Sociology

“Fluid and Shifting: Racialized, Gendered, and Sexual Identity in African American Children” Denise Isom, Loyola University, Cailfornia, USA

Abstract: “Being Black…it’s, we’re sometimes rugged, sometimes nice, sometimes just plain mean, but that’s…the way life is.” These words from a 5th grade girl reflected so much of what I heard from the children who participated in two studies exploring racialized gender identity in African American children. The participants were wise and insightful and strong beyond their years. They spoke of a deeply racialized reality, a gendered social world, and operated from a sense of self that was multifa- ceted and shifting. Bombarded by external images, they both reflected and at time rejected internaliz- ation of constructed identities. This paper presents the findings from two qualitative studies of African American Children and racialized gender identity. The initial research project employed participant observation ethnography, a questionnaire, and one-on-one interviews to illumine the meaning making world of African American children, focusing on the articulations and lived manifestations of their definitions of gender and racial constructions, including maleness, femaleness, femininity, masculinity, “Blackness,” and the intersections of race and gender–racialized gender identity. The participants were 5th, 6th, and 7th grade African American boys and girls in a community based after-school program. Their words and lives revealed a striving and overcoming racial identity, a maleness that was both externally derived and an achieved status centered on performance, as well as a masculinity oriented around caring and relationship. Femaleness emerged as strong, multitudinous, and varied, yet sexualized by a male gaze and silent in the face of it. The follow-up study sought to engage those same issues of racialized gender, but in a church context in an effort to explore identity at the intersec- tion of religiosity. Again, ethnography and interview were used to capture the voice of Black children. The participants of the follow-up study reflected a wider age range and were between the ages of ten and eighteen. What emerged was a sharp display of the fluidity of sexual identity. The children described their experiences with and around various forms of sexuality and expressed their, often creative, efforts to mesh those experiences with their denomination’s conservative theology. In both studies, the children displayed ideas that were a direct reflection of popular culture representations around race and gender, while also engaging in discourse that revealed the presence and desire for “authentic” identity, a self apart from external constructions.

Keywords: Race, Gender, Racialized Gender, African American Children

Introduction

FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN children, personal identity development takes placein and co-mingles with group memberships and expectations, local environs (i.e.,school, church, community), and the macro historical and social context. Those broader penetrating historical and social domains contain, produce, and project racial

and gender representations upon the life and psyche of African American children. As a result, those representations can then influence self-image, generating the internal production of images (in response and/or resistance), and potentially lead to the creation of multiple, complex identities (Hemmings, 1998; Stevens, 1997). The externally produced and projected

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images of race, gender, class (and their intersections), what it means to be African American, masculine and feminine, are often internalized by African American children thus become sources for self-image development. At the same time these images, often mis-representations, work to “shatter or fragment adolescent identities” (Hemmings, 1998, p. 331). In and amongst that coalescing of constructs, images, and assaults, immersed in multiple

contexts and locations of the self (from trenchant history, to White society, the African American community, and schools), African American children navigate and negotiate meaning, resisting, internalizing, re-emitting, re-creating, and building their identity. Constructed race and gender prove a combustible combination, for once African Americans

accept and began to believe in the racialized gender roles defined for them, they became accomplices, as well as victims, of the crimes against them. African American’s may intern- alize a “seen invisibility,” fixed/defined, becoming “slaves to the idea that others [have] of them” (Fanon, 1967, p. 116). As a result, African Americans find themselves living in multiple worlds and in multiple

selves, with African American children undergoing “multitextured socialization experiences from which complex identities develop” (Stevens, 1997, p. 146). Part of that phenomenon is what DuBois called “double consciousness,” the “peculiar sensation…of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (Dubois, 1903, 1994, p. 2). Dubois’ words, profound and prophetic, then as now, expose the penetrating force of racial projects upon the colonized self. He spoke of a people dealing not simply with difference or even “otherness” but with the implications of a view of self, planted within and against one’s self, yet not of one’s self. Moving between projected images and other constructed versions of one’s identity, while fighting against often internalized distorted views of the self, within a hostile social con- text…the African American youngster finds her/himself on an ever shifting playing ground for authentic identity development. Given the psychosocial and cultural implications of identity, the ways one sees oneself

