Looking for a Few Good Men

This chapter compares the men of the Promise Keepers and Million Man March for what they wanted from and achieved at the gatherings. It describes the revivalism and spiritualism of the marches. By exploring the way white and black men experienced manhood historically, and in the 1990s, it explains why they marched separately though for many of the same reasons. By exploring the anger and anxiety that motivated their respective gatherings, it demonstrates how the new economy, multiculturalism, and feminism affected them and their respective communities differently, even though their adaptations were paradoxically similar. The marches provide the context for learning about and comparing the way these men approached emotionalism, male bonding, male dependency, patriarchy, homosexuality, and fatherhood.

Introduction

This chapter explains that the book looks at masculinity by examining, in both contemporary and historical perspective, the different ways that the Promise Keepers, the Million Man marchers and gay men approached masculinity, fatherhood, marriage, and issues of race, faith, and sexuality. Similarly, it explores how different groups of women approached femininity, feminism, motherhood, marriage, and sexuality, and examines their historical and contemporary ability to work across race, class, gender, and sexuality. It explores how African Americans navigated post-blackness, and how lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders negotiated their struggles with inclusion. As such, Lost in the USA reveals how intersectionality functions in the lives of local people and how it works and affects relationships and coalitions.