Devin D. Brown is one of many African American men who grew up without guidance from a father. He had to learn from his own mistakes and his own losses. While experience has taught him well, he wrote this book to help families who want to prevent African American young men from making mistakes in the first place. In clear, candid language, he explores how to: - maintain a cultural connection with the black community even if you live in a white neighborhood; - encourage children to embrace Jesus Christ as a critical part of their life; - teach children right versus wrong; - recognize and fight systemic racism. The author also shares the lessons he learned about the three Ws - wealth, work ethic, and women - through losing jobs and other failures. Knowing about these three things are vital to the survival of African American men.

Devin D. Brown is one of many African American men who grew up without guidance from a father. He had to learn from his own mistakes and his own losses. While experience has taught him well, he wrote this book to help families who want to prevent African American young men from making mistakes in the first place. In clear, candid language, he explores how to: - maintain a cultural connection with the black community even if you live in a white neighborhood; - encourage children to embrace Jesus Christ as a critical part of their life; - teach children right versus wrong; - recognize and fight systemic racism. The author also shares the lessons he learned about the three Ws - wealth, work ethic, and women - through losing jobs and other failures. Knowing about these three things are vital to the survival of African American men.

Traces the history of black men in America using a tough-guy image to obscure their anger and disappointment over their roles in society back to their origins in Africa and the slave era.

"Will Jawando's account of mentorship, service, and healing lays waste to the racist stereotype of the absent Black father. By arguing that Black fathers are not just found in individual families, but are indeed the treasure of entire Black communities, Will makes the case for a bold idea: that Black men can counter racist ideas and policies by virtue of their presence in the lives of Black boys and young men. This is a story we need to hear." —Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times–bestselling author of How to be an Antiracist Will Jawando tells a deeply affirmative story of hope and respect for men of color at a time when Black men are routinely stigmatized. As a boy growing up outside DC, Will, who went by his Nigerian name, Yemi, was shunted from school to school, never quite fitting in. He was a Black kid with a divorced white mother, a frayed relationship with his biological father, and teachers who scolded him for being disruptive in class and on the playground. Eventually, he became close to Kalfani, a kid he looked up to on the basketball court. Years after he got the call telling him that Kalfani was dead, another sickening casualty of gun violence, Will looks back on the relationships with an extraordinary series of mentors that enabled him to thrive. Among them were Mr. Williams, the rare Black male grade school teacher, who found a way to bolster Will’s self-esteem when he discovered he was being bullied; Jay Fletcher, the openly gay colleague of his mother who got him off junk food and took him to his first play; Mr. Holmes, the high school coach and chorus director who saw him through a crushing disappointment; Deen Sanwoola, the businessman who helped him bridge the gap between his American upbringing and his Nigerian heritage, eventually leading to a dramatic reconciliation with his biological father; and President Barack Obama, who made Will his associate director of public engagement at the White House—and who invited him to play basketball on more than one occasion. Without the influence of these men, Will knows he would not be who he is today: a civil rights and education policy attorney, a civic leader, a husband, and a father. Drawing on Will’s inspiring personal story and involvement in My Brother’s Keeper, President Obama’s national initiative to address persistent opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color, My Seven Black Fathers offers a transformative way for Black men to shape the next generation.

A “scrupulously honest” (O, The Oprah Magazine) debut memoir that explores one man’s gender transition amid a pivotal political moment in America. Becoming a Man is a “moving narrative [that] illuminates the joy, courage, necessity, and risk-taking of gender transition” (Kirkus Reviews). For fifty years P. Carl lived as a girl and then as a queer woman, building a career, a life, and a loving marriage, yet still waiting to realize himself in full. As Carl embarks on his gender transition, he takes us inside the complex shifts and questions that arise throughout—the alternating moments of arrival and estrangement. He writes intimately about how transitioning reconfigures both his own inner experience and his closest bonds—his twenty-year relationship with his wife, Lynette; his already tumultuous relationships with his parents; and seemingly solid friendships that are subtly altered, often painfully and wordlessly. Carl “has written a poignant and candid self-appraisal of life as a ‘work-of-progress’” (Booklist) and blends the remarkable story of his own personal journey with incisive cultural commentary, writing beautifully about gender, power, and inequality in America. His transition occurs amid the rise of the Trump administration and the #MeToo movement—a transition point in America’s own story, when transphobia and toxic masculinity are under fire even as they thrive in the highest halls of power. Carl’s quest to become himself and to reckon with his masculinity mirrors, in many ways, the challenge before the country as a whole, to imagine a society where every member can have a vibrant, livable life. Here, through this brave and deeply personal work, Carl brings an unparalleled new voice to this conversation.

