“Boys don’t tell their hearts out”: Black Boyhood and Masculinity  

by Atamini Akoma

Alice Dunbar-Nelson not only wrote about the lives of Black people, but the nuanced experiences of Black children growing up around the year 1900. One of her short stories, called “His Heart’s Desire,” is a captivating story about a five-year-old boy named Andy. Andy has a burning desire for a doll and cannot tell anyone about it because of the stigma that he believes comes along with his desire. Andy knows how frowned upon it is for him, and boys in general, to voice their emotions, and he knows a consequence of doing that would be him being perceived as weak and an object of ridicule. Dunbar-Nelson's story is an example of how Black boys created spaces for themselves and cultivated their own joy despite oppression.

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