No More Invisible Man

Key Concepts

Black male professionals experience “partial tokenization” in male-dominated profession, and this experience is different from other types of numerical minorities and from those in professions with a different gender makeup 

“In this book, I argue that partial tokenization is manifested in five areas: (1) general challenges, (2) relationships with others in the same numerical minority group, (3) interactions with other numerical minorities, (4) informal roles, and (5) performance of emotional labor.”

Black male professionals experience heightened visibility, and that comes with both downsides and benefits 

“Questions about dress and self-presentation are absolutely critical for black male professionals, many of whom are very conscious of their appearance in the workplace.” 

“Mitch's statement is reminiscent of accounts from other doctors of color who assert that the white coat functions as a symbol that earns them respect when patients might otherwise doubt their credentials and skills. He argues, as one of very few black male doctors in his workplace (and often the first one his patients have seen), that the increased visibility makes it necessary to don the white coat as a means of acceding to professional standards.” 

“Rosabeth Moss Kanter writes that the token woman also has to "work hard to have her achievements noticed." She explains that "the women had to put in extra effort to make their technical skills known, and said they worked twice as hard to prove their competence."" Black professional men's experiences show the flip side of Kanter's analysis-they not only work hard to prove their competence; they do so with the knowledge that they have very little leeway for error, since any failings will be magnified by their heightened visibility.” 

“Michael, the engineer discussed previously, unambiguously characterizes the heightened visibility he experiences as a positive factor: Everyone remembers my name. Everybody knows who I am. And I only have to show up once and say a word, and everybody knows who I am. So while some people would say, ‘Well, that draws a lot of attention,’ I would say that's a good thing. You know, use what you've got. So that's a good thing. People see my name on a paper, they know who I am. [For others], they're kind of like which grad student was that? Or which professor was that? Yeah, I mean, you stand out instantly.” 

Despite the theoretical prediction that black men in male-dominated industries would join with other men to ostracize women, they do not

“Despite these men's awareness that they are working in maledominated industries, they rarely speak of exploiting their gender advantage to ingratiate themselves to members of the dominant group and heighten further the boundaries between themselves and their women colleagues. In other words, men do not show their loyalty to white men by emphasizing gender solidarity at the expense of their female coworkers of any race. Instead, they are much more likely to discuss how they identify with women in their fields and to express solidarity with them.” 

“However, being in the minority does not compel them to show loyalty to members of the dominant group. Though they are aware that the male-dominated structure of their jobs offers them strategies to do this, rather than putting down their female coworkers to show solidarity with their white male colleagues, black men are more likely to use various techniques to advocate on the women's behalf. Instead of showing their loyalty to those in the dominant group, their own experiences with racial disadvantage create a sense of loyalty to another numerical minority.” 

“Rather, black men's experience with partial tokenization means that they choose to distance themselves from some women colleagues. Additionally, they are driven to engage in the self-quarantine because of the effects of the intersections of race and gender on them as black men interacting with white women.” 

They also form strong relationships with other black men

“As members of the numerical minority, do black men, as Kanter predicts, "try to become insiders, proving their loyalty by defining themselves as exceptions and turning against their own social category"? The short answer to this question appears to be that they do not. Rather than attempting to ingratiate themselves with the majority of their white male coworkers and supervisors by turning against or attempting to differentiate themselves from other black male workers, respondents cite a sense of solidarity with the other black males.”

Black men face informal roles that affect the experiences and ability to fit into their organizations

The Superbrother 

“Several respondents describe facing the image of the superbrother, who they characterize as an archetypal black male worker with excellent credentials, a stellar educational background, and virtually no professional flaws whatsoever. In the words of several respondents, the superbrothers are "the best of the best." They attended elite universities, have experience working with the top judges or in the top firms, and can boast of nearly incomparable resumes. Yet, as many respondents point out, superbrothers not only are few and far between but are held to standards that are rarely if ever expected of white male colleagues.”

