ABSTRACT

In this chapter, I explore the troubles of black boys in urban schools in the United States from a perspective informed by writings of black feminists and gay men.1 My purpose for doing so is to begin theorizing a more progressive research and policy agenda for these troubles. My analysis is guided by the question “How do black feminists and gay men’s critical perspectives on black masculinity inform what are considered to be the ‘troubles’ of black boys in urban schools?” I focus on the work of Patricia Hill Collins and Joseph Beam. These writers, mostly uncited in the literature on urban education, problematize conventional understandings of black masculinity and therefore have influenced my thinking about a range of black sexual politics in urban education.