directly connects to the ways in which one also interacts with the world around them, and for children a large part of that world is schooling. For children, it is essential to look at the ways in which identity constructs relate to the social context of education, for schooling is a central context in the life and identity development of a child (Proweller, 1999). As a result, an after-school program served as the primary locale and qualitative methods as the primary approach for the conducting of the first leg of this research. Using theory, material and methods from socio-cultural anthropology, sociology, psycho-

logy, ethnic and gender studies, and education, the studies explored the following research questions:

1. How do African American children express and define maleness and femaleness, masculinity and femininity, manhood and womanhood, and Blackness?

2. How do they see themselves within, articulate, and live into the intersections of race and gender (racialized gender) constructs?

3. How do their constructs reflect the impacts and strain of externally and internally pro- duced and projected selves?

4. What are the implications of variant racialized gender identity constructs on schooling (Study 1) and religiosity (the follow-up study)?

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This work yields insight into the ways in which African American children see themselves as racial and gendered beings, adding to their sense of identity and our understanding of identity formation. The study’s results address the issues of the emotional and mental strain of identity development amid the psycho-social assault of raced and gendered constructs. This work serves as a needed addition to the body of research on African American children, racialized gender identity constructs, and the implications of representations on identity de- velopment, but it also speaks to the process of “re-membering,” and reclaiming one’s authen- tic self.

Methodology The first arm of the investigation into racialized gender was conducted from 2001–2002 at a community based after-school program located in a lower/working class African American community near a large mid-western city. Grades five, six, and seven were selected as the targets for this study, as a way of gaining insight into some of the earliest conceptions of one’s self and others in terms of both gender and race (with particular focus on their inter- sections). Ultimately, the 75 children enrolled at the program at the 5th, 6th, and 7th grade levels,

became the participants of the ethnographic observation. All but one of the students was African American (the lone exception being a White female 7th grader). Gender-wise the 5th grade room enrolled 14 boys and 10 girls, the 6th grade room 13 boys and 16 girls, while the 7th graders were equally divided at 11 each. During the course of the study those numbers fluctuated as some children dropped out and others joined the program. On average, approx- imately 50 students attended the 5th, 6th, and 7th grade rooms regularly. From the 23 students whose parents granted permission to participate in the interview portion of the research, a random selection of 2 boys and 2 girls from each grade level was conducted. Given the over representation of females in the program and pool, the selection process and numbers were chosen in order to establish diversity across gender and grade levels. The absence of consent- ing and available 7th grade males limited the total interview number to 10, comprised of 2 male and 2 female 5th and 6th graders and 2 female 7th graders. Those 10 interviewees reflected similar levels of programmatic participation and social variables as the broader population of students in the after-school program (Isom, 2007). The follow-up study (conducted from 2007–2010) sought to engage those issues of racial-

ized gender in a church context to explore racialized identity alongside religiosity. Again, ethnography and interview were used to capture the voice of Black children. The approxim- ately 150 ten to seventeen year old children who were members of a large Black church’s youth programs were the subjects for the eighteen months of participant observation. Of those children 25 were interviewed, again with selections made to establish gender equity. The methods chosen for these projects were intended to investigate the meaning-making

that children undertake in their expression and development of a racialized gender identity and the implications of their identity constructs. The two-pronged approach, participant ob- servation and semi-structured interviews were central for conducting a naturalistic research study (Guba, 1978, 2007). Level one, participant observation, provided an introduction into and an overarching perspective for the study. Utilizing an outsider perspective, I examined the participants, their environment and experiences (Isom, 2007).

