [the women are] left to take care of the [responsibilities], and the [women] don't put any installments on the [men]...[The women should] say, 'Well, you know, if you want to get with me, you want to be with me, there's things that I have [to have]. If we're going to have [anything], there's a plan that we should have...' [Women should] put that back in place and then you'll have guys falling in line.

In sum, from these husbands' perspectives, women's missteps in how they approach men may be one reason for the disproportionate amount of single among Black women. A second factor cited in the gender relations category is the impact of incarceration on relationship maintenance and formation. We present the data on this next.

Incarceration

Forty-nine percent of the participants cited the effects of male incarceration on the availability of marriageable Black males. Some noted how incarceration negatively impacts a man's ability to provide the kind of support a woman may seek in a partner (n=14). They also commented how incarceration reduces the pool of available men in communities who can meet, date, and potentially marry Black women (assuming within-race coupling) (n=4). A couple of respondents also felt that imprisonment could affect the men psychologically, and that rehabilitation is critical to reducing rates of recidivism and ensuring that men can be productive members in their communities and providers for their families upon their release (n=2). Nolan, a 47-year-old preacher who had been married for 24 years, drew on his experiences in prison ministry:

Most of the prisons are full of young Black males and older Black males...That's a devastation and blow to the females. Everybody that's in prison don't deserve to be in prison. I can personally tell you that 'cause I've been around them. Drugs, stealing, most Black men trying to make a quick dollar to provide for their family and they just make mistakes doing that. It's a lot of good men-young men and older men-are in prison and if they don't come up with a plan to help rehabilitate them, they won't be no good when they get out.

Incarceration of men was viewed as a reason for the higher proportion of singlehood among Black women. We now address a third factor cited in the gender relations category concerning the strong, independent stance that diminishes the likelihood of Black women partnering with a man.

Strong, independent women

In 37% of the men's views, some independent women believe that they don't need a man (n=15). Quinn, married for 7 years and 35 years of age, said, "They got [it] in their mind [from] this independence song [referring to song titled, Independent by Webbie, Lil Phat, and Lil Boosie] that they can do it by their self. Can't nobody do it by themselves." Ricky, 34 years of age and married for 5 years, agreed: "The role of 'I don't need anything but myself' has been contributing to the fact that a lot of women are looking past the benefits of marriage."

The men also described a lack of knowledge among Black women about how to share the responsibility for managing a household with a mate, having spent years without a partner or a model. Lionel, 34 years old and married for 13 years, said,

If you're Christian, you have to believe in the woman submitting, and that's a curse word to an African American woman. 'Me? Submitting? Submissive?' But they have to understand the context of what the word means... Let's say you marry a 30-year-old Black woman; she's been single all her life; she's took care of herself; she's self-sustaining. She got her own car, got her own crib, you know, that I-N-D-E, the independent sister, and then you marry her, and then you come in trying to be a man and say, 'Well, I'm the man of the house. I'm going to take care of the house.' She'll say, 'No, I've been doing it on my own.' So you got to break that. It's tough. It's really tough. They are some really peculiar creatures. They're the epitome of being from Venus and Mars [an allusion to the book Men are from Mars Women Are From Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships] and all of that.

Fifty-six year old Thomas who had been married for 35 years pointed to economic progress among women that set the stage for such a pattern among all families, not only in the Black community, saying, "Now [marriage has] been discouraged. You got women today, not only Black and women of color, but all women who are able to take care of, not only themselves, but a man and children."

The men believed that this strong sense of independence is especially acute among some women who are economically self-sufficient. Victor shared, "It's getting to a point where women are making more than a man and more are going to college, that sort of thing. 'Cause as of late, there's lots of things going on in the media with, you know, independent women. And they don't need a man for anything. I would say otherwise." Zachary, 54 years of age and a newlywed, agreed, citing more progress among Black women than men as a factor in these women's choice to remain single:

There was [a time when] the men [knew] how to be the man. They would come home, set the food on the table and say 'now handle it.' She raised the children. And she took care of what needed to be taken care of, you know, and everything was fine, but when you find yourself as a Black man out of place, out of position, and you feel weak to society, you can't deal with that thing in a Black woman, and she still being in the house, she still raising the children by herself, and now she telling you 'I don't need you.' She'll tell you, and she's more outspoken with it now. Back then, my grandmother would not have dared told my granddad 'I don't need you.' It [would have been], 'Ok, well let me see you [the wife] make it without me.'

Allen, married for 5 years and 52 years of age, believes that the pattern of women not depending on men in the Black community was set in motion during the time of slavery:

Now personally, I think that [it] started years ago when back in the day, you know... when the woman was the head of the household...she did all the work because the men were taken away or whatever. I'm going back to slavery. It's just gotten more modernized where the Black man has lost his focus on what he actually should be doing, instead of being the head and stepping up in the household and being the man, he's kind of set back and let the woman take that lead. I think that most Black women, they'll tell you right now, 'What do I need a man for?' I can work and I can do this and I can do that and I take care of myself. I think all that started [back then], and what we're getting, that's a ripple effect from [that time]. And the Black women are more advanced, so much that why would I depend on a man who wants to live this kind of lifestyle when I can get out and be something myself?

The strong independent stance of some Black women was regarded as a consideration. A fourth factor in the discussion on gender relations concerns the study participants' viewpoints on how a Black man's inability to meet his responsibilities has contributed to the higher proportion of Black women not marrying.

Lack of men meeting responsibilities

In the gender relations category, 34% of the men maintained that the women are not at fault, but pointed to men not fulfilling their responsibilities to themselves (e.g., engaging in criminal activity, failing to pursue higher education) (n=12) and to their female partners/spouses (e.g., failing to actively parent their biological children, failing to commit to a relationship) (n=2). Thirty-seven-year-old Orlando who had been married for 14 years asserted, "There are a few men [out there in the world] and a lot of grown boys." Darrin, 35 years of age and married for 7 years, stated, "It is more so, I think, [men's] responsibility, and not necessarily on the women. In that case, it's more so the men have to be trained by a stronger Black man to understand the true meaning of marriage and true meaning of manhood...but I believe a lot of it has to do with more so for men who do not know how to treat women right." Dennis, 33-years-old and married for 12 years, responded in kind:

I can say that it's our fault as men. Black men; it's our fault. The reason I say it's our fault because, sometimes, we have seen our fathers go out there, get with a woman and they have a baby, and then they [are] no longer in their life or what not. And for the women, we are not treating them like the queens that they are. We're not taking care of them. We're leaving them to themselves...and then we're not teaching our men how to grow up to be men because they are left with the women...Some of our men, not all of our men, some of our men don't want to work. They're going to stand on the street corner; they want to hustle, they don't know how to provide for a family, a stable home, and so for our young men, they see that, and like I say, the cycle keeps going and keeps going.

Forty-three-year-old James, married for 15 years, agreed that many young Black men are missing male role models:

I think part of the thing that we're dealing with in our culture is the impact of the lack of a father in the home, and so then we have boys growing up that have been raised by mom and not really being taught how to act towards women, or what they've learned they've learned from a video, or whether it's grandpa or you know, and like I said earlier, I think our media in our society, we don't promote marriage and that. We promote doing things but not really coming together for the long haul. I think [for me] personally, it's almost impossible for a woman to teach a man how to be a man, and I know that that may be challenging to some people and don't get me wrong, I believe women are doing the best that they can.

The husbands pointed to the influence of men not meeting their responsibilities to their families and their communities as a reason for the higher number of Black women not being married. The respondents also identified interpersonal trust-as well as the lack of trust-between Black men and women; we discuss this fifth factor next.

Interpersonal trust

Within the gender relations category, most of the men (24%) reflected on various factors that may have prompted women to take a self-reliant stance, including an unwillingness to commit to a partner or trust a mate because of personal experiences with difficult relationships in their pasts and observations of other women (e.g., mothers, sisters) coping with relationship troubles with men (n=10). Harold, a 54 year old married for 30 years, said,

I mean they're so tired of being hurt, you know. I know some of those women that are not married and I'd like to say fine women. I've never seen them with anybody or I've seen that person get hurt before, you know....I mean she is extremely bitter which may affect her and her kid for the rest of their lives, you know, 'cause of boo-boos.

Isaiah, 53 years old and married for 19 years, described learning about relationships from others as well and internalizing difficult experiences as well. He elaborated,

Living in a single parent household that they've seen their mother [living in] and [they're] mimicking that, you know? She may be with that man, but she don't even trust men, you know? [Quoting a woman] 'Cause I've seen what they did to my mother, and I'm looking at what they did to my sister, and I don't want to go through that.' So even if they probably meet the right guy, it has that big barrier there. Some of them say, 'Well, you know, I'm going to try it' and some of them shy away from it. Maybe sometime, [as women], maybe they have seen things in their childhood, maybe they've seen their parents and stuff fighting, see their father stepping out [cheating, committing adultery, etc.] and what not. And maybe they don't want to be married... they don't want to go through the hurt or the trauma, or maybe they have been scarred by a man and they choose to separate from that. And to move on and say I can do this by myself. Because maybe they seen their mother do it....I don't need a man.

While interpersonal trust issues are a concern, so is the decline in labor market opportunities and the availability of marriageable men to partner with Black women.

