NCJ Number
179998
Journal
Youth and Society Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Dated: December 1999 Pages: 224-263
Date Published
1999
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This study provides new understanding of masculinities through an examination of the complex social circumstances of two working-class, African-American young men.
Abstract
The analysis of the lives of these two young men was drawn from a larger study (Price, 1995), in which the author examined, from August 1992 to April 1993, the lives of six young African-American men of different social classes. Information on the men was obtained through interviews that were conversational and relatively unstructured. In addition, field notes that documented interview situations were kept. Also, there were numerous casual conversations at friends' houses and over the phone. The interview, however, was the primary data source. Attention was given to the young men's differing meanings of the diploma, relationships with teachers, and relations with male peers in the production of their racial, masculine identities. Although the two men were from similar social locations, they developed different meanings of relationships and experiences in and out of school. This analysis explains these differing meanings by examining the ways the men have resisted and experienced race, class, and gender domination on three levels: the level of personal biography, the group level of the cultural context, and the level of social institutions. It was the interaction of these three levels, within a context of race, class, and gender relations of power, that helped to shape the meanings they developed. 4 notes and 60 references