Respectable: Politics and Paradox in Making the Morehouse Man

Respectable explores the paradox of Black male respectability at Morehouse College, where conservative notions of gender and class are fostered, despite challenges and realities that undermine the institution's image of success. Saida Grundy, a former Spelman student and Miss Morehouse, offers an insider's perspective, highlighting the narrow, conservative vision of masculinity, peer competition, sexual violence, and the high costs of conforming to unattainable ideals. The book critiques the institution's focus on servicing an imagination of what Black men should be rather than understanding their diverse perspectives.

Format: Hardback
Length: 356 pages
Publication date: 02 August 2022
Publisher: University of California Press

How does it feel to be groomed as the solution to a national Black male problem? This is the guiding paradox of Respectable, an in-depth examination of graduates of Morehouse College, the nation's only historically Black college for men. While Black male collegians are often culturally fetishized for beating the odds, the image of Black male success that Morehouse assiduously promotes and celebrates is belied by many of the realities that challenge the students on this campus. Saida Grundy offers a unique insider perspective: a graduate of Spelman College and a former Miss Morehouse, Grundy crafts an incisive feminist and sociological account informed by her personal insights and scholarly expertise.

Respectable gathers the experiences of former students and others connected to Morehouse to illustrate the narrow, conservative vision of masculinity molded at a competitive Black institution. The thirty-two men interviewed unveil a culture that forges confining ideas of respectable Black manhood within a context of relentless peer competition and sexual violence, measured against unattainable archetypes of idealized racial leadership. Grundy underlines the high costs of making these men—the experiences of low-income students who navigate class issues at Morehouse, the widespread homophobia laced throughout the college's notions of Black male respectability, and the crushingly conformist expectations of a college that sees itself as making good Black men. As Morehouse's problems continue to pour out into national newsfeeds, this book contextualizes these issues not as a defect of B.

Black male collegians are often culturally fetishized for beating the odds, the image of Black male success that Morehouse assiduously promotes and celebrates is belied by many of the realities that challenge the students on this campus. Saida Grundy offers a unique insider perspective: a graduate of Spelman College and a former Miss Morehouse, Grundy crafts an incisive feminist and sociological account informed by her personal insights and scholarly expertise.

Respectable gathers the experiences of former students and others connected to Morehouse to illustrate the narrow, conservative vision of masculinity molded at a competitive Black institution. The thirty-two men interviewed unveil a culture that forges confining ideas of respectable Black manhood within a context of relentless peer competition and sexual violence, measured against unattainable archetypes of idealized racial leadership. Grundy underlines the high costs of making these men—the experiences of low-income students who navigate class issues at Morehouse, the widespread homophobia laced throughout the college's notions of Black male respectability, and the crushingly conformist expectations of a college that sees itself as making good Black men. As Morehouse's problems continue to pour out into national newsfeeds, this book contextualizes these issues not as a defect of B.

Black male collegians are often culturally fetishized for beating the odds, the image of Black male success that Morehouse assiduously promotes and celebrates is belied by many of the realities that challenge the students on this campus. Saida Grundy offers a unique insider perspective: a graduate of Spelman College and a former Miss Morehouse, Grundy crafts an incisive feminist and sociological account informed by her personal insights and scholarly expertise.

Respectable gathers the experiences of former students and others connected to Morehouse to illustrate the narrow, conservative vision of masculinity molded at a competitive Black institution. The thirty-two men interviewed unveil a culture that forges confining ideas of respectable Black manhood within a context of relentless peer competition and sexual violence, measured against unattainable archetypes of idealized racial leadership. Grundy underlines the high costs of making these men—the experiences of low-income students who navigate class issues at Morehouse, the widespread homophobia laced throughout the college's notions of Black male respectability, and the crushingly conformist expectations of a college that sees itself as making good Black men. As Morehouse's problems continue to pour out into national newsfeeds, this book contextualizes these issues not as a defect of B.

Weight: 635g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520340381