Chapter 7: Exploring The Intersection Of Love, Healing, And Leadership Among Men Of Color

Despite changes in the fabric of higher education, one recurring core tenet is developing students into responsible effective leaders (Guthrie & Osteen, 2016). Under the guise of patriarchy, much of what has historically been labeled “effective” leadership within Western contexts are traditional and hegemonic masculine principles (e.g., assertiveness, strength, control) in disguise. Yet, leadership literature has only recently documented connections between leadership education and masculinity among young boys and college men (e.g., Beatty & Tillapaugh, 2017). Additional scholarly focus on men of color and leadership is a worthy and necessary endeavor for several reasons: First, men of color remain underrepresented and underserved within American higher education (Brooms et al., 2018; Travers, 2019). Second, within an imperialist White-supremacist capitalistic patriarchal society, all men of color negotiate privileged (i.e., gender) and minoritized (e.g., race) identities (hooks, 2004b). Thus, when thinking about bridging leadership and social justice, it is paramount to address the topic of men and masculinity. Last, conforming to traditional patriarchal masculine ideals among college student leaders is not gender exclusive and therefore, has significant implications for all student leaders in higher education. Although we use terms like “men,” “male,” and “masculine” throughout this chapter, we believe gender to be a spectrum and not a binary. We resist the myth that gender can only be defined as man or woman and believe that gender identity and expression exist on a spectrum of many possibilities.