Black Masculinities in Canada: Humanizing Black Men and Gender Advocacy


Jamilah Dei-Sharpe, Concordia University

This study presents how Black men in Canada construct their Black male identities outside mainstream stereotypes and lead efforts to empower Black men and boys in Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa. In North America, Black men have one of the lowest social positions, challenged with high unemployment, high school dropout rates, incarceration, and mortality rates (Alexander 2011; Brown 2011). In efforts to resolve this disparity, Black masculinity is overrepresented as "in crisis" within the Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities (CSMM) (Brown 2011; Johnson 2018). Scholars in the CSMM have investigated how the Black male expression of patriarchy and hypermasculinity contributes to Black communities' low social position and well-being (Connell 1987; Schrock and Schwalbe 2008). Crisis narrative scholars tend to draw from gangster and ghettoized representations of African American men in the mainstream media and local communities as evidence of mass Black male underachievement that requires urgent state intervention. This study illuminates how the central "crisis" in Black masculinity studies is the problem-centred deficit framework and homogenization of the American context, overshadowing Black men's multidimensionality and positive societal contribution across the African diaspora (Toldson and Johns 2016).   The CSMM emerged in the 1960s using feminist methods to advance research into the lived experiences of men beyond being perpetrators of sexism and patriarchy (Brannon 1976; Kimmel and Messner 2013). However, research on Black masculinity continues to be hyper-focused on Black male perpetrators, framed as in the constant quest to attain white male status or as underdeveloped from the over 500-year legacy of systemic racism instilled during the 16th-century western transatlantic slave trade and 17th-century scientific racism (Cooper 2007; Curry 2018;  Somerville 1994). As critiqued by Black feminists, gendered racism in western knowledge production is responsible for the social construction of people of African descent as an inferior Black race, the framing of Black male-female relations as in perpetual conflict and Black men as underdeveloped, deviant, and dangerous (Collins 2004, 2006; hooks 2004). It is thus essential to avoid deficit frameworks and elevate humanizing representations of Black men and masculinity to combat anti-Black racism and sexism. Using a Black feminist sociological lens, this study investigates Black men as multidimensional racialized and gendered beings with agency to construct liberating counternarratives and positive societal contributions across the African diaspora (Blume Oeur and Grundy 2022; hooks 2004).   To enliven the CSMM with humanizing representations of Black men from a Canadian context, this study resolves the following questions: 1) How do Black men across the gender and sexuality spectrum in Canada define and redefine Black masculinities? 2) How do Black men engage in efforts to combat gendered racism in Canada? 3) How do Black men work with Black women and other communities to promote change in Canada? Qualitative interviews and photovoice were conducted on (N=20) self-identified Black male community organizers across the gender and sexuality spectrum who strive to advance race and gender justice, including Black men who identify as heterosexual, transgender, homosexual and non-binary. The findings will be disseminated as a written thesis, published in journal articles, accessible as educational resources on a public website and a multimedia presentation that spotlights positive representations of Black men and oppressive systems and ideologies that still need to change to propel Black male security and joy.

This paper will be presented at the following session: