Black Sexualities: Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies

18 Black Youth Sexuality

377 18 Black Youth Sexuality Established Paradigms and New Approaches MARCUS ANTHONY HUNTER, MAR ISSA GUER R ERO, AND CATH Y J. COHEN M. A. HUNTER, M. GUER R ERO, AND C. J. COHEN More than a century after W.E.B. Du Bois (1899/1999) asserted that Blacks are not a social problem and that their condition and behaviors are, instead, symptomatic of a larger system of oppression, researchers are still articulating pathological notions regarding the social outcomes of Blacks, particularly Black youth. Not unlike many contemporary organizations (governmental and nongovernmental ), the College Settlement Movement called for Du Bois to respond to a series of questions and curiosities, writing, “We want to know precisely how this class of people live; what occupations they follow; from what occupations they are excluded; how many of their children go to school; and to ascertain every fact which will throw light on this social problem” (p. xv). In fact, many of the questions and concerns outlined in the charge DuBois received from the University of Pennsylvania still remain the primary interest of research on and about Blacks. Most research, whether qualitative or quantitative , situates its analysis, methods, sampling, and observations around particular social outcomes that have historically focused on issues such as single parenthood , low marriage rates, and teen pregnancy. Now the list of risky outcomes has been expanded to include HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The intention in this chapter is not to negate the importance of these social realities as pressing issues and as important research endeavors. Instead, our goal is twofold: to interrogate the ways in which Blacks—particularly, Black youth—have come to be characterized in the literature through their sexual choices and sexual behaviors, and to present a more comprehensive research agenda by acknowledging the strengths and critiquing the limitations of existing literature. Thus, we attempt to explore the different paradigms used to analyze the sexuality of young Black Americans, and how new approaches to the study of sex among adolescents and young adults might provide insight into our understanding of the sexual decision-making and behaviors of young Black people. 378 M. A. HUNTER, M. GUERRERO, AND C. J. COHEN Mainstream and Academic Profiles of Black Youth Sexuality Increasingly, Black youth have been demonized in the media and find themselves the constant target of state regulating policy. Driving much of both lay and academic discussions about this group is what has been framed as their deviant choices in particular in the realm of sex and intimate relationships. Articles, opinion pieces, and books repeatedly highlight the seemingly unsafe and self-destructive sexual behavior of this cohort. Beyond the comments of comedian Bill Cosby, who more than two years ago repeatedly took poor young Black men and women to task for what he perceived as their pathological behavior , including sexual behavior, it is not uncommon today to find elites, entertainers , and journalists across the racial and ethnic spectrum railing against this current generation of Black youth (see, e.g. Anderson, 1990; Gates, 200; McWhorter, 2001; Williams, 2006). These demonizing accounts of young Black people most often trot out stereotypical targets to support their claims: hip-hop culture (especially rap music and videos), which is represented as a monolithic culprit for the pervasiveness of risky sex and increased violence in Black communities ; teen pregnancy, which is considered a byproduct of a dearth of family values and family structure; absentee fathers, which are considered the fatal flaw to healthy child-rearing; and the newest member of this sexual trilogy— Black men on the “down-low,” described as men of unabashed deceitfulness and the source of the alarming rates of HIV/AIDS infection among Black women. These images and the corresponding narratives that serve to conjure up such representations have come to dominate the public discussion of Black youth and their sexual choices. Not to be confused with polemical writings on young Black people who engage in sex is an expansive literature of largely academic studies that explore and detail the sexual behavior of young Black men and women. These studies confirm that, indeed, young Black people tend to have sex earlier, with more partners, resulting in more pregnancies, than their White and Hispanic counterparts (see, e.g., Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance, 200).1 Furthermore, young Black people are disproportionately represented among young people with HIV and AIDS as well as those who have experienced a sexually transmitted infection .2 Much of this work is primarily...