Black Mens Studies. Serie McDougal III
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of a multilayered environment. The first is the microsystem, structures in which an individual has direct contact (schools, families, peer groups). The second is the mesosystem involving connections between the structures in a person’s microsystem (teachers and parents, peer group, neighborhood). The third is the exosystem, the larger social system having an indirect effect on the person by influencing structures in the microsystem (parent’s work schedule, neighborhood resources). Fourth is the macrosystem, consisting of macro-values, customs, and laws which can influence all other layers. Lastly, the chronosystem comprises the effects of time on a person’s environments. These can refer to the timing of events such as a death in a person’s family or the effects of change over time on a person.
Spencer (1995) builds on Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) explanation of multilayered environmental contexts by focusing on how individuals are influenced and make meaning of experiences over their life course. The phenomenological variant of the ecological systems theory (PVEST) is a conceptual framework for examining the process of normative youth development through the interaction of identity and environmental context (Spencer, 1995). Adding to the ecological perspective, Spencer (1995) emphasizes young persons’ self-appraisal and meaning-making processes in the context of race, class, and gender-laden environmental contexts. PVEST consists of five interrelated components that describe the identity development process. The first component is the net vulnerability level, the balance between risk-protective factors and risk-contributing factors. Risk-protective factors are the characteristics and contexts that serve as supports to positively affect an individual’s development. Risk-contributing factors are the characteristics and contexts that serve as liabilities and could adversely affect an individual’s development. They include phenomena such as poverty, racial discrimination, or gender discrimination. Risk-contributing factors could be offset or counterbalanced by risk-protective factors or resources such as cultural capital, i.e., style/temperament, resources, education, knowledge & skill (Swanson, Spencer, Dell’Angelo, Harpalani, & Spencer, 2002). Situations in which risk-contributing factors outweigh risk-protective factors contribute to an individual’s net vulnerability. The second component is net stress engagement level, the experiences that challenge or support individuals as they engage risks that threaten their well-being. Youth may experience stress in the form of racism, sexism, ←xxiii | xxiv→weight discrimination, class discrimination, puberty, and peer relationships. Support comes in the form of racial socialization and cultural enrichment. An absence or limited amount of such supportive experiences can be dangerous. The third component is reactive coping methods, adaptive or maladaptive coping responses to stress. Harmful reactive coping methods are destructive (changing physical features in response to racism, acting out in school), while adaptive coping (resilience, successful problem-solving skills, self-control) is positive and beneficial. Too much challenge and not enough support at an earlier stage can lead to unhealthy coping. The fourth component is emergent identities which refers to “how individuals view themselves within and between their various contexts of development (family, school, and neighborhood)” (Swanson et al., 2002, p. 78). Culture and racial identity, gender identity, individual and peer relationships, and all prior stages shape the identity development of youth. The fifth component, life-stage, specific coping outcomes, refers to the productive or adverse behavioral and attitudinal outcomes as a consequence of stresses, vulnerabilities, supports, and identities. Productive outcomes may be good health, positive racial identity, high self-esteem, and positive relationships. Conversely, adverse outcomes may be drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and poor relationships. According to PVEST, these stages help contextualize and explain youth identity development in a holistic way.
Different from ecological models (Bronfenbrenner, 1977; Spencer, 1995) and some racial identity models, the culturecology model makes use of a multilayered understanding of culture. Culture in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model is given very little attention. Spencer’s PVEST model goes beyond the ecological systems model in the attention it gives to racial identity, but it doesn’t deal with culture as anything more than racial identity. PVEST, like other models such as the Cross (1971) model of racial identity, examine the roles that the experience of racism, and preparation for the experience of racism play in identity development. However, the culturecology model has a more in-depth conceptualization of the relationship between culture and environment. The role of culture is central to studying the lives of Black men and boys because it frames their thinking and actions. This author used the culturecology model as explained by Nobles, Goddard, and Gilbert (2009) as a model which sees human well-being as fundamentally relational, resulting from situational relationships between people and their environments. Therefore, Black males are cultural agents interacting with cultural environments. The culturecology model recognizes the importance of ecological perspectives because they examine the ways that society, community, family, and individual-level factors affect the structure and functioning of Black men and boys. Nobles (2006) defines culture, beyond the idea of racial pride, as “a scientific construct representing a vast structure of language, behavior, customs, knowledge, symbols, ideas, and values which provide a people with a general design for living and patterns for interpreting reality” (p. 71).
Bush and Bush’s (2013) African American Male Theory (AAMT) is an approach to studying the lives of Black men and boys by “drawing on and accounting for pre- and post-enslavement experiences” (p. 6). It is also meant to be a framework to guide practical work with African American boys and men. There are six basic tenants of AAMT. First, the experiences and behaviors of African American boys and men’s lives are best analyzed using an ecological systems approach. AAMT builds on the five dimensions of ecological systems theory (mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem, and microsystem). AAMT adds a sixth dimension called the subsystem which includes the influence of spirit, collective will, collective unconscious, and archetypes. The second tenant of AAMT is the recognition that there is something unique about the experience of being both Black and male. This recognition highlights the unique contributions that African American males make and have made to humanity and how critical they are for effective social services to Black men. The third tenant of AAMT is recognizing the continuity of pre-colonial African culture(s), consciousness, and biology that influences the experiences of present-day African American boys and men; failure to account for it leads to faulty analysis. The fourth tenant of AAMT is the understanding that African American boys ←xxiv | xxv→and men are resilient and self-determining despite hegemony, without focusing exclusively on deficiency and oppression. The fifth tenant of AAMT is recognition that race and racism combined with classism and sexism have a profound impact on the lives of African American men and boys. Lastly, the sixth tenant of AAMT is recognition that the focus and purpose of study and programs concerning African American boys and men should be the pursuit of social justice.
Seeing Black Males in Historical Context
Seeing Black men and boys as human means seeing them in context. The current state of Black males is the result of historical unfolding. Placing Black males in historical context reveals continuity and discontinuity: how things have remained the same or changed, and why. Black males cannot be understood by only viewing frozen contemporary moments or episodes in their lives, or isolated actions or thoughts. Africana Studies lenses allow the researcher to see the problem presented by taking an episodic approach to studying the contemporary aspects of African people’s lives, without placing them into full historical context as leading to victim blaming and misguided explanations of current conditions (Carr, 2007; Hill, 1998). Without historical context, research on the contemporary conditions of Black males can be very fragmented. This kind of research may be descriptive but lacking in explanation. Ahistorical research on Black males not only feeds stereotypical understanding but also leads to a lack of appreciation for the continuity and change in Black male experiences over time. Lack of knowledge of the history of Black men leaves both Black men and researchers of Black men vulnerable to internalizing misperceptions and misjudgments (Wilson, 1991). Connecting the past with the present helps researchers to provide an understanding of how present conditions developed and how the past is still unfolding. Black male thought and behavior must be placed in this context to develop insight into their present conditions (Wilson, 1991).