The Impostor 

“This role is grounded in stereotypes and representations of black men as ill-suited for high-ranking, high-status occupations. Many respondents report that they are, consequently, subjected to this informal role when they interact with other workers in the organization-including colleagues-who mistake them for lower-status individuals and attempt to treat them as such. The impostor role, then, surfaces when black men are treated as people who do not really belong in medicine, engineering, law, or finance but are deemed better suited for other work.” 

The Race Representative 

“In this role, they are called on whenever the firm or office needs to show diversity or present someone who is a member of a minority group. The work that men actually do in these contexts is less important than the fact that they are present to underscore the message the organization wants to send about minority representation.?

Black male professionals adopt “marginalized masculinities” in the workplace

The Tough Guy 

“Several men in my sample shared that their masculine behavior at work takes the form of toughness, arrogance, combativeness, and, as one respondent succinctly put it, being "an asshole." In some male-dominated professions, forceful, hegemonic male behavior is expected or even rewarded.36 The men in my sample describe engaging in assertive and domineering behavior not because it was consistent with the occupational culture of their jobs but as a way to offset the challenges they encountered at work.”

The Nonthreatening-at All-Costs Guy 

“In this portrayal, men make it a point to depict themselves as easygoing, approachable, and placid. Their goal is that colleagues find them safe, comfortable, and relatively relatable. In particular, they work to make sure whites never find them menacing, challenging, or potentially dangerous.” 

The Friendly-but-with-Limits Guy 

“A third type of marginalized masculinity that the men in my study enact is the guy who is friendly and cordial but could be assertive if need be. I refer to this as the friendly-but-with-limits guy. With this type of masculinity, respondents present themselves as men who are affable, genial types. However, they also take care to depict themselves as men whose niceness should not be taken advantage of by others. In short, they are sociable and pleasant, but if pushed or mistreated, they can morph into tough guys who do not accept disrespectful treatment.” 

Because of the stereotype of the “angry black male,” these professionals actively manage their emotions, including detaching

“Black professional men generally talk about having to control their emotions when it comes to expressions of anger and the need to present an unemotional demeanor in other contexts. Surprisingly, however, black professional men in this study are less focused on concealing all expressions of anger. In fact, they note becoming angry in certain cases, which is a contrast to my earlier research documenting their unwillingness to display this emotion. Paradoxically, though, many respondents also discuss the need to maintain an unemotional, detached demeanor.” 

“In many cases, these respondents did the emotion work of concealing a range of affect so as to appear largely impassive. Often, the men suppressed "negative" emotions, like annoyance, pain, or irritation.”

“Though there is very little research on race and its role in shaping emotional performance, data that do exist suggest tokenism may lead to stress and self-hatred. However, research grounded in the emotion work literature indicates that race can influence workplace emotion management and that black men in particular may be loath to show anger as a consequence of the pervasive imagery of the angry black man.38 In this study, the emotion work of some of the black male respondents reveals that they are more comfortable showing anger than prior studies indicate, whereas the emotion work of other respondents has them displaying feelings of detachment and disinterest in the face of perceived racism.”

Quotables

“Jared, the forty-seven-year-old engineering professor, also shares how ties to a white male mentor have helped his career: For me and probably a lot of African Americans, we can't lean on a family member who has had a similar [professional] experience and say, "You know, Dad was teaching at whatever." In my family, on either side of my family, as far as we know, I'm the only doctorate. So therefore, I'm the only professor. So there's certain sort of rules of thumb, learning the ropes; there's certain tricks of the trade that I have to get from the job or colleagues here. There's no family I can go to to say, ‘Oh yeah, tell me about it.’”

“Like Randy, Michael explains that being a black engineer means being cast as the race representative, which involves additional, race-related labor. Unlike other colleagues who can simply perform their professional duties, he is expected to take on this extra task because it benefits the university to offer diverse representations of its faculty. Pointedly, Michael notes that these obligations are not terribly important or critical, or they would be done by other faculty or administrators. However, he is nevertheless cast in the role of the race representative when he is expected to complete these tasks as one of few black members of the faculty.”