The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1 - 152

Terrell L. Strayhorn • Taris G. Mullins

. . . participants identified three major sources of support that enabled them to persevere in living situations that were, at times, difficult and uncertain: Black heterosexual female peers, gay or ally resident assistants (RAs) and affirming housing professionals, and an abiding personal drive to achieve, despite obstacles or setbacks (i.e., resilience).

weekend is not something i can talk about. and most of the guys don’t want me to talk about what i did for the weekend [laughing]. Other participants expressed difficulty engaging with other Black, presumably straight, male residents due to their religious beliefs, which were readily displayed in campus rH environments (e.g., religious texts on shelves, signs on the wall). For instance, angelo recalled the following scenario about his Black male roommate, an experience which echoed the sentiments of others: religion is a difficult subject for me. it’s big but it’s a touchy subject because i have been hurt so many times by it. [interviewer: how were you hurt?] so, it seems like i am hurt by it all the time nowadays. My second year at [said college], i lived in [said hall] . . . it was known on campus as the “brothers’ brothel” because so many dudes lived there. That year my roommate . . . let’s just call him fred [laughing] was Black. i didn’t want to surprise him or lie to him so i told him that i was gay the first week. at first he was cool about it; but then i came home one day from biology class and found all these signs posted around the room with bible verses on them, spiritual quotes taped to the door and wall, and a “heaven and hell” pamphlet laying on my bed. i was enraged, fuming. even a few of those who lived with nonBlack male roommates reported negative encounters with religion or religious beliefs. torre, a sports science major in his third year of college, recalled a negative experience that created an irreparable rift between him and his sophomore-year roommate: at first i was thinking that i didn’t have any bad experiences. But i just remembered that

masculinity also affects Bgmus’ behaviors and activities, thereby reducing, if not eliminating, the opportunity for them to engage with their same-race male peers in positive, productive ways. For instance, participants talked, at length, about how african americans tend to subscribe to traditional notions of masculinity, which presume that men are strong, stoic, and competitive and that they are procreators and conquerors of women (Kimmel, 1996). assuming identities and preferences that transgress traditional masculine expectations limited what Bgmus had in common with their male peers and made them “more different than similar,” quoting one of our sophomore respondents. elliott and others offered powerful examples, one of which is presented here: i don’t have that many Black male friends because i don’t like to do what they do, you know? sitting around talking about girls, their breasts, and how many i laid over the
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The Journal of College and universiTy sTudenT housing

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1