Race, Racism, and the Cool Pose: Exploring Black and White Male Masculinity

Abstract

Abstract Scholars argue that racial oppression uniquely causes Black males to construct a definition of their masculinity—the “Cool Pose”—that is different from White male masculinity. In this paper, using a nationally representative survey conducted in 2018, we examined whether young Black males were more likely than White male youths to feel greater pressure to conform to the Cool Pose. We analyzed six measures of the Cool Pose. We found no evidence that young Black males were more likely than White male youths to feel greater pressure to use violence if provoked. However, we found that young Black males were more likely than White male youths to feel greater pressure to be physically and emotionally strong, play sports, and to dominate or control others. We conclude that research needs to move beyond idiosyncratic accounts of Black males’ cultural adaptations in order to explicate the developmental processes that affect how Black males living in a systemically racist society express their masculinity.

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