"They Care about Their Kids:" Schools, Black Fathers, & Antiblack Misandry

Background & Purpose: Recent scholarship has attempted to foreground the voices and intentions of Black fathers to establish a healthy presence in the academic and school-based lives of their children. However, schools as institutional reflections of civil society and culture often preclude Black fathers from conducting this prosocial role. The basis for this, as argued in this study, resides in the logic of antiblack misandry. Derived from a larger research project that explored the relationship between Black fathers’ perspectives on school readiness and academic socialization, this study sought to demonstrate how a sample of Black fathers perceived how they–and Black men at large–are viewed as inherent outsiders within their children’s school and the ways they respond to (mis)perceptions of who they are as Black men and fathers.

Methods: This study incorporated antiblack misandry—defined as “an exaggerated pathological aversion toward Black males that is created and reinforced in societal, institutional, and individual ideologies, practices, and behaviors”—as the theoretical framework. The lifeblood of antiblack misandry is the conception of the Black man as a figure to be feared or detested. Theoretical and analytically focused sampling techniques were utilized to analyze the self-reported experiences of 16 Black fathers who were evenly divided by socioeconomic status (middle-class [n=8]; working class [n=8]). Analysis for this study was guided by two central research questions:

1. What are Black fathers’ perceptions of how they are viewed and treated in their children's school by school personnel?
   1. Are Black fathers’ perceptions of how they are viewed and treated in their children’s school connected to their past and current self-reported experiences as Black men in society at large?
2. Are Black fathers’ school-engagement practices (e.g., attending parent-teacher conferences) connected to their perceptions of how Black men are viewed in society?

Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data and the data were subsequently audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis (TA).

Results: Analysis generated three overarching themes:1) perceptions and experiences, 2) counterfactual experiences, and 3) attitudes and actions. Findings affirm a stereotyped pattern of Black fathers being uniquely seen and treated as absent, dangerous, or unimportant to their children’s schooling lives.

Implications: Implications from this study informs social work practice, whereby school social workers can be instrumental actors in creating programs that center Black fathers as significant voices in the schooling context. For instance, this study argues that school social workers can facilitate the creation of Black educational fugitive spaces within the schooling context, wherein culturally tailored programs that attract Black men use school spaces (e.g., classroom) to engage their ideas (e.g., mentorship program for Black students) and actions (e.g., critical student advocacy).