Abstract
Contemporary social and economic conditions have posed new challenges for all young adults growing up in American society. In Brotherhood University, Brandon Jackson demonstrates how Black men encounter young adulthood with unique challenges. Simultaneously constrained by conditions affecting all young adults and the racial and gender structures affecting Black men, they face a “structural double bind.” Jackson argues that despite powerful stereotypes, discrimination, and surveillance, Black men draw on their friendships as a strategy to navigate college and flourish in their lives. Exercising agency amidst the structural double bind, Black men engage in brotherhood to collectively confront gendered racism and maneuver careers, families, and relationships. The project examines how a group of marginalized men use the institution of college to collectively construct masculinities that support themselves and each other.
Jackson conducted an ethnography with Uplift and Progress (UP), an organization founded at Maxwell Central University (MCU) in the late 1980s to support Black men. He conducted follow-up interviews with UP graduates a decade later. Jackson’s participants came from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds but often shared similar middle-class career goals and experiences with schools and neighborhoods.
Jackson’s longitudinal study explores the mechanisms of brotherhood his participants used to support one another. In response to a limited dating pool, they exchanged information to avoid having the same partners. To prepare for careers in White middle-class institutions, participants developed professional styles and encouraged prioritization of careers over romantic relationships. To negotiate controlling images of Black masculinity, participants collectively communicated their feelings about this dilemma. Jackson argues these factors help young Black men prepare for gendered racism and for work after college. Indeed, follow-up interviews revealed that these strategies of brotherhood continued to impact participants’ work and family lives after college.
These findings shed light on ways that racially marginalized men construct identities through a culture of brotherhood. The empirical case study of college-aged Black men shows the use of a “renunciation strategy.” With competition being a core aspect of many transformations of hegemonic masculinity, UP members’ focus on communality reflects a collective effort to distance themselves from hegemonic masculinity. Rather than competing in their professional endeavors and personal relationships, UP members invested in masculinities centering cooperation, alliance, and emotional openness.
Brotherhood University is a compelling case for how a marginalized group experiences distinct challenges and engage specific strategies in their transition to adulthood. Jackson convincingly illustrates the ways Black men construct brotherhood to confront pressures within and beyond college. I found this book to be hopeful. Jackson captures a unique process of positive, collective mobilization of Black men. While much of this construction of community comes from a place of necessity, it also highlights opportunities for social change, offering a glimpse into how masculinities centering connection, unity, openness, and support, can be cultivated.
Jackson’s findings contribute to the literature on masculinities in three ways. First, they show how Black men aim to counter controlling images characterizing them as irresponsible, stupid, and dangerous by cultivating alternative masculinities centering vulnerability, honesty, and trust. Second, Jackson highlights a different use of emotions than previously discussed in masculinities literature. Scholarship on hybrid masculinities shows that racially privileged men often exercise emotionality to symbolically distance themselves from privilege while still maintaining status. In contrast, Jackson articulates how Black men draw on emotionality as a survival mechanism. Rather than using their emotion culture to preserve a certain position in the gender order, these men collectively construct environments that welcome vulnerability to support one another through gendered and racialized life challenges. While actions from both racially privileged and racially marginalized men result in the construction of hybrid masculinities, the distinct motivations for why each group draws on emotions reveals inequality in power. Finally, these findings offer insights for making progress to eradicate racial and gender inequality. Spaces like UP model how institutions can help Black men find community in shared social circumstances and succeed in their lives.
Literature on gender and institutions shows how Black boys experience schools as disciplinary systems. Jackson’s work extends this literature by showing how, despite being sites of inequality and discrimination, Black men also find ways to improve their life trajectories. While schools do negatively impact their lives, Jackson shows how Black men sometimes agentically use institutions to their benefit. This book would be a valuable addition for sociology courses on race, gender, identity, and the life course or courses examining higher education intersectionally. Scholars of masculinities will find the mobilization of alternative masculinities among a group marginalized by race in this context to offer new ways of thinking about not only how inequalities work, but how marginalized groups also act collectively to challenge the process.