Decline in labor market opportunities

Another factor cited that negatively affects men's attractiveness as marriage partners is the decline in labor market opportunities (22%). Five men described the employment challenges that Black men face. Thomas offered,

The economic situation's changed. It used to be that a man went out and made the bread and brought it home. She cooked it. He went out, he killed a hog or a deer or what not, brought it home. That fundamental thing has changed in our society and it's continuing to evolve. I mean you bring it down specifically to the African American; it's been a breakdown in our family structure, not with just us, but the whole country and you can attribute it to a lot of things, but I mainly attribute it to economics. See, money make the world go round, and right now if you're a female and you got a little bit, you can go out here, you can make some money. You ain't gonna worry about no dude. You don't want no dude trying to tell you he's a man 'cause he feeling emasculated and trying to deal with society out here.

Two other men agreed that Black women have outpaced Black men in the workforce. Darrin said, "...this culture was so oppressive back in the day. Now that we have moved past the women's movement, you have more acceptance of Black women being accepted in higher levels of business, higher levels of corporations than you would Black men." Two other men corroborated these points, noting Black women's greater economic progress relative to Black men's, and how they might factor into relationships and marriage (n=2). Thirty-one-year-old Eddie who had been married for 4 years said, "I want them to get married, but who are they going to get married to? Roscoe from down the street who don't have a plan for his life, you know, there are not as many successful Black guys as there are successful Black girls." Isaiah praised Black women, saying, "I applaud the women out there whose been that far herself and educated and all, and she is looking for her a mate to say, 'Hey, you know, I feel comfortable with you.' She is looking for someone who is compatible with her." In sum, poorer labor market opportunities among Black men could be one reason that Black women are disproportionately single. In addition to a decline in labor market opportunities, the men discussed the role of marriage education and socialization.

Marriage Education and Socialization

More than one third of the men interviewed claimed that marriage as an institution is not being valued for its benefits, including the chance to journey through life with a partner and have someone to grow old with. Moreover, as 57-year-old Gene, who had been married for 19 years, pointed out, marriage training in families is not always positive:

Marriage... [There] is not a good class to teach you how to be a good husband or wife. The most you get you either going to get it from a friend, or a mother or father. Most of them do not know how to be one [a good husband or wife]. They go through trial and error and hope that the other spouse can handle that bump when you hit it and hope you don't bounce off it...and that's not, I don't think that's good for everybody.

A common theme expressed were the changes in marriage socialization in contemporary society, in which the relationship development of both men and women has been deeply affected. Most men discussed concern about the lack of marriage socialization among women. They held the view that some women lack information and models on how to work together with a man in a marriage (n=5). The women's upbringing in a single-parent household with only a mother was regarded as the main source of this problem (n=8).

For other men, they focused on how the rise in the number of women raising children without the consistent support of a male partner in the household challenges the models and messages that Black male children receive or observe about marriage and relationships (n=11). For example, the men reported feeling ill-prepared for relationships; they spoke about receiving inadequate relationship training from their mothers. Instead, their training entailed observing male-female relationships on the streets. Based on this experience, the men emphasized the importance of Black male role models for teaching and mentoring other males about relationship formation and maintenance (n=3). As 55-year-old Justin, married for 25 years, said,

It's just a matter of teaching and training...Say, 'You can be a man with position and authority but you don't have to be abusive. You don't have to belittle, you don't have to look down and you don't have to be in competition with the Black woman. Y'all are supposed to complement each other....' But it's all about teaching.

In sum, responses from the men highlight variations in marriage education and socialization between Black men and Black women. Indeed, marriage education and socialization for men and women is a critical factor and may figure into the disproportionate number of Black women remaining single. In addition to marriage education and socialization, the men reflected on the significance of individual development.

Individual Development

Twenty-three percent (23%) of the men focused on issues concerning the development of men and women and the influence of an individual's development on their readiness for a committed relationship such as marriage. Concerning males, the respondents stated that some are simply not ready for a long-term commitment such as marriage (n=5). They are focused on having a good time and enjoying the company of different women. According to these husbands, many Black men do desire marriage, but at the right time.

Some of the men offered a word of encouragement for Black women who wish to marry but have not found the right mate (n=3). Again, they recommended that women remain patient, assuring them that many men will choose to marry, in their own time. While waiting to partner with a mate, the men advised Black women to focus on their own development and spiritual growth. Darrin proposed that women consider their desired qualities in a mate. "Whatever they want that is important to them, they have to be able to portray the same thing." Gene underscored the importance of self-love in his comment, "[Be] content with yourself, meaning, you know, loving yourself and liking what you're doing with yourself for yourself. If you like it, somebody else will like it, but if you don't like yourself right now for whatever reason...other people not going to like you either." In addition to growing as an individual, several men advocated that women trust in the Lord to bless them with a mate (n=6). The men recommended that women remain in prayer on the matter. Sixty-one-year-old Owen drew on his own personal experience and 22 years of marriage, recommending that dating couples attend religious services and activities together: "...if she take him to church then that will help her get married. Yeah, you know, because you be in the presence of God, you know, do what God want us to do... The way my wife did me." In sum, the study participants believed that developmental readiness for marriage is an important consideration. Next, we present the data included in the preference for gay/lesbian relationships category.

Preference for Gay/Lesbian Relationships

Eight men (15%) made brief comments relative to how male homosexuality (n=4) or the practice of heterosexual men engaging in homosexual acts (i.e., the down-low phenomenon) (n=2) may play a role in explaining the disproportionate amount of singlehood among Black women. Other men spoke of some women's desire to engage with a same-sex partner, turning away from men for relationships but not from romantic involvements (n=2). For example, Carter shared, "So when they said they don't need a man, 90% of them talking to another woman. So that's one of the things... They turn to another woman. They are gay lesbians." Next, we discuss the current study's findings in the context of previous research.

Discussion

Drawing on qualitative data from interviews of 52 married Black men, this study explored why Black women are disproportionately single. Black women are less likely to marry or remarry than Black men or their female peers of other racial groups ( American Fact Finder, 2011; Banks, 2011; Taylor et al., 1997). The men, rather passionately, shared their opinions about the subject, reflecting on their personal experiences and observations of relationships in their families and communities. The tone of some comments was emotionally-charged as has been noted in prior work ( Marbley, 2003). The men's in-depth responses obtained through qualitative inquiry offered context and meaning to these relational experiences. Study findings are notable and contribute to the literature on Black relationships in significant ways.

Results call attention to the challenging tenor in gender relations between Black men and women, with 79% of the sample raising this as a central consideration in the disproportionate number Black women who are single. Gender role strain between Black men and women has been highlighted in previous work and is well-supported in the literature ( Boyd-Franklin, 2003; Collins, 2000; Edin & Reed, 2005). Drawing on insights from the data, a contributing factor to relational challenges between Black adults concerns the manner in which some Black women pursue men for relationships ( Collins, 2000; Franklin, 1997; Hatchett, 1991; Hill, 2004; Pinderhughes, 2002). This may, in part, reflect a change in gender roles where it is more acceptable for women to pursue relationships. It could also reflect the women's awareness that there is intense competition for mates in a tighter marriage market ( Aborampah, 1989; Marbley, 2003). Other results point to how, from the perspective of these Black men, some strong, independent, self-reliant attitudes and behaviors may unintentionally undermine the formation and maintenance of long-term committed relationships such as marriage. Some women recognize the benefits of marriage but describe themselves as being happily single and sharply focused on investing in oneself, motherhood, and careers ( Collins, 2000). Other women may have developed such a disposition because they can support themselves financially or perhaps out of necessity to cope with persistent economic inequalities, difficult relationship experiences, and insecurities about being ready for marital commitment (Clark & Haldane, 2000; Collins, 2000; Hill, 2004; Pinderhughes, 2002). Still yet other women may simply withdraw from relationships or remain distrustful of men and wary of relationship formation ( Carroll, 1998; Cazenave, 1983; Collins, 2000; Chambers & Kravitz, 2011; Dickson, 1993; Edin & Reed, 2005; Peters & Massey, 1983). Considering core tenets of the Mundane Environment Stress and Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation models, one might expect Black women to alter their relationship orientations and behaviors in response to structural inequalities in employment, education, and the marriage market ( Chambers & Kravitz, 2011; Peters & Massey, 1983).

Moreover, these results concerning women's independence reflect broader societal trends. Indeed, the rise of the feminist movement has validated work as a source of a woman's self-fulfillment and a means to achieve independence from men ( Edin, 2000). The evidence is mixed, however, on whether increased participation of women in the labor force explains a decline in marriage (e.g., Edin & Reed, 2005; Fosset & Kiecolt, 1993; Lichter, McLaughlin, Kephart, & Landry, 1992; Lichter et al., 1991). Though Black women have traditionally worked in the labor force to help sustain their families, over time women have become more self-reliant and less likely to marry solely for financial support ( Jones, 1985; White, 1985).

Other findings related to gender relations draw attention to troubling conditions among Black men that challenge the probability of marriage. As corroborated in previous work, the men discussed the detrimental effects of male incarceration on relationship formation and maintenance ( Clayton & Moore, 2003; Harknett & McLanahan, 2004). Poorer labor market opportunities for men were also cited as a factor; scholars have documented a decline in well-paying jobs, as well as an increase in unemployment and underemployment among Black men ( Browning, 1999; Chambers & Kravitz, 2011; Marks et al., 2008). Many of the men in the current study also noted how Black women, on average, have experienced greater social mobility than Black men as evidenced by higher educational levels and employment status, which is supported by other work ( Banks, 2011; Boyd-Franklin, 2003; Burton & Tucker, 2009). Other respondents expressed their concern with some Black men not meeting their responsibilities relative to work, family, and education; these issues have been outlined in previous work as well ( Boyd-Franklin, 2003; Burton & Tucker, 2009; Chambers & Kravitz, 2011; Hill, 2004; Marks et al., 2008). Regardless of the social inequalities they face, Collins (2000) asserted that Black men still must be held accountable for how they treat women, children, and each other.

