It has been over 10 years since the tragic and preventable death of Trayvon Martin. In the 10 years since his death, there have been at least 20 high-profile media cases of Black men dying at the hands of police misconduct or white rage. From Michael Brown to Philando Castile to Ahmaud Arbery to George Floyd, demographically African American men have been the victims of a skewed gender body politic. If Black men do not succumb to a violent end by the state--or worse, by their own hands--they are under suspicion or deemed pathological from the dominant gaze by a skewed social construct. How is this construct created and reinforced? What is being done to de-pathologize the image of Black men in America? Currently, in the disciplines of mass communication, media studies, and gender studies, there are few academic works that tackle these questions. The Depathologizing of Black Masculinity Within Legacy and New Media offers theoretical contexts as they relate to encoding, decoding, and the performance of Black masculinity. This work is intended not just to be designed for intellectuals, but also for students across cultures to gain a glimpse into the lived experiences of African American men as they negotiate the intersections of being a Black man in America. Covering topics such as Black male athletes, identity conceptualization, and psychosocial issues, this premier reference source is an exceptional resource for media professionals, social scientists, sociologists, politicians, criminal justice scholars, social justice advocates, digital storytellers, social media entrepreneurs, students and educators of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.
The Depathologizing of Black Masculinity Within Legacy and New Media