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Individual interviews represented the most emic, or insider perspective of the stages of inquiry. Here, I worked more closely with the participants in an effort to capture their view of their world. As Becker notes, “the nearer we get to the conditions in which they actually attribute meanings to objects and events, the more accurate our descriptions of those meanings will be” (1998, p. 14). For each study, the sets of ethnographic notes (including the informal focus groups), the

eighteen questionnaires (from the first study), transcripts from the interviews, and my reflexive journal, made up the various data sets available for analysis. This multi-layered method also allowed for what Eisner (1991) called “structural corroboration…the confluence of multiple sources of evidence or the recurrence of instances that support a conclusion” (p. 55). This structural corroboration, often called triangulation, provided important cross-validating data and numerous reference points heightening the study’s reliability and dependability. Lincoln and Guba (2007) expounded upon research endeavors designed to prevent potential

distortions by making the participants, the findings and the researcher the subjects of analysis. Following that model, both projects utilized participant checks. Informally, questions from the initial processing of experiences with the children that occurred during the visits to the center or church were directed back to the children, in the context in which it arose or as soon as an opportunity presented itself. More formally, emergent themes and questions became topics I pursued with the children during the informal focus groups and as part of the inter- views. External peer reviews, included both discussions of the research process and findings, occurred with a staff person from a youth drop-in and community center, an urban public school teacher, and a sociologist. As an additional source of data for analysis, the field notes recorded not only what was observed, but also the observer’s responses. This made evident my frames of reference and analytical lenses, serving as conduits for establishing the finding’s trustworthiness and dependability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, 2007). As a means of increasing the possibility of producing credible findings the research strove

for “prolonged engagement” with the participants, in-depth “persistent observation” through- out the project, and “triangulation” of data sources and collection methods (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The use of long-term engagement and in-depth observation also served in the creation of “thick description” which was central to the generalizability and transferability of the re- search findings (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, 2007; Geertz, 1973).

Findings

Blackness The children’s initial responses to the interview question-“What is Black or Blackness?”- surprised me, as time and again they spoke of it as “just a race” or “just a color.” What became clear as they talked more about the notions and operations of race was that their first comments were not an expression of racial neutrality or insignificance, but a prophetic utterance. Their statements of Black as “Just a race or color” appeared to speak of their feeling of being defined by, and trapped in, a racial construct, yet wanting to speak that trap out of existence, to speak/name equality into being. When discussing Blackness during the interview portion of both studies, their words artic-

ulated a passionate awareness of the complex context in which they are coming to self. In response to being asked what it means to be Black, one 10 year old girl said, after pausing

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for several minutes, “it is hard…hard,” others stated:” you have to face up to a lot of things like, (pause) like certain things, like, like being Black,” “how people treat you and how people think about you, you have to, you have to be able to take that,” “it means, to be strong, to be a strong, to be strong, that’s what it means to be Black to me,” and a 6th grade boy added, “What it means to be Black is to be strong, to know that you have accomplished something that was very hard to do…even if it’s not that much… That’s what really enlightens me about being Black, that’s why I love to be Black ‘cause it’s like we sometimes, we get more opportunities, sometimes we don’t, but we still keep working hard.” They spoke of Blackness as a struggle often marked by triumphant overcoming. In doing so, they operated out of willful self-creation or as Cornel West (1996) describes, “the dogged determination to survive and subsist, the tenacious will to persevere, persist, even prevail” (p. 80).

Maleness When first asked on surveys and in interviews to describe boys, the young men of the study answered in all the expected ways, describing males as “rough,” “tough,” “funny,” “athletic,” etc. Those initial articulations of maleness followed the research on Black males (Franklin, 1999; Majors and Billson, 1992; Price, 1999) defining it as an attained, external status marked by humor, physicality (the body, roughness), coolness, and showing off. Maleness was so externally derived that it could be given to a girl (When I asked about one young woman in the 5th grade, well known for her basketball skills and toughness, a few boys in the room informed me, “she’s a boy”) or could be taken from a boy (when asked in interviews to de- scribe boys who are not rough and tough, their responses included, “fags”, “the kind of boy girls don’t like”). The females of the study also described maleness as performance by using phrases such

