In the spirit of sustaining black relationships through times of intense conflict, I thought it would be a good idea to talk through some of the ideas in Chapter 8 of bell hooks' We Real Cool entitled "Doing the Work of Love." This chapter reminds us that combating racism by itself is not the key to sustaining black relationships (all kinds of relationships), we should also focus on combating patriarchal operating models that insist that males are inherently dominating. This chapter breaks down what hinders the vulnerability needed to cultivate positive and fulfilling relationships and ways that black men and black women can better support each other. 

We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity by bell hooks pdf: https://theindigenist.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/we-real-cool_black-men-masculinity-by-bell-hooks.pdf