American Paradox:
Young Black Men
By Renford Reese
Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2004
As a committed social activist, evidenced by his creation of the
Colorful Flags Human Relations Module—a multilingual, multicultural
education initiative—Renford Reese and American Paradox envision a brighter
tomorrow for today’s young black male population. According to Reese, the
process of inculcating hope and engendering successful futures must begin with
a rejection of the prevailing stereotypes about their existence, the stereotypes
that black men embrace, to their detriment. The battle as established in
American Paradox is for the soul of black masculinity. In essence, to paraphrase
a famous question about racial identity from the Harlem Renaissance, how shall
the black man in America be defined/portrayed?
Reese, then, establishes two sites of analysis in the American Paradox:
how American culture (pop, criminal justice system, professional athletics, etc.)
views black men (external appearance, demeanor, gangsta-thug image); and how
black men view themselves. Individuals such as Tupac, Mike Tyson, etc.
use/embody these stereotypes to achieve personal success. In this regard, then,
American Paradox is part of an ongoing intellectual conversation about black
masculinity, and Reese’s voice can be added to that of Steve Estes, Maurice O.
Wallace, Scott Paulson-Bryant, Don Belton, Trey Ellis, bell hooks, Michael Eric
Dyson, Cornel West, and others who write about the construction of black
masculinity and its societal implications.
Reese points out that one factor separating his work from the body of
existing scholarship in this area is the inclusion of quantifiable data gathered
from a survey of 756 African American males ages 13 to 19 from the Atlanta
and Los Angeles regions. While the information is intriguing, the limited scope
of Reese’s research undermines one’s ability to extrapolate African American
male responses in the main. In one portion of the survey, each respondent rated
(on a scale of 1 to 3—which seems too small for an adequate measurement)
seven black male icons (Tupac Shakur, Will Smith, Tiger Woods, Allen Iverson,
David Robinson, Kobe Bryant, and Mike Tyson) as to their perceived “realness”
or “fakeness.” In the chapter “Black Icons,” Reese presents a sampling of the
responses (seven participants) gathered in the 2002 survey.
Conspicuously absent, however, is a clear sense of the survey’s
methodology. Was this a “closed” survey or was there room to collect data
Reese did not think to ask? There is also little indication that Reese
systematically interpreted this portion of the survey. In fairness, chapter 11,
“Redefining Authenticity,” provides analysis of other parts of the survey and