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.