as “they think they supposed to…,” “they try to act like…,” and “they don’t want to seem…” in defining it. They saw maleness as a mask, an act, consciously put on for others to see. Both the boys and girls asserted that male performance was primarily for other males. Each saw females as part of the intended audience, but as one young man put it, “you do it for your boys…we like have a pact, an oath…of how we supposed to be.” Some of the research on externalized maleness as well as popular culture representations

of Black males characterize them as marked by a hyper masculinity, and despite their defining of maleness, the boy’s of the study differed greatly from that research. When asked how they would define masculinity, they articulated a relationally situated, socially responsive, caring manhood by identifying it as “helping an old lady with her bags,” “being someone others could talk to,” and “being someone people can look up to.” In responding to what they wish their teachers knew of them, the boys of both studies spoke of, their “heart…” they self identified as “funny and caring,” and stated that they wanted “to be a good man.” They appeared to express that boyhood was defined by the constraints of the popular culture constructions of “manhood”, but that mature maleness is a living beyond the constructs, beyond narrowly defined masculinity (Isom, 2007).

Ideal Maleness When asked to name male heroes and ideal males, both boys and girls centered that notion in relationships. The males of the study identified family as their heroes and ideal men

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(fathers, brothers, grand fathers, etc), while the girls spoke largely from loss, absence, and lack. Among answers such as “Denzel Washington” and “Martin Luther King,” one young woman stated that the ideal man was, “the one that does not leave his kids…the one that has a wife, lives in a nice house, and just takes care of his kids.” The girls spoke from a critical frame about what and who were around them; they spoke of not knowing and not being known by men. The girls of the follow-up study were more likely to answer with men they knew, but that number, as well, was small. Their responses reflected the findings of a study conducted by MEE (2004) which found that, “the young Black girls…say they feel devalued and believe they have very little status in their communities.” The girls of both the MEE study and my studies appeared to speak from a sense of lack of connection to men, to their communities, and thus the world around them.

Femaleness In the first study, when asked on the questionnaire to “write down the first words that come to mind when you hear the word…Girl,” a third of the female responses reflected quality of behavior (“good,” “nice,” “friendly”) while another third were relational in nature including, “people to talk to” and “having a boyfriend”. On display in their responses is a relational framing of femaleness as well as the notion of the “good girl,” as the girls employed the classic language associated with the construction of the female as lady like, “friendly,” “nice,” and “good” (Thorne, 1993). Their answers stood in stark contrast to the male responses which focused heavily on appearance and the female body. More than half of the reactions expressed by the boys referenced appearance including, “pretty”, “make-up, hair,” “booty,” and “like to worry about clothes.” The next most common male response (nearly a third) centered on behavior (“nice,” “gentle,” “talk very much”), raising again the notion of the “good girl.” Males remained consistent in largely utilizing external domains to define gender- activities for maleness and appearance for femaleness. Oppositional defining loomed large in the answers the girls gave during the interviews.

When asked what it meant to be female, their remarks included, “girls are smarter,” “girls are better,” “more mature,” “more sophisticated,” “more responsible,” and “better leaders,” due to their superior character. Though on the surface the comments seem full of praise for the female, just underneath, maleness emerges as the comparison point. The unstated maleness present in their comments represents the measuring line for defining femaleness. Seemingly, from this set of responses, females viewed themselves as advanced people. Yet female de- fining did not stand on its own, its excellence did not exist in and of itself, but emerged from a comparison to, in opposition to, maleness. The female, Butler (1990, 1999) argues, is marked as female and unmarked as subject. Alongside this notion of a comparative femaleness, a sense of female complexity presented

itself as well. Though most of the girl’s responses to what female meant focused on a male comparison, the second most common set of answers revealed females blending multiple abilities and attitudes. Where boys were discussed as playing only “boy sports”, girls saw themselves as, “playing all kinds of games” (a few made a point of saying they play basketball too). And while females spoke of males as always having an attitude, often ready to fight; females, one young woman said, were a, “sometim’n thing. [and can]…have two split per- sonalities.” They can have attitude, put on masculinity, be girly or be superior people. For one young woman, femininity was not simply when a girl wanted “to do her nails,” but when

