Black Male Studies
Addressing the Acquiescence of Theory in the Ongoing Murder of Black Men and Boys as the Matter of Introduction
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21787748 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tommy J Curry (0000-0001-8153-0668, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophy Compass (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1747-9991 • E-ISSN: 1747-9991 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/phc3.70087 |
| OpenAlex | W7154914891 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 45 |
This article introduces Black Male Studies as a distinct empirically grounded field of inquiry developed to explain the systematic dehumanization, sexualization, and lethal targeting of Black men and boys within Western societies and racialized males more generally. Departing from dominant race–gender paradigms in the humanities, this introductory essay argues that feminist and intersectional theories have mischaracterized Black males as patriarchal agents or compensatory masculinists, despite extensive historical and social‐scientific evidence demonstrating their disproportionate vulnerability to incarceration, police violence, sexual victimization, economic exclusion, and premature death. Building on The Man‐Not (2017), this article advances a genre‐based antihumanist framework that conceptualizes Black males as structurally positioned outside the category of MAN—the dominant genre of the Human. Through concepts, such as anti‐Black misandry, fungibility, and phallicism, Black Male Studies reframes racism and dehumanization as a sex‐specific system of aggression. This article situates this framework as the organizing paradigm for the essays comprising this special issue
Acquiescence · Black feminism · Black male · Dehumanization · Racism · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media
A Misrepresented People
Black Men and Racial Trauma
Marked
Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race–ethnicity, and sex
Divergent Paths
The Sexual Abuse of Black Men under American Slavery
Decolonizing the Intersection
From Black Power to Black Studies
Black Feminist Voices in Politics
Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States
We Real Cool
Social Dominance
The United States of America v. Darren Seals
Eugenic Caricatures of Black Male Death from the Nineteenth- to Twenty-first Centuries
Thinking through the silence
Sexual coercion context and psychosocial correlates among diverse males
The Man-Not and the Inapplicability of Intersectionality to the Dilemmas of Black Manhood
Expendables for Whom
Mapping the Margins
Can Black males be subjects of human rights violations
What is 'Toxic Masculinity' and Why Does it Matter
| Highly cited | No |
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