“They Care About Their Kids:” schools, Black fathers, and the reproduction of antiblack misandry

Abstract

Recent scholarship has attempted to amplify the voices and intentions of Black fathers to establish a healthy presence in the academic and school-based lives of their children. However, schools as mesolevel instantiations of civil society and culture often preclude Black fathers from carrying out this prosocial role. The basis for this, we argue, resides in the logic of antiblack misandry. In this article, we demonstrate how a sample of Black fathers perceive how they—and Black men at large—are viewed as inherent outsiders within their children’s school and the ways they respond to these perceptions and subsequent treatment. Analysis produced three overarching themes–perceptions and experiences, counterfactual experiences, and attitudes and actions. Findings affirm a stereotyped pattern of Black fathers being seen and treated as absent, dangerous, or unimportant to their children’s schooling lives.

Keywords:

• Antiblackness
• antiblack misandry
• black fathers
• schools
• parental participation

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This work was supported by the Spencer Foundation; grant number #201600102.

2 The authors’ would like to acknowledge James T. Spartz at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for helping advance this paper to publication. Your assistance was indispensable.

3 The authors’ would like to thank Dr. Janean Dilworth-Bart at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Human Development and Family Studies, for her immense contribution to this paper. Your work is appreciated.

4 All places, names, and other identifiers have been altered to protect the identity of the participants.

Additional information

Funding

Spencer Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Bakari A. Wallace

Dr. Bakari A. Wallace is a postdoctoral research fellow at Wayne State University, School of Social Work.

David J. Pate

Dr. David J. Pate is an associate professor at the Social Work Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Helen Bader School of Social Welfare.