Watching Our Brotha's Back: Black Barbers As Community Health Navigators of Cardiovascular Disease from a Life Course Perspective

Barbers are redefining their role in the Black community by crafting the barbershop as a critical space for performing health care intervention among Black men (Davis, 2011, 2013; Luque, et al, 2013; Alexander, 2003, 2006). The cultural space of the barbershop serves as a culturally grounded environment for changing behaviors and attitudes among community health navigators and their clientele in promoting Black men’s health in the Southwest.         Examining the ways in which Black barbers address the knowledge of health, how it is translated, and the influence of social and cultural determinants of health, point to the need for translation and dissemination of health knowledge and understanding into practice through community-based participatory efforts. Transforming the Black barbershop into a site for community health education and culturally-responsive health promotion, this paper inquires, “What is the meaning of health to Black men in the barbershop community?” First, integrating preliminary data from the Black Barbershop Advisory Committee (BBAC), an intergenerational collective of Black barbers in Phoenix, Arizona, this paper examines the life course perspective in the construction of Black masculinity.  Second, an ideology of health and wellness frames the perspective of life course and the ways in which cultural responsiveness is useful in understanding ideological constructions of social reality.  Next, a community-driven cardiovascular disease health literacy program in Black barbershops in Phoenix, Arizona at once demonstrates the role of the barber in the community and how cultural competence is defined and performed among barbers and clients. Finally, the relationship between health promotion in the Black barbershop and the role of Black barbers as community health navigators, offers an innovative approach to addressing health literacy in African American communities and is the first wave of innovation for Black barbers watching their brothas’ backs.