The Black Middle-Class Family Man: Race,Gender,and Social Position at Home

Abstract

More scholars are examining the diverse ways Black men are participating in family life outside of the conventional White middle and upper middle-class ideal of primary economic providership. Research findings reveal that Black men often replace the primary economic earner family participation practice, with family participation practices steeped in expressive forms of emotional care and support for their children. However, this practice has largely been examined among poor Black fathers, resulting in a dearth of sociological and gender scholarship on Black middle-class men’s gender perspectives of providership and masculinity. An analysis of interviews with 20 married and single heterosexual Black middle-class men shows that heterosexual Black middle-class men stand behind economically co-providing with Black women as well as enact head of household and moral backbone gender displays. These gender displays express decision-making power (head of household), and emotional care and support of romantic partners and children (moral backbone), but in masculine essentialist ways. This article argues that economic co-providership and the enactment of head of household and moral backbone gender displays are outgrowths of a Black patriarchal culture of family egalitarianism. These outcomes observed show the complicated relationship between egalitarianism and the persistence of patriarchy among Black middle-class men as it relates to their social position in the household.