A number of the Black men interviewed for this study focused on the role of individual factors. More than one-third of the men reported the need for marriage education and socialization, and how its absence may contribute to an increased proportion of Black women not marrying (e.g., Chambers & Kravitz, 2011). Moreover, according to social exchange theory, adults will only marry to the extent that they value marriage as offering more rewards than costs ( Hopkins-Williams, 2007). Existing work in the marital literature addresses how trends in family formation may negatively influence an individual's readiness for marriage ( Dickson, 1993). Broken and fractured relational bonds are a critical factor to consider, especially in communities where there is a prevalence of single-parent households as in the Black community. The lack of exposure to long-term relationships may challenge some Black adults' ability to form such relationships ( Chambers & Kravitz, 2011).

Another 23% of the study participants noted the importance of being developmentally ready for marriage ( Hill, 2004). According to Holman and Li (1997), marriage readiness is socially constructed and, in part, dependent on whether an individual has achieved specific developmental milestones such as educational achievement and job security. They also discussed other work citing the significance of positive childhood experiences in preparing adults for marriage, including quality parent-child relationships and family relationships. Indeed, as corroborated by the participants in the current study, the basis for trusting intimate partners later in life is set early in a person's development ( Ables & Brandsma, 1977). Developmental perspectives emphasize the critical role of parents and caregivers in the socialization of children in this regard ( Anderson & Sabatelli, 1995; Bowlby, 1979; Bryant & Conger, 2002; Erikson, 1950).

Relative to gay/lesbian relationships, a small sample of men (15%) discussed the preference for engaging in homosexual intimate ties and the "down-low" phenomenon. Banks (2011) has also written about the negative impact of the "down-low" phenomenon on long-term unions. The consequences of same-sex partnering on declining numbers of mates available to partner in the marriage market has also been highlighted in earlier work ( Staples, 1985). This consideration in mate selection may increase the imbalanced sex ratio in the Black community.

There were a few limitations to this study. First, the results may not reflect the opinions of Black men residing in different regions of the United States, Black men from different ethnic groups, Black men with different relationship preferences, or Black men of different religious backgrounds. Second, the sample was nonrandom. Third, the sample represents a group of highly committed married men, whose attitudes and values may be considered pro-marriage. Although the data were collected in northeast Georgia and metropolitan Atlanta, a part of the Bible Belt, we cannot assume that all research participants were highly religious. Level of religiosity was not a basis for recruitment ( Beach, Hurt, Fincham, Franklin, McNair, & Stanley, 2011; Hurt, 2012). In the final section, we outline several conclusions and future directions for study.

Conclusions and Future Directions

This qualitative study explored 52 Black men's opinions as to why there is a disproportionate number of single Black women. Indeed, concerns about this imbalance have received considerable attention in the popular media. Moreover, although there has been significant attention to Black relationships in the research literature, no known empirical study has investigated this issue directly with a sample of married Black men. The current study's results confirmed and extended previous findings relative to the strain in gender relations between Black men and Black women (e.g., Browning, 1999; Pinderhughes, 2002; Staples, 1987). The men also mentioned, to a lesser extent, other factors that may exacerbate the conflict between Black men and Black women, including lack of marriage education and socialization, individual development, and a preference for gay/lesbian relationships.

These results validate key considerations that challenge relationship formation and maintenance between Black men and women, which have been identified in prior work. This study extends the findings of previous research by presenting the results of qualitative interviews of 52 married Black men about these issues. By drawing on the men's own voices, we were able to illustrate not only the main themes that emerged from the data, but also the tone of the Black men's responses. Their reactions showed compassion and deep concern about the complexity of the issues facing Black women and men when forming long-term intimate relationships. Reflections on their personal experiences on relationships and the social conditions needed for developing long-term relationships with Black women have provided a richer understanding of the issues under study. The men's discussions have also offered insight into how the relational dynamics between Black men and women may unfold in certain circumstances.

Future studies could test these qualitative findings quantitatively using a more representative sample to determine the generalizability of the results. Other inquires might employ samples of single Black women or men who might be amenable to marriage to comment on the issues under study ( South, 1993). This would help to advance the field in important ways. Future research projects exploring the singlehood of Black women could include samples of couples in order to explore the viewpoints of both partners in the dyad. Future projects might include an intervention program to test the effectiveness of marriage education, marriage enrichment, and relationship development for Black women and men as well as Black youth ( Chambers & Kravitz, 2011). Such programs could help build relationship skills among adolescents and adults, encourage conversations between Black men and Black women in mixed group settings about gender roles, and foster healing among persons who recall different experiences in childhood, adolescence, or adulthood that impede relationship formation ( Aborampah, 1989; Chambers & Kravitz, 2011). Equally important, scholars could work with policymakers and legislators to address structural social inequities (e.g., unemployment and underemployment, incarceration) that often challenge enduring relationship formation and maintenance in the Black community ( Aborampah, 1989; Chambers & Kravitz, 2011).

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant awarded to the first author from the National Center for Family and Marriage Research. The authors appreciate comments from Ms. Vernetta Johnson, along with Drs. Tennille Allen, William Allen, Steven Beach, Carolyn Cutrona, and Cassandra Logan on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Editorial assistance from Hazel Hunley was helpful. The first author wishes to thank Dr. Steven Beach for permission to recruit men for this study from the Program for Strong African American Marriages sample. The authors are indebted to the 52 married Black men who openly shared their life experiences with the interviewers.

Contributor Information

Tera R. Hurt, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University.

Stacey E. McElroy, Counseling and Psychological Services, Georgia State University.

Kameron J. Sheats, The Satcher Health Leadership Institute, Morehouse School of Medicine.

Antoinette M. Landor, Center for Developmental Science, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Chalandra M. Bryant, Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Georgia.

References

Burton LM, Cherlin A, Winn D, Estacion A, Holder-Taylor C. The role of trust in low income mothers' intimate unions. Journal of Marriage and Family. 2009;71(5):1107-1124. [[ PMC free article] [ PubMed] Google Scholar]

Elder GH., Jr The life course paradigm as developmental theory; Presidential address presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Child Development; 1997, April; Washington, DC. Apr, 1997. [ Google Scholar]

Pinderhughes EB. African American marriage in the 20[ th century. Family Process. 2002;41(2):269-282. [ PubMed] Google Scholar]

Senn TE, Carey MP, Vanable PA, Seward DX. African American men's perceptions of power in intimate relationships. American Journal of Men's Health. 2009;3(4):310-318. [[ PMC free article] [ PubMed] Google Scholar]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Married Black Men's Opinions as to Why Black Women Are Disproportionately Single: A Qualitative Study

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This study's purpose was to explore the reasons Black women are disproportionately single according to the unique viewpoint of married Black men. The sample comprised 52 married Black men who resided in northeast Georgia (mean age = 43). Qualitative ...

# data[].attributes.headline
 black fishing : benefiting  from being more "black

# data[].attributes.subject
 black fishing : benefiting  from being more "black

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 2020, we saw the Black Lives Matter movement fight against explicit forms of racial suppression and police brutality. However, in the eye of that storm, many forms of implicit microaggressions have gone overlooked. Of these, modern-day blackface is now taking over social media, and it needs to be stopped.

The word "blackfishing" defines how social media influencers of European descent alter their appearance to appear of minority descent. Individuals using blackface in attempts to appear Black, brownface in attempts to appear brown-skinned and yellowface in attempts to appear Asian are some examples. Celebrities and social media influencers are the reason for the rise of this issue.

When I was younger, I would travel to predominantly white countries where I would see people's skin tones resemble my own. I soon realized it was only excessive tanning on pale skin.

I've faced my fair share of racism against the tone of my skin, which is something a white person will never have to deal with. However, seeing white people become famous for painting themselves the deep skin tone I was often belittled for negatively impacts my self-esteem. Why did I face injustice while existing with my natural features, but white influencers are now considered beautiful for mimicking those same features?

It is an issue that has literally taken a new face over the years. All over Instagram, we see women and girls tan excessively beyond their natural skin tone. This phenomenon has now carried from this online platform to real life, on college campuses. You can see overly tanned skin in the middle of winter, which is not naturally possible. It is achieved through artificial sprays and tanning beds. Darker skin tones are praised when artificial but demonized when natural. It is offensive to students who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) ; it devalues our struggles as people of color throughout history.

"With my interaction with people on this campus, (blackfishing) is coming from a place of ignorance," SU sophomore Anwule Onwaeze said. "I think media has a lot to do with it because, not to excuse these girls, they are probably just doing it because that is 'in,' and they do not want to take the time to educate themselves and understand."

As we become more educated on what is considered inappropriate to say or do, modern-day blackface is a major issue that needs to be considered.

Many celebrities have been accused of the old-school style of blackface by imitating fuller lips, altering hair texture or applying "ethnic features" using deeper-toned makeup products. White continue to put on blackface in the 21st century to play minority characters in a negative light. Even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was criticized in 2019 when a photo resurfaced of him wearing brownface, which he later apologized for.

Although a sensitive topic that requires caution, blackfishing continues to require further discussion, especially in the SU community. Devaluing our struggles occurs when pale-skinned individuals can't be identified from minorities. The #NotAgainSU movement formed when racist incidents came to light, and now the SU community needs to be held accountable for its actions of cultural appropriation.

This is not to say that we should return to normalizing eurocentrism , the racist concept that someone of European descent with pale skin, straight hair, and a slimmer body should be considered "the epitome of beauty." Eurocentrism is also present when it comes to global issues , when issues in the Western world are consistently addressed while other issues, like the Kashmir conflict or the Rohingya genocide , go overlooked. But at the same time, white students having features that are usually distinctly visible to BIPOC can be detrimental to the latter's mental health.