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she wants to do that “and not play basketball” too. Doing both was femaleness, limiting one’s self was femininity. Though defined in comparison to maleness, a female was seen as occupying multiple positions; a younger version of the complex African American woman- hood described by hooks (1981) and Wallace (1990). That multiple dimensionality in femaleness also appeared in the male’s interview answers

to what it meant to be female. Their responses included, “go to the mall,” “hang out and bond,” “strong,” “same strength as men,” “attitudes,” “read books and not go to the ‘Y’ and swim,” “get boys in trouble,” and “house work.” Unlike maleness, which the boys framed as behaviors, femaleness for them goes well beyond actions and into attitude, character, and strength. All of which were included in one young man’s answer, “[it’s]…the way they can get a man…possess a man...the way they hold themselves up

like a strong Black woman gots [sic] her own job, independent…went to college, got her degree, everything like that.” She is everything, smart, successful, sexy-a superwoman.

Racialized Gender and Shifting Identity The questionnaire of the first study asked the children to name the first words, image, and/or description that came to mind when they read the words “Boys,” “Girls,” Black boys,” and “Black girls.” These questions represented one of the first formal opportunities the first study’s participants had to speak to racialized gender (the intersections of race and gender) explicitly. Interestingly, in formal and informal conversation, the children often assumed an African American identity was implied when they or others spoke of gender. That made their responses to the questionnaire even more puzzling. Appearing to draw on popular culture representations of “Blackness” the children’s responses reflected race as a corrupting force. When describing “Girls” the boy’s replies included words such as-“Pretty,” “booty,” “nice,” “friends,” and “talks a lot,” yet when the category was “Black girls” their answers became- “hootchie,” “booty call,” “nice butts,” “crazy ghetto,” and “talks stuff.” Their responses were not simply sexualized, but reflected an exploitative, non-relational, usury of woman, images that mirror popular culture’s representation of the Black female-the video vixen, jezebel, and ‘ho.’ When the girls of the first study encountered being sexualized by the language or behavior

of the boys in a group context, the usually highly verbal females, were rendered silent. Silence became their tool of resistance…survival. In contrast, in the second study, during the few occasions where females were sexualized by their male peers at the church, the older teen girls, responded with verbal proofs of their purity, their virginity. For the older girls of the church, sexual purity seemed to operate as a source of social power, enabling them to talk back to boys and put down other girls.

Homosexuality and the Fluidity of Sexual Identity In the first study, the boys often played with sexual expression. Whether it was faux humping a table statue in the face or boys “flirting” with other boys (licking lips, playing with a sucker, etc.) the expressions appeared intended for humor or attention. When asked about the incidents of sexualized humor, boys regularly described their “need” to make others laugh and described acting out as boy behavior. Interestingly, in analyzing the notes more carefully it became clear that sexualized actions that were homosexual in nature were only

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engaged in by boys with social power and only toward others of similar status. It appeared they were the only ones who felt their social position could withstand that representation, in all other settings, homosexuality was consistently derided and terms associated with it were regularly used to demean. In the follow-up study very different associations were observed. When one male leader

of a step team was mockingly asked, “Can you do that any more gay,” his response was to redo the moves in question in an even more exaggerated way. He received no further ridicule from the others in the group. He challenged the intended criticism of his performance, by embracing, versus ignoring or pushing back against, the idea of homosexuality. His social power allowed for broader expressions of self. When asked in interviews about homosexuals and the church, a few young men spoke of

“learning about God from gays,” they characterized homosexuals as seeking love, and one stated that, “if that is who they are, then God loves them.” Their words were even more surprising given the conservative nature of the theology of their Baptist church. Their senti- ments reflected the presence of or the emerging creation of a counter narrative about sexual identity.

