We Wear The Mask By Edward Brown Essay

Edward Brown II conceptualizes Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear The Mask”, and uses it to define his study. “Contemporary African American gay men wear many masks as a means of survival, but beneath the mask lays no vestige of a healthy identity.” Brown tackles black masculinity and the oppressive and crippling parts of black culture that keep black gay and bisexual men captive. Edward Brown II, a research consultant, holds a Master of Arts in African and African American Studies and specializes in psychology and gender theory. His case study asks if contemporary African American gay men are complicit and in many ways the case agents for the same homophobia that oppresses them. Brown questions if America’s history of racism and homophobia has robbed them (black gay men) of the possibility of self esteem and self

Brown begins to deconstruct the system of manhood in America as he talks personally to his interactions with other black, gay men and co-workers. “Why don’t they just come out,” Brown’s co-worker states in conversation with him. Brown states that, “Sexism and heterosexism practiced by both heterosexuals and homosexuals are at the root of the many problems gay men face in forging a homosexual identity.” His cited evidence from other books and interviews with a few of the participants add another dimension to the case study, but once again does not rely on his data collected from the survey. Brown also does not discuss how he chose certain participants in the survey to conduct interviews with. Often in the academic journal Brown skips from topic to topic summarizing the selected authors pieces of work; which made his implications depend on the evidence in those scholars’ work rather than the quantified data he found. Ultimately, Brown’s findings and implications were left not fully expounded