We need to address the issue of blackfishing, as well as brownfishing and yellowfishing, with earnest dedication. Where white social media influencers imitate, they can instead use their platforms to address racial discrimination. Where white college students appropriate, they can instead use their platform to address on-campus injustices.

The more you become educated on issues of cultural appropriation, the less likely you should be to partake in it.
Sourov Rayhan is a sophomore English major. Their column appears biweekly. He can be reached at srayhan@syr.edu

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
White people trying to embody Black features is wrong. Stop 'Blackfishing.'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 2020, we saw the Black Lives Matter movement fight against explicit forms of racial suppression and police brutality. However, in the eye of that storm, many forms of implicit microaggressions have gone overlooked. Of these, modern-day blackface is now taking over social media, and it needs to be stopped.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Perhaps she remembers her great-great grandmother who wanted to protest but only rolled her eyes
and willed herself not to scream when the white man mounted her from behind.

-- Andrea Williams(2001)

The portrayal of black women as lascivious by nature is an enduring stereotype. The descriptive words associated with this stereotype are singular in their focus: seductive, alluring, worldly, beguiling, tempting, and lewd. Historically, white women, as a category, were portrayed as models of self-respect, self-control, and modesty - even sexual purity, but black women were often portrayed as innately promiscuous, even predatory. This depiction of black women is signified by the name Jezebel. ¹

K. Sue Jewell (1993), a contemporary sociologist, conceptualized the Jezebel as a tragic mulatto - "thin lips, long straight hair, slender nose, thin figure and fair complexion"(p. 46). This conceptualization is too narrow. It is true that the "tragic mulatto" and "Jezebel" share the reputation of being sexually seductive, and both are antithetical to the desexualized Mammy caricature; nevertheless, it is a mistake to assume that only, or even mainly, fair-complexioned black women were sexually objectified by the larger American society. From the early 1630s to the present, black American women of all shades have been portrayed as hypersexual "bad-black-girls." ²

Jewell's conceptualization is based on a kernel of historical truth. Many of the slavery-era blacks sold into prostitution were mulattoes. Also, freeborn light-skinned black women sometimes became the willing concubines of wealthy white southerners. This system, called placage, involved a formal arrangement for the white suitor/customer to financially support the black woman and her children in exchange for her long-term sexual services. The white men often met the black women at "Quadroon Balls," a genteel sex market.

The belief that blacks are sexually lewd predates the institution of slavery in America. European travelers to Africa found scantily clad natives. This semi nudity was misinterpreted as lewdness. White Europeans, locked into the racial ethnocentrism of the 17th century, saw African polygamy and tribal dances as proof of the African's uncontrolled sexual lust. Europeans were fascinated by African sexuality. William Bosman described the black women on the coast of Guinea as "fiery" and "warm" and "so much hotter than the men." ³ William Smith described African women as "hot constitution'd Ladies" who "are continually contriving stratagems how to gain a lover"(White, 1999, p. 29). The genesis of anti-black sexual archetypes emerged from the writings of these and other Europeans: the black male as brute and potential rapist; the black woman, as Jezebel whore.

The English colonists accepted the Elizabethan image of "the lusty Moor," and used this and similar stereotypes to justify enslaving blacks. In part, this was accomplished by arguing that blacks were subhumans: intellectually inferior, culturally stunted, morally underdeveloped, and animal-like sexually. Whites used racist and sexist ideologies to argue that they alone were civilized and rational, whereas blacks, and other people of color, were barbaric and deserved to be subjugated. ⁴

The Jezebel stereotype was used during slavery as a rationalization for sexual relations between white men and black women, especially sexual unions involving slavers and slaves. The Jezebel was depicted as a black woman with an insatiable appetite for sex. She was not satisfied with black men. The slavery-era Jezebel, it was claimed, desired sexual relations with white men; therefore, white men did not have to rape black women. James Redpath (1859), an abolitionist no less, wrote that slave women were "gratified by the criminal advances of Saxons"(p. 141). This view is contradicted by Frederick Douglass (1968), the abolitionist and former slave, who claimed that the "slave woman is at the mercy of the fathers, sons or brothers of her master"(p. 60). Douglass's account is consistent with the accounts of other former slaves. Henry Bibb's (1849) master forced a young slave to be his son's concubine (pp. 98-99); later, Bibb and his wife were sold to a Kentucky trader who forced Bibb's wife into prostitution(pp . 112-116).

Slave women were property; therefore, legally they could not be raped. Often slavers would offer gifts or promises of reduced labor if the slave women would consent to sexual relations, and there were instances where the slaver and slave shared sexual attraction; however, "the rape of a female slave was probably the most common form of interracial sex"(D'Emilio & Freedman, 1988, p. 102). A slave woman explained, "When he make me follow him into de bush, what use me to tell him no? He have strength to make me"(p. 101). At the same time, black men convicted of raping white women were usually castrated, hanged, or both (Winthrop, 1961, p. 157 and n44).

People make decisions based on the options they have and the options that they perceive. The objective realities of slavery and the slaves' subjective interpretations of the institution both led female slaves to engage "voluntarily" in sexual unions with whites, especially slavers, their sons, and their overseers. A slave who refused the sexual advances of her slaver risked being sold, beaten, raped, and having her "husband" or children sold. Many slave women conceded to sexual relations with whites, thereby reinforcing the belief that black women were lustful and available.

The idea that black women were naturally and inevitably sexually promiscuous was reinforced by several features of the slavery institution. Slaves, whether on the auction block or offered privately for sale, were often stripped naked and physically examined. In theory, this was done to insure that they were healthy, able to reproduce, and, equally important, to look for whipping scars - the presence of which implied that the slave was rebellious. In practice, the stripping and touching of slaves had a sexually exploitative, ⁵ sometimes sadistic function. Nakedness, especially among women in the 18th and 19th centuries, implied lack of civility, morality, and sexual restraint even when the nakedness was forced. Slaves, of both sexes and all ages, often wore few clothes or clothes so ragged that their legs, thighs, and chests were exposed. Conversely, whites, especially women, wore clothing over most of their bodies. The contrast between the clothing reinforced the beliefs that white women were civilized, modest, and sexually pure, whereas black women were uncivilized, immodest, and sexually aberrant.

Black slave women were also frequently pregnant. The institution of slavery depended on black women to supply future slaves. By every method imaginable, slave women were "encouraged" to reproduce. Some slavers, for example, offered a new pig for each child born to a slave family, a new dress to the slave woman for each surviving infant, or no work on Saturdays to black women who produced six children (Rawick, 1972, p. 228; Gutman, 1976, p. 77). Young black girls were encouraged to have sex as "anticipatory socialization" for their later status as "breeders." When they did reproduce, their fecundity was seen as proof of their insatiable sexual appetites. Deborah Gray White, a modern historian, wrote:

Major periodicals carried articles detailing optimal conditions under which bonded women were known to reproduce, and the merits of a particular "breeder" were often the topic of parlor or dinner table conversations. The fact that something so personal and private became a matter of public discussion prompted one ex-slave to declare that "women wasn't nothing but cattle." Once reproduction became a topic of public conversation, so did the slave woman's sexual activities.(White, 1999, p. 31)

The Jezebel stereotype is contradicted by several historical facts. Although black women, especially those with brown or tan skin and "European features," were sometimes forced into prostitution for white men, "slaves had no prostitution and very little venereal disease within their communities"(D'Emilio & Freedman, 1988, p. 98). Slaves rarely chose spouses from among their blood relatives. Slavers often encouraged, and sometimes mandated, sexual promiscuity among their slaves; nevertheless, most slaves sought long-term, monogamous relationships. Slaves "married" when allowed, and adultery was frowned upon in most black "communities." During Reconstruction "slaves eagerly legitimated their unions, holding mass-marriage ceremonies and individual weddings"(p. 104).

Unfortunately for black women, Emancipation and Reconstruction did not stop their sexual victimization. From the end of the Civil War to the mid-1960s, no Southern white male was convicted of raping or attempting to rape a black woman; yet, the crime was common(White, 1999, p. 188). Black women, especially in the South or border states, had little legal recourse when raped by white men, and many black women were reluctant to report their sexual victimization by black men for fear that the black men would be lynched (p. 189).

Jezebel in the 20th Century

The portrayal of black women as Jezebel whores began in slavery, extended through the Jim Crow period, and continues today. Although the Mammy caricature was the dominant popular cultural image of black women from slavery to the 1950s, the depiction of black women as Jezebels was common in American material culture. Everyday items - such as ashtrays, postcards, sheet music, fishing lures, drinking glasses, and so forth - depicted naked or scantily dressed black women, lacking modesty and sexual restraint. For example, a metal nutcracker (circa 1930s) depicts a topless Black woman. The nut is placed under her skirt, in her crotch, and crushed. ⁶ Items like this one reflected and shaped white attitudes toward black female sexuality. An analysis of the Jezebel images in the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia reveals several patterns.

Many of the Jezebel objects caricature and mock African women. For example, in the 1950s "ZULU LULU" was a popular set of swizzle sticks used for stirring drinks. There were several versions of this product but all show silhouettes of naked African women of various ages. One version read: "Nifty at 15, spiffy at 20, sizzling at 25, perky at 30, declining at 35, droopy at 40." There were versions that included depictions of African women at fifty and sixty years of age. ZULU LULU was billed as a party gag as illustrated by this advertisement on the product:

Don't pity Lulu - you're not getting younger yourself...laugh with your guests when they find these hilarious swizzle sticks in their drinks. ZULU-LULU will be the most popular girl at your party.

