ABSTRACT: This study aimed to understand what barriers and supports exist to engaging in positive health behaviors among Black male graduate students. Twenty-nine Black male graduate students enrolled at a private university in the southern United States participated in in-depth interviews. Qualitative analysis was used to analyze data for similar themes. The main barriers to engaging in positive health behaviors were time, stress, and racism/distrust of the health care system. Supports for engaging in healthy behaviors were family and friends’ support and the motivation to look a certain way physically. These findings highlight the need for colleges to provide support systems and access to resources encouraging healthy behaviors for Black male graduate students. Additionally, healthcare providers on college campuses should include family and friends in the care of Black graduate men to potentially improve compliance and health outcomes.
: This paper examines Ida B. Wells's work Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases for the purpose of providing an explanation behind how the act of lynching gave birth to the myth or lie, as is it referred to throughout this paper, regarding Black men raping White women. This paper breaks down how Wells's work displays this lie is a form of European cosmology born after the Civil War that Whites utilized to help them maintain control over the Black race. This paper also breaks down how Wells's work highlights the effects of this lie over the years in addition to performing brief case studies on four specific events that showcase these effects. This paper concludes by pointing out how Wells's work also provides a solution to ending this lie.
ABSTRACT: Throughout history, Black men have been subjected to numerous minority stressors, social injustices, racism, police violence, and other traumatic incidents. Though research has examined young Black men’s mental health and sexual behavior, no study has looked specifically at young Black men’s experiences and perceptions of the connections between structural violence, mental health, and sexual behavior. To address this gap, this study reports the findings of 20 semi-structured interviews with 18–25 year old Black men (10 men that have sex with men [MSM], and 10 heterosexual). The study integrated Minority Stress Theory (Myers, 2003) and Terror Management Theory (Greenberg et al., 1986) to situate mortality salience as a proximal stressor in the processes outlined in Minority Stress Theory. Thematic analyses indicated that young Black men connected structural violence to a heightened sense of mortality and performance for survival. Furthermore, heterosexual Black men linked racism and discrimination to reluctance or safety precautions regarding sex with White women, and MSM highlighted sexual behaviors they did not engage in due to stigma and discrimination. Men clearly connected these experiences to their mental health. This study provides a variety of implications for police departments, mental health providers, educators, and medical providers that can be applied to help create a world where Black men feel protected, safe, seen, and heard.
Charles V. Hamilton: A Tribute Judson L. Jeffries Charles V. Hamilton is among a long list of old school Black political scientists who have transitioned over the last ten years. The W. S. Sayre Professor Emeritus of Government and Political Science at Columbia University, Hamilton was both a giant and pioneering social scientist. A Chicago PhD, Dr. Hamilton first came to my attention during my freshman year in college in the early 1980s. I was enrolled in an Introduction to Government class where the assigned textbook was American Government by Charles V. Hamilton. I remember the text like it was yesterday. A hardback book with a Black cover accompanied by an image of the Lincoln Memorial that took up more space than was needed. After all those years the book remains in my possession in my parents' house on the East Coast, a property I inherited several years ago. Hamilton taught at several places before settling in at Columbia University. Among those institutions at which he taught are Roosevelt University (his alma mater), historically Black Tuskegee Institute (now University), and Lincoln University as well as Rutgers University. Hamilton is most noted for his widely heralded co-authored work with Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) titled Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. Many scholars credit Carmichael and Hamilton with entering the words institutional racism into the American lexicon. Before the book went to press in 1967 the folks at Random House threatened to cancel publication in response to Carmichael's association with Cuba's communist/socialist regime and his call for revolution. The authors and the press eventually came to terms by agreeing to insert a message before the first page that read: This book represents a political framework and ideology which represents the last reasonable opportunity for this society to work out its racial problems short of prolonged destructive guerrilla warfare. That such violent warfare may be unavoidable is not herein denied. But if there is the slightest chance to avoid it, the politics of Black Power as described in this book is seen as the only viable hope. [End Page 89] Hamilton is also known for coining the term "deracialization," a political strategy that attempts to lift up historically marginalized communities by focusing on issues that transcend race such as education, taxes, healthcare, employment, and the environment, thus avoiding the kind of pushback that one typically experiences from Whites when one attempts to address matters that are typically associated with race such as welfare and the like. Hamilton's scholarship on deracialization laid the groundwork for scholars, one of whom happens to be this writer. Hamilton authored/co-authored six books: The Dual Agenda in 1997 with his wife Donna Hamilton, Adam Clayton Powell in 1992, the earlier mentioned textbook American Government, Bench and the Ballot: Southern Federal Judges and Black Voters in 1974, The Black Preacher in America in 1972, and Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in 1967. At a time when many Blacks were advocating for integration, Hamilton stood out, arguing in the tradition of Malcolm X and James Baldwin that some Blacks hated themselves, and people who hate themselves do more harm to themselves than good by integrating because they only end up suppressing their identity and true selves. Furthermore, Hamilton contended that when Whites called for integration, they rarely did so from a place of good will, but instead out of a desire for Blacks to suppress their culture and carry themselves more like the very people who oppress them. Hamilton's position was not without merit, but rare among Black scholars. Charles V. Hamilton was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1929, but raised on Chicago's southside. He taught at Columbia University for nearly 30 years, retiring in 1998. Hamilton died at the age of 94 on the evening of November 18, 2023. He is one of the many Black political scientists on whose shoulders I have stood since earning my doctorate in political science in 1997 from the University of Southern California. Dr. Hamilton's work has without question stood the test of time, which is a testament to his contribution to the academy, generally, and political science, specifically. Copyright © 2024 Trustees...
ABSTRACT: Beyond killing Black males, US law enforcement continues to treat Black boys/men as threats to be neutralized even when not armed or resisting. In this study I investigate 15 Black men’s narratives to provide a deeper understanding of Black male vilification and vulnerabilities in police encounters insofar as being targeted and searched. Using Afropessimism’s tenet of social death and Critical Race Methodology: Counterstorytelling this study answers, (a) how do Black men describe being targeted by US police officers, and (b) what experiences do Black males encounter with police officers’ searches? Findings elucidate how Black males face a dual death even when no threats exist, therefore having their freedom(s) infringed. Conclusions inform psychological reforms and discretionary search policies.
