Summary Of 'Black Man' By Amy Wilkins

According to Amy Wilkins, black men are faced with complicated problems/situations in relation to race, gender, and class; middle-class black men must avoid being stereotyped as "the angry black man" by following along with "racialized feeling rules" of which strongly disallow anger/feelings of anger among African American men and also force them to deny race-based inequities. To be successful in dominant institutions, black men must maintain emotional restraint however these emotional restraints come with difficulties and emotional dilemmas according to gender and identity norms and expectations. Wilkins examines how black men at two predominantly white universities achieve emotional restraint and how they use their emotions to craft and manage

According to Wilkins, black men, to participate in middle-class spaces, must manage their emotions in ways that allow them to participate and make their way through various obstacles caused by contradictory gender, race, and class expectations. Moderate black men, according to Wilkins, apply cultural ideas about black emotions to solve problems they are faced with through their participation in predominantly white institutions. The men in Wilkins study used similar strategies of emotional restraint; "moderate blackness." Wilkins finds that all of the men in her study describe the campus in positive terms. For black men, athletic status organizes campus life; they are protected by black athlete/athletic stereotypes and by their status as athletes. However, being a black athlete on campus has some backlash such as being seen as less intelligent, unmotivated to do well in school, and having a lack of care. Wilkins found that, to move forward and achieve upward mobility into their adult lives, black college men must continuously navigate