The Jezebel images which defame African women may be viewed in two broad categories: pathetic others and exotic others. Pathetic others include those depictions of African women as physically unattractive, unintelligent, and uncivilized. These images suggest that African women in particular and black women in general possess aberrant physical, social, and cultural traits. The African woman's features are distorted - her lips are exaggerated, her breasts sag, she is often inebriated. The pathetic other, like the Mammy caricature before her, is drawn to refute the claim that white men find black women sexually appealing. Yet, this depiction of the African woman has an obvious sexual component: she is often placed in a sexual setting, naked or near naked, inebriated or holding a drink, her eyes suggesting a sexual longing. She is a sexual being, but not one that white men would consider.

An example of the pathetic other is a banner (circa 1930s) showing a drunken African woman with the caption, "Martini Anyone?" ⁷ The message is clear: this pathetic other is too ugly, too stupid, and too different to elicit sexual attraction from reasonable men; instead, she is a source of pity, laughter, and derision.

The material objects which depict African and black women as exotic others do not portray them as physically unattractive, although they are sometimes portrayed as being socially and culturally deficient. During the first half of the twentieth century images of topless or completely nude African women were often placed in magazines and on souvenir items, planters, drinking glasses, figurines, ashtrays, and novelty items.

It must be emphasized that the items that depict African and African American women as one-dimensional sexual beings are often everyday items - found in the homes, garages, automobiles, and offices of "mainstream" Americans. These items are functional - in addition to promoting anti-black stereotypes, they also have practical utility. For example, a topless bust of a black woman with a fishing hook attached functions as an object of racial stereotyping and as a fishing lure. One such object was the "Virgin Fishing Lucky Lure (circa 1950s)." It has become a highly sought after collectible nationwide.

An analysis of Jezebel images also reveals that black female children are sexually objectified. Black girls, with the faces of pre-teenagers, are drawn with adult sized buttocks, which are exposed. They are naked, scantily clad, or hiding seductively behind towels, blankets, trees, or other objects. A 1949 postcard shows a naked black girl hiding her genitals with a paper fan. Although she has the appearance of a small child she has noticeable breasts. The accompanying caption reads: "Honey, I'se Waitin' Fo' You Down South." ⁸ The sexual innuendo is obvious.

Another postcard (circa 1950s) shows a black girl, approximately eight years old, standing in a watermelon patch. She has a protruding stomach. The caption reads: "Oh-I is Not!...It Must Be Sumthin' I Et!!" Her exposed right shoulder and the churlish grin suggest that the protruding stomach resulted from a sexual experience, not overeating. The portrayal of this prepubescent girl as pregnant suggests that black females are sexually active and sexually irresponsible even as small children.

The belief that black women are sexually promiscuous is propagated by innumerable images of pregnant black women and black women with large numbers of children. A 1947 greeting card depicting a black Mammy bears the caption: "Ah keeps right on sendin' em!" Inside is a young black woman with eight small children. The inside caption reads: "As long as you keeps on havin' em."

In the 1964 presidential election between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater, Johnson used the political slogan, "All the way with LBJ." A mid-1960s license plate shows a caricatured black woman, pregnant, with these words, "Ah went all de way wib LBJ." Johnson received overwhelming support from black voters. The image on the license plate, which also appeared on posters and smaller prints, insults blacks generally, black Democrats, and black women.

Black Jezebels in American Cinema

In the 1915 movie The Birth of a Nation (Griffith), Lydia Brown is a mulatto character. She is the mistress of the white character Senator Stoneman. Lydia is savage, corrupt, and lascivious. She is portrayed as overtly sexual, and she uses her "feminine wiles" to deceive the formerly good white man. Lydia's characterization was rare in early American cinema. There was a scattering of black "loose women" and "fallen women" on the big screen, but it would be another half century before the depiction of cinematic black women as sexually promiscuous would become commonplace.

By the 1970s black moviegoers had tired of cinematic portrayals of blacks as Mammies, Toms, Tragic Mulattoes, and Picaninnies. In the 1970s blacks willingly, though unwittingly, exchanged the old negative caricatures for new ones: Brutes, Bucks, and Jezebels. These new caricatures were popularized by the two hundred mostly B-grade films now labeled blaxploitation movies.

These movies supposedly depicted realistic black experiences; however, many were produced and directed by whites. Daniel J. Leab (1976), the movie historian, noted, "Whites packaged, financed, and sold these films, and they received the bulk of the big money"(p. 259). The world depicted in blaxploitation movies included corrupt police and politicians, pimps, drug dealers, violent criminals, prostitutes, and whores. In the main, these movies were low-budget, formulaic interpretations of black life by white producers, directors, and distributors. Black actors and actresses, many unable to find work in mainstream movies, found work in blaxploitation movies. Black patrons supported these movies because they showed blacks fighting the "white establishment," resisting police corruption, acting assertively, and having sex lives.

The film which ushered in the blaxploitation period was Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (Gross, Van Peebles & Van Peebles, 1971), written, directed, produced, and starred in by Melvin Van Peebles. The story centers on Sweet, an amoral and hedonistic hustler and pimp, who kills two white cops who were attacking a young black radical. He spends the rest of the movie on the lam, running from racist cops and to pimps, gangsters, bikers, and whores. Sweet's "revolutionary consciousness" is heightened because of his first hand experience with police corruption, and by the movie's end he has become a heroic, almost mythical, black revolutionary. The film ended with the message: "A BAADASSSSS NIGGER IS COMING BACK TO COLLECT SOME DUES."

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was originally rated X. After decades of asexual and desexualized black Tom characters, black audiences were ready for a sexually assertive black male movie character. Sweet was reared in a brothel. In one flashback scene, a ten-year-old Sweet (played by Van Peebles' real life son, Mario) is graphically taught how to make love by an older prostitute. Sweetback is slang for "large penis" and "great lovemaking ability." Much of the movie centers on Sweet's lovemaking abilities, and this movie helped promote the "black sex machine" characterization of black men common in later movies. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song also gave impetus to cinematic portrayals of black women as Jezebel whores. According to Donald Bogle (1994), a film historian:

With the glamorization of the ghetto, however, came also the elevation of the Pimp/outlaw/rebel as folk hero. Van Peebles played up this new sensibility, and his film was the first to glorify the pimp. It failed, however, to explain the social conditions that made the pimp such an important figure. At the same time, the movie debased the black woman, depicting her as little more than a whore.(p. 236).

The commercial success of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song inspired many imitators. A formula for these "black action" movies emerged: a justifiably angry black male seeks revenge on corrupt white police officers, politicians, or drug dealers. In the process of extracting revenge his political consciousness is raised and he has numerous sexual exploits. Although this formula was aided by Van Peebles, a black man, it served as the template for the whites who wrote, directed, and produced blaxploitation movies.

The movies that followed Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song increasingly limited black actresses to Jezebel type roles. Lynn Hamilton, a black actress, auditioned for the role of a "strong Angela Davis type." At the beginning of the audition she was asked if she would play nude scenes. She said of the role and character: "Here is this woman who holds all kinds of academic degrees and has a high position opening the door totally nude to admit her boyfriend, a policeman. The first thing he says is, 'Fix me some breakfast"(Knight, 1974, p. 142). She fries bacon, grease splattering, while her boyfriend fondles her breasts and buttocks.

Many black women in these blaxploitation movies functioned as "sexual fodder," legitimizing the street credentials of the black male superhero. Even when black women were the central characters of the movies, they were still portrayed as sexually aggressive, often deviants. Black actresses such as Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson built their acting careers starring in blaxploitation movies. Their characters resembled those of the male superheroes: they were physically attractive and aggressive rebels, willing and able to gain revenge against corrupt officials, drug dealers, and violent criminals. According to Donald Bogle (1994):

Like the old-style mammies, they ran not simply a household but a universe unto itself. Often they were out to clean up the ghetto of drug pushers, protecting the black hearth and home from corrupt infiltrators. Dobson and Grier represented Woman as Protector, Nurturer, Communal Mother Surrogate. Yet, these women also had the look and manner of old-style mulattoes. They were often perceived as being exotic sex objects (Grier's raw sexuality was always exploited) - yet with a twist. Although men manhandle them, Grier and Dobson also took liberties with men, at times using them as playful, comic toys.(p. 251)

The portrayal of black women as sexually lascivious became commonplace in American movies. Grier, for example, in Coffy (Papazian & Hill, 1973) and Foxy Brown (Feitshans & Hill, 1974) goes undercover as a "whore" to get revenge on whites who have victimized her loved ones. In The Big Bird Cage (Santiago, Shaffer & Hill, 1972), Carol Speed plays a spunky black hooker inmate. The 1973 movie Black Hooker (Holsen & Roberson) is a movie about a "white" boy whose mother is an uncaring black whore. In the made-for-television movie, Dummy (Tidyman & Perry, 1979), Irma Riley plays a Black prostitute. Lisa Bonet, one of the daughters on the Cosby show, plays a voodoo priestess in Angel Heart (Kastner, Marshall & Parker, 1987). Her character, Epiphany Proudfoot, has a sexual episode with Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) that was so graphic that the movie almost received an X rating. In Harlem Nights (Lipsky, Wachs & Murphy, 1989), Sunshine (played by Lela Rochon) is a prostitute so skilled that a white lover calls his wife on the telephone to tell her that he is never returning home.