One of the first books to unite practice, research, and theory in addressing manhood development, Manhood Development in Urban African-American Communities aids in the construction of more holistic and progressive notions of African-American manhood. Proceeding from a psychological perspective, this text explores issues of culture and race as they impact on the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral characteristics of African-American boys and men. You will see how the development of self-esteem and self-image in African-American men are specifically affected by issues of gender, race, culture, religion, and oppression. You will see how the development of self-esteem and self-image in African-American men are specifically affected by issues of gender, race, culture, religion. The understanding of culture, oppression, and gender you’ll gain from this book will enable you to promote the positive development of young men.Manhood Development in Urban African-American Communities covers theories, research, and intervention programs aimed at better understanding and addressing the challenges young African-American men face in urban areas. Psychologists, sociologists, social workers, and all others interested in research on youth development will be captivated by the books explorations of: the role of culture in the social development of African-American youth cluster profiles of racial socialization beliefs, giving special consideration to factors of spiritual/religious coping, extended family care, cultural pride reinforcement, and racial awareness oppression and sociopolitical development as a basis for interventions aimed at sociopolitical awareness and action findings from SQAKs (Student Questionnaire on Academic Performance, Cognitive Development, and Social Knowledge) completed by 100 participants of the RAAMUS (Responsible African-American Men United in Spirit) Academy and their implications for future youth interventions a multi-method study that explores the relationship between gender, spirituality, and spiritual well-being and several indices of religiosity, including religious participation and religious motivation a review of manhood and womanhood development in traditional African societies and the connection with contemporary developmentThe themes of gender, oppression-liberation, and culture found throughout Manhood Development in Urban African-American Communities provide a broad scope for the inclusion of a wide range of perspectives and disciplines, ranging from the psychological to the political. This broad perspective will bring to light the specific ways in which we need to change things to allow our young African-American men living in urban areas to form healthy, positive images of themselves as individuals and as part of a greater society in which they often face grave challenges.

This comprehensive, practical resource provides specific strategies for counsellors working with boys and male adolescents from different cultural backgrounds. The first part examines how psychological, career and athletic development of boys is shaped by a complex interaction of biological, social, cultural and economic forces. TheSecond Part covers cultural considerations when counselling particular North American client groups, such as Hispanic-Americans. The final part focuses on special populations such as gay, sexually abused and developmentally disabled boys.

Statistics emphasize that one out of every five men is incarcerated. The background experiences of dysfunctional black men are often explored while few studies focus on the motivating triggers for high achieving black men. Successful African American Men: From Childhood to Adulthood is a unique study of the nurturing behavioral settings that high achieving black men used as adolescents and examines whether social capital played a role in helping them negotiate their way out of disadvantage. Equally important, is how these settings accommodated the men's diversity, complexity, and the influence of black culture, and reconciled it to their ability to respond and cope with mainstream America. This volume will be of interest to psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and others interested in the rich diversity of experience found within communities of color.

In this deeply learned book, poet and translator Robert Bly offers nothing less than a new vision of what it is to be a man.Bly's vision is based on his ongoing work with men and reflections on his own life. He addresses the devastating effects of remote fathers and mourns the disappearance of male initiation rites in our culture. Finding rich meaning in ancient stories and legends, Bly uses the Grimm fairy tale "Iron John," in which the narrator, or "Wild Man," guides a young man through eight stages of male growth, to remind us of archetypes long forgotten-images of vigorous masculinity, both protective and emotionally centered.Simultaneously poetic and down-to-earth, combining the grandeur of myth with the practical and often painful lessons of our own histories, Iron John is a rare work that will continue to guide and inspire men-and women-for years to come.