Morphing, Shifting, and Inventing Language and Theology Early observational notes on the dialogue of the teenage girls of the second study revealed a vast array of emerging, formal, and informal categories for female sexual identity and ex- pression. That language included-“Stud”: A “butch” lesbian that likes “fem” lesbian girls and straight girls they can “turn out.” Their categorization of sexual behavior appeared to speak of not only varied sexual identities, but their fluidity as well, from straight girls that occasionally fool around with other girls to straight girls that use other girls to get male at- tention or foster boyfriend jealousy to lesbians that occasionally fool around with guys. Oddly, the term bi-sexual was never used. Though the girls of the church study never spoke publicly of themselves in referencing

homosexual behavior, they often expressed relationship and solidarity with girls who did. In interviews and conversations about homosexuality, two girls reported serving as decoy go betweens for girls in a relationship who each had disapproving parents. Being forbidden from talking to each other, by one or both parents, one girl would call the participant from my study, who would in turn use a party line to call the other girl and thus allow them to talk without their parents knowing. Another young woman spoke of inviting a “stud” friend to church. She stated the girl wore a rainbow belt buckle, went forward to the alter for prayer, and was greeted by an older woman of the church who the subject reported, “looked like she didn’t know what to do with her.” Yet another spoke of knowing where the trans- gendered students at her school felt safe and hanging out there sometimes herself because the teacher “was cool”. Having these issues arise during the ethnographic note taking stage made the topic an

obvious addition to the interview protocol. A number of both boys and girls of the study expressed their theological wrestling with the issue. One young woman stated, “being gay is like psychics…God doesn’t like it, but if you have a gift shouldn’t you use it for good.” A young man mentioned admiring homosexual Christians he knew and expressed a desire for the church to learn from them. Yet another speculated that if their desire was love, “wasn’t that what God was about”.

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In personal expression, social interactions, and theological justifications, the young people of the church engaged their own and other’s sexuality. They played with articulations around and expressed the embracing of fluid and varied sexual identity…all the while, it appeared, the adults of the church had little to no awareness of their children’s complex social world.

Conclusion “Liberation must be carried out through a recovery of self… [and] rejection is the indispens- able prelude to self-discovery…to rebuilding…whatever be their authentic nature” (Memmi, 1965, p. 128 & 135). That path back to self, Memmi (1965) postulated emerges from “words of love and tenderness, anger and indignation, words which the potter uses when talking to his pots, and the shoemaker to his soles” (p. 134). We have learned through this study that it is their souls, the authentic in African American

children that must be rendered voice and abode, location and power for becoming who they are. As we see and name the sources of our bifurcation, the false selves, the representations, oppressive structures and projects, not simply around us, but in us, we approach a self-con- sciousness, enabling us “to merge [our] double self into a better and truer self” (Dubois, 1903, 1994, p. 2). Within the children’s defining of “Blackness,” their co-joining of struggle, strivings, and triumph, their analytical articulations of the complexity of racial projects and discourse, there appeared a critical resolve and orientation (Isom, 2007). Moving beyond the victimization literature surrounding African American children, this

study revealed the yearnings that mark their voice, a desire to be strong, to triumph, to speak to and against those who do not see, but whose gaze defines, to be known and to know, to have those further down the path than they are, to show them the way. This work also charges all adults to become heroes for these boys and girls, lessen the racialized gender struggle by providing a place for African American children to give voice to the pain of their striving. As Cornel West (1996) states, “the ‘urtext’ of black culture is neither a word nor a book, not an architectural monument or a legal brief. Instead, it is a guttural cry and a wrenching moan–a cry not so much for help as for home, a moan less out of complaint than for recog- nition” (p. 81). For so many reasons, it seems best to have the last words be ones from the children, a

young woman who so beautifully summed up much of this work in saying what she felt “Blackness” meant: “It means that you’re an African American, and you’re the only person that can be like you.”

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About the Author Dr. Denise Isom Dr. Denise Isom received her doctorate in socio-cultural anthropology of education from Loyola University, Chicago. Her areas of expertise include: racialized gender identity; African American studies; race, culture, class, and gender; and multi-cultural education. Her current research agenda includes studies on racialized gender identity in African American children and also the racialized nature of congregational life. Her work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences; published in journals such as The Urban Review and The Journal of Race, Equality, and Teaching; and been presented in chapters on boy culture, teaching race, and African American female psychology and identity.

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