The obligatory "black whore" is added to urban-themed movies, apparently to give "real life" authenticity. In the classic movie Taxi Driver (Phillips, Phillips & Scorsese, 1976), a black hooker (Copper Cunningham) has sex with a white businessman in the backseat of the taxi driven by Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro). The sex act is offered as evidence of the moral decline and decadence of America. Bickle washes his taxi after the sex act. Hazelle Goodman plays Cookie, a hooker in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry (Doumanian & Allen, 1997). When Cookie is asked if she knows what a black hole is, she replies, "what I make my living with." In the credits listed for Dangerous Ground (Gorfil, Roodt & Roodt, 1997), Temsie Times is listed as "Black Hooker." Cathy Tyson, the niece of actress Cicely Tyson, got her first major role as a sophisticated call girl in Mona Lisa (Cassavetti, Woolley & Jordan, 1986). The racial and sexual stereotypes depicted in these and similar movies find their fuller, clearer expression in low-budget pornographic movies.

The pornography industry remains a bastion of explicit anti-black stereotyping - raw, obscene, and increasing mainstreamed. Many of the heterosexual themed movies in the American pornographic market have white actresses; however, there are hundreds of pornographic movies that also depict black women as "sexual things" - and as "sexual animals." Internet "stores" sell videos with titles like Black Chicks in Heat, Black Bitches, Hoochie Mamas, Video Sto' Ho, Black and Nasty, South Central Hookers, and Git Yo' Ass On Da Bus! In the privacy of their homes or hotel rooms, Americans can watch black actresses - Purple Passion, Jamaica, Toy, Chocolate Tye, Juicy, Jazz, Spontaneeus Xtasy, and others - "validate" the belief that black women are whores. Most of the black actresses in mainstream movies who play Jezebel roles - especially those with interracial sex scenes - are light skinned or brown skinned women; however, most of the black women in pornographic movies are brown skinned and dark skinned women.

Halle Berry won an academy award for the role of Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball (Daniels & Forster, 2001), a complex and haunting drama. Leticia had a sexual relationship with Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton), a racist jailer who supervised the execution of her husband. The link between Leticia's black husband's execution and her white lover was not revealed to her until the movie's end, by then she and Hank were bonded together - self-loathers, angry, defeated, drunk, grieving the loss of relatives, trying frantically to find redemption, and failing that, someone to share the emotional pain. Their initial sexual encounter followed a drunken lamentation of their failures as parents. She lost her husband, and then her son was killed. His son committed suicide, in his presence. Writhing in emotional pain, she begged, "Make me feel better." There followed one of the rawest, most intense sexual scenes in American cinematic history. Later, he gave her a truck. He named his new business venture, a service station, Leticia. He readied a room in his home, moved his racist father to a convalescent home, and after Leticia was evicted from her home he moved her into his house.

The relationship between Hank and Leticia was an updated version of the placage arrangements common in the 1800s. The first night after she moved into his home they lie in bed. He said, "I'm gonna take care of you." Leticia replied, "Good, 'cause I really need to be taken care of." In a tender moment, he went to a store to get ice cream. While he was gone she found evidence that he was involved in her husband's execution. She cried, wailed, gripped with gut-wrenching pain. He returned. She had a dazed look. He told her, "You look real pretty. Let's go out on the steps, if you want to." She followed him. Outside, she accepted a spoon, stared at his son's tombstone, and then accepted ice cream from his spoon. His last words were, "I think we gonna be alright." Angela Bassett, nominated for an academy award in 1993 (Tina Turner in What's Love Got To Do With It), rejected the role of Leticia. In an interview with Newsweek (Samuels, 2002), she said: "It's about character, darling. I wasn't going to be a prostitute on film. I couldn't do that because it's such a stereotype about black women and sexuality"(p. 55). Bassett's assessment was harsh and probably overstated. Leticia was portrayed as a "loose woman:" drinking from a bottle, slouched, legs open, later initiating sex with a man she barely knew. She ended the movie as a "kept woman," not a prostitute - her status is a function of the harsh realities of being a poor, black woman in a society that devalues the poor, the black, and women. Bassett insisted that she was not criticizing Berry so much as she was criticizing the Hollywood system for continuing to typecast black women in demeaning roles. This was a reasonable criticism. Only a handful of black actresses and actors have won academy awards, and most won because they brought depth and complexity to otherwise one-dimensional stereotypical roles: Hattie McDaniel played a Mammy in Gone With the Wind (Selznick & Fleming, 1939); Sidney Poitier played a Tom, albeit a dignified one, in Lilies of the Field (Nelson, 1964), and Denzell Washington was a rogue cop, a variant of the Brute in Training Day (Newmyer, Silver & Fuqua, 2000).

Conclusion

The Jezebel has replaced the Mammy as the dominant image of black women in American popular culture. The black woman as prostitute, for example, is a staple in mainstream movies, especially those with urban settings. The black prostitute and the black pimp supposedly give these movies cutting edge realism. Small budget pornographic movies reinforce vile sexual stereotypes of black women. These women are willing, sometimes predatory, sexual deviants who will fulfill any and all sexual fantasies. Their sexual performances tap into centuries-old images of black women as uninhibited whores. Televised music videos, especially those by gangsta rap performers, portray scantily clad, nubile black women who thrust their hips to lyrics which often depict them as 'hos, skeezers, and bitches. A half century after the American civil rights movement, it is increasingly easy to find black women, especially young ones, depicted as Jezebels whose only value is as sexual commodities.

© Dr. David Pilgrim, Professor of Sociology
Ferris State University.
July, 2002
Edited 2012

(Curator's Note: Thanks to the following Ferris State University faculty and staff who read drafts of this essay and offered suggestions: Michael Berghoef, Raymond Gant, Douglas Haneline, Eunice Merwin, Susan Morris, Mary Murnik, David Russell, John Thorp and Lee Ann Westman).

¹ The most infamous Jezebel was a Phoenician princess who married Ahab, king of Israel, in the 9th century B.C. As queen she introduced the worship of Baal and sought to suppress the worship of Yahweh (Jehovah), the Hebrew God. She persecuted the prophets of Jehovah, many of whom she ordered to be killed. Her disregard for Jewish custom and her ruthless use of royal power are illustrated in the story involving Naboth, a Jezreelite. Jezebel falsely accused Naboth of treason. He was stoned to death. Then, she and Ahab took possession of Naboth's vineyard. Her reign as queen was marked by similarly deceitful actions. The name Jezebel came to signify a deceitful and immoral woman. Her story is told in First Kings 18 and 19, and in Second Kings 9. In the New Testament book Revelations (2:20) the name Jezebel is used as a byword for apostasy.

² Jewell (1993) uses "bad-black-girls" as a synonym for Black Jezebels.

³ See White (1999, p. 29). White's book is an excellent historical examination of the Jezebel portrayal, especially chapter one, "Jezebel and Mammy," pp. 27-61.

⁴ In British North America, what we call racism did not really flower until the 18th century. In the 17th century, attitudes toward blacks and other non-whites tended to be more run-of-the-mill xenophobia. In the 18th century, this exploitation received ideological and "scientific" basis.

⁵I considered using the word pornographic to describe the stripping and touching of slaves; however, pornography is more often associated with representations of people, and not the people themselves.

⁶ There is no date or manufacturer listed on the item or the cardboard box.

⁷ There is no date or manufacturer on the banner. Interestingly, there is a cloth flap covering her genital area; however, when lifted there is nothing there.

⁸ This postcard was produced by E.C. Kropp Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is a popular postcard as evidenced by its history of being reproduced. Reproductions began in the 1950s and continued into the 21st century.

References

Amoah, J. D. (1997). Back on the auction block: A discussion of black women and pornography. National Black Law Journal. 14 (2), 204-221.

Anderson, L. M. (1997). Mammies no more: The changing image of black women on stage and screen. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Bibb, H. (1849). Narrative of the life and adventures of Henry Bibb, An American slave. New York, NY: The author.

Bogle, D. (1994). Toms, coons, mulattoes, mammies, and bucks: An interpretive history of Blacks in American films (New 3 rd ed.). New York, NY: Continuum.

Cassavetti, P., & Woolley, S. (Producers), & Jordan, N. (Director). (1986). Mona Lisa [Motion picture]. United States: HandMade Films.

Daniels, L. (Producer), & Forster, M. (Director). (2001). Monster's ball [Motion picture]. United States: Lions Gate Films.

D'Emilio, J., & Freedman, E. B. (1988). Intimate matters: A history of sexuality in America. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

Douglass, F. (1855/1968). My Bondage and My Freedom. New York, NY: Arno Press.

Doumanian, J. (Producer), & Allen, W. (Director). Deconstructing Harry [Motion picture]. United States: Jean Doumanian Productions.

Feitshans, B. (Producer), & Hill, J. (Director). (1974). Foxy Brown [Motion picture]. United States: American International Pictures.

Gilman, S. (1986). Black bodies, white bodies: Toward an iconography of female sexuality in late nineteenth century art, medicine, and literature. In Gates, H. L., Jr. (Ed.), Race, writing, and difference (pp. 223-261). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Gorfil, G., & Roodt, D. (Producers), & Roodt, D. (Director). (1997). Dangerous ground [Motion picture]. United States: New Line Cinema.

Gross, J., & Van Peebles, M. (Producers), & Van Peebles, M. (Director). (1971). Sweet Sweetback's baadasssss song [Motion picture]. United States: Yeah.

Griffith, D. W. (Producer/Director). (1915). The birth of a nation [Motion picture]. United States: David W. Griffith Corp.

Gutman, H. (1976). The black family in slavery and freedom, 1750-1925. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

Holsen, J. (Producer), & Roberson, A. (Director). (1974). Black hooker [Motion picture]. United States: Movie Company.

