Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
See our 2022-2023 Schedule: https://fhi.duke.edu/news/2022-2023-tgifhi-schedule
"The Love Languages of Black Fatherhood"
From Dr. Mark Anthony Neal: Thirty years ago, Gary Chapman posited the idea of the “Five Love Languages” – “Words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, gifts, and physical touch.” When we think of Black men – Black fathers – we rarely think in terms of “love languages”, but rather that of established stereotypes, absence, and shame. I was eight years old when my dad handed me my first spatula. The assignment on that Sunday morning in 1973 was a hard fried egg, then pancakes and soon I was a veteran of the fried baloney sandwich. For this undereducated, working-class Black man, who toiled six-days a week as a short-order-cook, food, or rather the cooking of food, was one of his love languages – it was how he made himself present. In this talk I document how the shifting presentation of men in a patriarchal society has forced Black men to play catch up each time the goal post of cultural expectations moves. I use historical context, personal reflection and data to argue that American culture does not have enough language to adequately understand or describe Black fatherhood. This project aims to both highlight the language that already exists and to add language to the cultural conversation that helps people recognize and acknowledge the presence of the Black father.
Speaker's Bio:
Mark Anthony Neal is James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African & African American Studies, Professor of English, and Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, where he teaches courses on Black Popular Culture including signature courses on the history of Black Humor, Black Masculinity, and the Motown & American Culture. Neal is the author of six books including the just published Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive, What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Public Culture (1999), Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture, the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002) and Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities (2013), and co-editor, with Murray Forman, of That’s The Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (now in its 2nd edition). Neal has been featured in several documentaries including PBS’s Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Netflix’s The Two Killings of Sam Cooke, and A&E’s Right to Offend: The Black Comedy Revolution, and even portrayed himself in an episode of the BET scripted drama, Being Mary jane, which starred Gabrielle Union. At Duke, Neal directs the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship (CADCE) which produces original digital content, including the weekly video podcast "Left of Black," (now in its 13th season), produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke. A native of the Bronx, NY, he received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his M.A. and B.A. from the State University of New York at Fredonia. He resides in Durham with his wife and two daughter.
Please join the Franklin Humanities Institute for its Friday morning series, tgiFHI! tgiFHI gives Duke faculty in the humanities, interpretative social sciences and arts the opportunity to present their current research to their departmental (and interdepartmental) colleagues, students, and other interlocutors in their fields.
See our 2022-2023 Schedule: https://fhi.duke.edu/news/2022-2023-tgifhi-schedule
"The Love Languages of Black Fatherhood"
From Dr. Mark Anthony Neal: Thirty years ago, Gary Chapman posited the idea of the “Five Love Languages” – “Words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, gifts, and physical touch.” When we think of Black men – Black fathers – we rarely think in terms of “love languages”, but rather that of established stereotypes, absence, and shame. I was eight years old when my dad handed me my first spatula. The assignment on that Sunday morning in 1973 was a hard fried egg, then pancakes and soon I was a veteran of the fried baloney sandwich. For this undereducated, working-class Black man, who toiled six-days a week as a short-order-cook, food, or rather the cooking of food, was one of his love languages – it was how he made himself present. In this talk I document how the shifting presentation of men in a patriarchal society has forced Black men to play catch up each time the goal post of cultural expectations moves. I use historical context, personal reflection and data to argue that American culture does not have enough language to adequately understand or describe Black fatherhood. This project aims to both highlight the language that already exists and to add language to the cultural conversation that helps people recognize and acknowledge the presence of the Black father.
Speaker's Bio:
Mark Anthony Neal is James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African & African American Studies, Professor of English, and Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, where he teaches courses on Black Popular Culture including signature courses on the history of Black Humor, Black Masculinity, and the Motown & American Culture. Neal is the author of six books including the just published Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive, What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Public Culture (1999), Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture, the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002) and Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities (2013), and co-editor, with Murray Forman, of That’s The Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (now in its 2nd edition). Neal has been featured in several documentaries including PBS’s Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Netflix’s The Two Killings of Sam Cooke, and A&E’s Right to Offend: The Black Comedy Revolution, and even portrayed himself in an episode of the BET scripted drama, Being Mary jane, which starred Gabrielle Union. At Duke, Neal directs the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship (CADCE) which produces original digital content, including the weekly video podcast "Left of Black," (now in its 13th season), produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke. A native of the Bronx, NY, he received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his M.A. and B.A. from the State University of New York at Fredonia. He resides in Durham with his wife and two daughter.
Please join the Franklin Humanities Institute for its Friday morning series, tgiFHI! tgiFHI gives Duke faculty in the humanities, interpretative social sciences and arts the opportunity to present their current research to their departmental (and interdepartmental) colleagues, students, and other interlocutors in their fields.