Jewell, K.S. (1993). From mammy to Miss America and beyond: Cultural images and the shaping of U.S. social policy. New York, NY: Routledge.

Jordan, W. D. (1968/1969). White over black: American attitudes toward the Negro, 1550-1812. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books.

Kastner, E., & Marshall, A. (Producers), & Parker, A. (Director). (1987). Angel heart [Motion picture]. United States: Carolco International N.V.

Knight, A. (1974). Sex Stars. Playboy's sex in cinema 4. Chicago, IL: Playboy Press.

Leab, D. J. (1975/1976). From Sambo to Superspade: The black experience in motion pictures. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Lipsky, M., & Wachs, R. D. (Producers), & Murphy, E. (Director). (1989). Harlem nights [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.

Nelson, R. (Producer/Director). (1963). Lilies of the field [Motion picture]. United States: Rainbow Productions.

Newmyer, R. F., & Silver, J. (Producers), & Fuqua, A. (Director). (2001). Training day [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.

Papazian, R. (Producer), & Hill, J. (Director). (1973). Coffy [Motion picture]. United States: American International Pictures.

Phillips, J., & Phillips, M. (Producers), & Scorsese, M. (Director). (1976). Taxi driver [Motion picture]. United States: Columbia Pictures Corporation.

Rawick, G. P. (Ed.). (1972). The American slave: A composite autobiography. Vol 12 (Georgia). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Redpath, J. (1859). The roving editor, or talks with slaves in southern states. New York, NY: A. B. Burdick.

Samuels, A. (2002, July 1). Angela's fire. Newsweek, 55.

Santiago, C. H., & Schaffer, J. (Producers), & Hill, J. (Director). (1972). The big bird cage [Motion picture]. United States: New World Pictures.

Selznick, D. O. (Producer), & Fleming, V. (Director). (1939). Gone with the wind [Motion picture]. United States: Selznick International Pictures.

Sharpley-Whiting, T. D. (1999). Black Venus: Sexualized savages, primal fears, and primitive narratives in French. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Tidyman, E. (Writer), & Perry, F. (Director). (1979). Dummy [ Television broadcast]. In S. Manners, & E. Tidyman (Producers). Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Television.

West, C. M. (1995). Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel: Historical images of black women and their implications for psychotherapy. Psychotherapy. 32(3), 458-466.

White, D. G. (1999). Ar'n't I a woman? Female slaves in the plantation South (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

Williams, A. (2001, Winter). Something to talk about. Sauti Mpya, 9, 30. [Chapel Hill, NC: Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center, University of North Carolina.]

Wyatt, G. E. (1997). Stolen women: Reclaiming our sexuality, taking back our lives. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Perhaps she remembers her great-great grandmother who wanted to protest but only rolled her eyes and willed herself not to scream when the white man mounted her from behind. -- Andrea Williams(2001) The portrayal of black women as lascivious by nature is an enduring stereotype.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 2020, we saw the Black Lives Matter movement fight against explicit forms of racial suppression and police brutality. However, in the eye of that storm, many forms of implicit microaggressions have gone overlooked. Of these, modern-day blackface is now taking over social media, and it needs to be stopped.

The word "blackfishing" defines how social media influencers of European descent alter their appearance to appear of minority descent. Individuals using blackface in attempts to appear Black, brownface in attempts to appear brown-skinned and yellowface in attempts to appear Asian are some examples. Celebrities and social media influencers are the reason for the rise of this issue.

When I was younger, I would travel to predominantly white countries where I would see people's skin tones resemble my own. I soon realized it was only excessive tanning on pale skin.

I've faced my fair share of racism against the tone of my skin, which is something a white person will never have to deal with. However, seeing white people become famous for painting themselves the deep skin tone I was often belittled for negatively impacts my self-esteem. Why did I face injustice while existing with my natural features, but white influencers are now considered beautiful for mimicking those same features?

It is an issue that has literally taken a new face over the years. All over Instagram, we see women and girls tan excessively beyond their natural skin tone. This phenomenon has now carried from this online platform to real life, on college campuses. You can see overly tanned skin in the middle of winter, which is not naturally possible. It is achieved through artificial sprays and tanning beds. Darker skin tones are praised when artificial but demonized when natural. It is offensive to students who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) ; it devalues our struggles as people of color throughout history.

"With my interaction with people on this campus, (blackfishing) is coming from a place of ignorance," SU sophomore Anwule Onwaeze said. "I think media has a lot to do with it because, not to excuse these girls, they are probably just doing it because that is 'in,' and they do not want to take the time to educate themselves and understand."

As we become more educated on what is considered inappropriate to say or do, modern-day blackface is a major issue that needs to be considered.

Many celebrities have been accused of the old-school style of blackface by imitating fuller lips, altering hair texture or applying "ethnic features" using deeper-toned makeup products. White continue to put on blackface in the 21st century to play minority characters in a negative light. Even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was criticized in 2019 when a photo resurfaced of him wearing brownface, which he later apologized for.

Although a sensitive topic that requires caution, blackfishing continues to require further discussion, especially in the SU community. Devaluing our struggles occurs when pale-skinned individuals can't be identified from minorities. The #NotAgainSU movement formed when racist incidents came to light, and now the SU community needs to be held accountable for its actions of cultural appropriation.

This is not to say that we should return to normalizing eurocentrism , the racist concept that someone of European descent with pale skin, straight hair, and a slimmer body should be considered "the epitome of beauty." Eurocentrism is also present when it comes to global issues , when issues in the Western world are consistently addressed while other issues, like the Kashmir conflict or the Rohingya genocide , go overlooked. But at the same time, white students having features that are usually distinctly visible to BIPOC can be detrimental to the latter's mental health.

We need to address the issue of blackfishing, as well as brownfishing and yellowfishing, with earnest dedication. Where white social media influencers imitate, they can instead use their platforms to address racial discrimination. Where white college students appropriate, they can instead use their platform to address on-campus injustices.

The more you become educated on issues of cultural appropriation, the less likely you should be to partake in it.
Sourov Rayhan is a sophomore English major. Their column appears biweekly. He can be reached at srayhan@syr.edu

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
White people trying to embody Black features is wrong. Stop 'Blackfishing.'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 2020, we saw the Black Lives Matter movement fight against explicit forms of racial suppression and police brutality. However, in the eye of that storm, many forms of implicit microaggressions have gone overlooked. Of these, modern-day blackface is now taking over social media, and it needs to be stopped.

# data[].attributes.body
https://hogg.utexas.edu/mental-health-cost-of-a-black-woman

# data[].attributes.headline
 how being strong can cause mental health experiences

# data[].attributes.subject
 how being strong can cause mental health experiences

# data[].attributes.body
https://globalnews.ca/news/7603788/black-women-mental-health/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Aubrey O Day Photoshops out Black Model | Then BLOCKS Me 🙄

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4713035/

# data[].attributes.headline
 serena willams underpaid  and over worked

# data[].attributes.subject
 serena willams underpaid  and over worked

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Serena Williams said she has been "underpaid (and) undervalued" as a Black woman in tennis, applauding the Black Lives Matter movement for shining a light on entrenched racism, according to comments published by British Vogue magazine.

The U.S. star, who has won 23 Grand Slam titles and been outspoken about sexism and racism during her career, said technology had also played a key role in highlighting racial discrimination and violence.

"Now, we as Black people have a voice - and technology has been a huge part of that," she said in an interview for the upcoming British Vogue November 2020 issue.

READ: French Open: Podoroska becomes first female qualifier in semifinals

"We see things that have been hidden for years; the things that we as people have to go through. This has been happening for years. People just couldn't pull out their phones and video it before.

"I think for a minute they (white people) started not to understand, because I don't think you can understand but they started to see," she added.

"I was like: well, you didn't see any of this before? I've been talking about this my whole career. It's been one thing after another."

Williams is among the world's most successful and well-known tennis stars, along with her sister Venus, and has repeatedly highlighted the prejudice she has faced on and off the court.

She boycotted the BNP Paribas Open tournament at the California Indian Wells resort for 14 years after suffering racist jeers there in 2001, an incident which she said left her crying in the locker room for hours.

In 2018, she called out sexism after being deducted a point for smashing her racket in frustration at the U.S. Open, with women's tennis pioneer Billie Jean King praising her for exposing a "double standard" towards female players.

But Williams, 39, says she was proud to represent "beautiful dark women" and hoped attitudes may be gradually shifting.

"Maybe it doesn't get better in time for me, but someone in my position can show women and people of colour that we have a voice, because Lord knows I use mine," she was quoted as saying.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Serena Williams says 'underpaid, undervalued' as Black women in tennis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Serena Williams said she has been "underpaid (and) undervalued" as a Black woman in tennis, applauding the Black Lives Matter movement for shining a light on entrenched racism, according to comments published by British Vogue magazine. The U.S.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The breakthrough representation of minorities in Hollywood blockbusters has ignited a frequently overlooked discussion about whether prejudice isn't just about the color of a person's skin, but the shade.

"Colorism," the idea that light-skinned minorities are given more privilege than their darker-skinned peers, is a centuries-old concept that many insiders say remains pervasive in the entertainment industry. The instant reckoning of social media has brought prominence to the issue and on Tuesday the ABC sitcom "black-ish," known for not shying from heavier topics, confronted it.

In the episode "Black Like Us," parents Dre and Bow (played by Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross) are appalled when they see that daughter Diane (Marsai Martin) appears darker in her poorly lit classroom photo. Their outrage sparks a tense conversation within the family.

"We felt that this was the year to just put it on our shoulders and see what we can do and hope at the very least we can get people to talk about it openly," said co-showrunner Kenny Smith.

Executive producer Peter Saji, who is light-skinned and of mixed-race, wrote the episode, drawing from his own experiences as well as research.

"There is a light-skinned privilege that I never really wanted to admit I felt or experienced. I sort of grew up: 'Oh, we're all black. We all experience the same struggle,'" he said.

More often when movies and television shows ignite conversations about colorism, it's unintentional.

In 2016, a furor erupted over a trailer showing actress Zoe Saldana portraying singer and activist Nina Simone. Saldana's skin was darkened and she wore a prosthetic nose.

When images from "Ralph Breaks the Internet" came out last year, it appeared Princess Tiana, Disney's first black princess, had a lighter complexion and sharper features. Anika Noni Rose, who voices Tiana, met with animators and spoke about how important it was that dark-skinned girls see themselves represented. The studio also consulted the civil rights group Color of Change.

"They had to spend some real money to actually fix this. They recognized the problem, they listened and they worked to change it," said Color of Change executive director Rashad Robinson.

The issue isn't unique to black people. In India's Bollywood film industry, the starring roles tend to go to lighter-skinned actors, many of whom endorse products promoting fairer skin.

The movie "Crazy Rich Asians" left some Asian-Americans disappointed by a lack of brown or dark-skinned actors.

Meanwhile, "Roma" director Alfonso Cuaron received praise for casting Yalitza Aparicio in the lead role of an indigenous maid. The character is more at the forefront than her lighter-skinned Mexican employer.

For African-Americans, bias toward lighter-skinned people dates back to slavery. Skin complexion sometimes determined what type of jobs slaves were assigned or if, post-slavery, they were worthy of receiving an education. In later decades, universities, fraternities and other institutions were known for using the "brown paper bag" test: Those with skin lighter than the bag were in.

"It's part of white supremacy, or holding up whiteness over other backgrounds," Robinson said. "It has deep implications, historical implications in the black community from beauty standards to professional opportunities to how families have treated one another."

The problem also exists within the music industry. Mathew Knowles, who managed daughters Beyoncé and Solange and Destiny's Child, said it's no accident that most of the recent top-selling black artists are lighter-skinned like Mariah Carey and Rihanna. He said Beyoncé often got opportunities that darker-skinned artists probably wouldn't.

"There's another 400 that are of a darker complexion ... that didn't get a chance at Top 40 radio," Knowles said. "They got pigeonholed that they were black and in the 'black division,' and they got pigeonholed in just R&B, black radio stations."

Knowles, himself darker skinned, said his own mother instilled in him that darker skinned women were less desirable. It's a perception that he thinks is starting to shift.

"We have to have social courage to speak up about this stuff and stop being quiet about it," Knowles said. "The only way we change is to be uncomfortable and truthful about our feelings and beliefs."

That is a strategy that Smith, the "black-ish" co-showrunner, also agrees with.

"With anything it's always best to have a truthful conversation," Smith said.

Follow NBCBLK on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Colorism' reveals many shades of prejudice in Hollywood

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The breakthrough representation of minorities in Hollywood blockbusters has ignited a frequently overlooked discussion about whether prejudice isn't just about the color of a person's skin, but the shade. "Colorism," the idea that light-skinned minorities are given more privilege than their darker-skinned peers, is a centuries-old concept that many insiders say remains pervasive in the entertainment industry.

# data[].attributes.headline
 examples of black girls oversexualization's

# data[].attributes.subject
 examples of black girls oversexualization's

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Netflix film and a handful of other recent titles movingly explore what it means to come of age at the crossroads of racism and sexism.

Fathia Youssouf in "Cuties." Her character struggles to define herself in both a traditional household and a social media-driven society. Credit... Netflix

The French coming-of-age movie " Cuties, " about a Senegalese Muslim girl who joins a hip-hop troupe, was being celebrated and censored even before its world premiere.

In January, its first-time filmmaker, Maïmouna Doucouré, won a directing award at Sundance. Then, in August, Netflix took the film's nuanced exploration of the sexualization of young girls and doubled down, releasing an ill-advised publicity image of tween girls puckering their lips for the camera. In response, the hashtag #CancelNetflix went viral. At the same time, several Republican lawmakers called for the film to be banned, with Senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, even asking the Department of Justice to open a child-pornography investigation into Netflix and the filmmakers.

The controversy, however, has obscured the more complicated realities of gender, race and religion that the film explores as a young immigrant, 11-year-old Amy (Fathia Youssouf, 14), struggles to define herself in her traditional household and in a social-media-driven society that both rewards and penalizes hypersexualized adolescent girls.

The backlash to the film seems mainly an American phenomenon. There has been no significant pushback in France, where the film was shot and set. What concerns me is that the criticism seems misplaced and misinformed when we put "Cuties" in conversation with a recent group of girlhood movies by Black female filmmakers here in the United States. The nonfiction "A Love Song for Latasha," the short "Pillars," and the features "Miss Juneteenth" and "Selah and the Spades" put the adultification, overdisciplining and vulnerability of African-American girls front and center, and by doing so paint a complicated portrait of what it means to come of age at the crossroads of American racism and sexism.

Image

"A Love Song for Latasha" uses an experimental style and close-ups of cousins and friends to recall Latasha Harlins. Credit... Netflix

"A Love Song for Latasha" (Netflix) is Sophia Nahli Allison's 20-minute documentary about Latasha Harlins, the 15-year-old Black girl who was buying orange juice when she was killed by a 51-year-old Korean grocer, Soon Ja Du, in Los Angeles in 1991. Allison's experimental style, lush palette, fast-paced editing and tender close-ups on Latasha's cousins and friends, all now 40-something Black women like me, recreate the loss of Latasha's innocence. Not in terms of legal guilt: Though Du claimed that Latasha intended to steal a $1.79 carton of orange juice, the actual camera footage used at the trial as well as eyewitness accounts revealed that Latasha had $2 in her hand before Du shot her.

Allison never features that footage. Instead, she has a far more ambitious goal: By recalling Latasha as a generous straight-A student who dreamed of being a lawyer and using re-enactments and dreamlike sequences, she revels in the richness of Latasha's life. In this way, Allison also reveals the brutal reality of Latasha's killing and remembers how her death factored into the Los Angeles riots in 1991.

Though strained mother-daughter dynamics are the surface issues in Tayarisha Poe's "Selah and the Spades," Channing Godfrey Peoples's " Miss Juneteenth" and Haley Elizabeth Anderson's short " Pillars," Black girls' social and sexual vulnerabilities are actually their main themes.

Lovie Simone and Jharrel Jerome in "Selah and the Spades." Credit... Amazon Studios

The stylized teen drama "Selah and the Spades" (available on Amazon Prime) takes place at Haldwell, a Pennsylvania boarding school, where Selah (Lovie Simone) sits atop an interracial pecking order as the head of a predominantly African-American clique, the Spades. Though Selah's economic status insulates her from some forms of discrimination that exist beyond her elite campus, her standing is precarious thanks to her protégées' efforts to undermine her authority and her mother's continual disapproval, both of which push her to depression and even suicidal ideation.

"Miss Juneteenth" ( available on major platforms) spotlights intergenerational and internecine conflicts even more directly by focusing on the differences between the college dropout Turquoise (Nicole Beharie), who once held the crown that gives the film its title, and her 15-year-old daughter, Kai (Alexis Chikaeze). At first, these struggles appear to be about winning the scholarship pageant so Kai can attend a historically Black college or university of her choice. But the film deftly focuses on how gender can be more limiting for Black girls like Kai who rebel against more the conservative notions of femininity upon which the Miss Juneteenth competition prides itself.

"Miss Juneteenth" explores how conservative notions of femininity can be limiting for Black girls. Credit... Vertical Entertainment

In "Pillars," which I saw at the New Negress Film Society's Black Women's Film Conference, Amber (Kadence King), who is not yet a teenager, also pushes back against gender stereotypes by boxing with her temperamental father and challenging the strict doctrine of her religious mother. Anderson takes her character's developing sexuality seriously by having Amber develop a crush on a boy with whom she attends church, only to have an older Black girl teach Amber how to kiss in the church's bathroom.

Infused in all these films is an optimism that Black girls can overcome their oppressive environments. But rather than asking them to be overly resilient and navigate these pressures on their own, the films focus on community and feature family members or friends who accept the characters' nonconformity in the face of racial and gender stereotypes imposed on them, sometimes in their homes and more often in the outside world.

Which brings us back to "Cuties." Near the end of the film, Doucouré tricks the audience. Onstage, we see Amy and her three friends wearing tight black boy shorts and sequin turquoise crop tops while twerking and gyrating. At first, the live crowd cheers, then it jeers. Stand-ins for those of us streaming the film, their responses force us to acknowledge our own complicity in the girls' objectification. Even more troubling, the movie reveals how easily the lines between girl empowerment and sexual exploitation can be taken advantage of and blurred.

But Amy, too, is upset and abandons her crew before the competition is over. Instead, she ends up being consoled by her mother and decides to dress in a red long-sleeve T-shirt and jeans to a formal family occasion, an act that, for the first time in the movie, feels all her own. Her journey to self does not feel pornographic or victimizing, but rather, puts her on a path to self-definition and freedom that her mother, her peers and, most tragically in the real world, Latasha Harlins, never had.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What the 'Cuties' Critics Can't See: The Complexities of Black Girlhood

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Netflix film and a handful of other recent titles movingly explore what it means to come of age at the crossroads of racism and sexism. The French coming-of-age movie " Cuties, " about a Senegalese Muslim girl who joins a hip-hop troupe, was being celebrated and censored even before its world premiere.