Seizing the moment: exploring understudied subpopulations of Black men in higher education

The past few years have represented a critical period for Black men in America as they are targets of extreme levels of dehumanization and violence in the broader society and continue to pay the disproportionate price of harmful racialized encounters with systems of oppression. Over the past decade, there have been countless number of high-profile deaths of unarmed Black men across the country by police officers including, but not limited to, Ahmaud Arbery (Santilla Shores, GA), Michael Brown (Ferguson, MO), Philando Castile (St. Anthony, MN), Eric Garner (Staten Island, NY), Freddie Gray (Baltimore, MD), Botham Jean (Dallas, TX), and Tamir Rice (Cleveland, OH). Recently, the murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has ignited new calls for accountability to police departments. George Floyd’s death ignited the largest protest in U.S. history and “an estimated 15 million to 26 million people participated in protests in all 50 states and on every continent except Antarctica amid the global covid-19 pandemic” (Suddler, 2021). This visibility of George Floyd’s tragic death has also prompted increased discourse regarding the racialized incidents that take place within schooling contexts. The ongoing civil unrest, discriminatory experiences, and continued police brutality against Black men has prompted various stakeholders within higher education including students, faculty, researchers, administrators, activists, philanthropists, and policymakers to consider tangible recommendations to systematically address these prevailing incidents.

At the center of these violent incidents is the racism that “continues to function in the USA because it works in the self-interest of white people” (Love & Muhammad, 2020, p. 695). Racism is deeply perverse and is the primary root cause of the low priority of addressing the violence inflicted upon Black men by both white people and those desiring to maintain white supremacy. Notably, these acts of racism against Black men in society are also commonplace in educational milieus. In the text, Black Males and Racism: Improving the Schooling and Life Chances of African Americans, Fitzgerald (2015) chronicles the ways that Black men experience racism in schooling at both K-12 and postsecondary levels that extend into adulthood. Within, he notes the ways that white supremacy manifests itself in educational settings that have adverse psychological impacts on Black men that directly impacts their desire and ability to persist.

Although there is considerable scholarship and documented examples that denote the racism that Black men receive in educational spaces, this work needs to be nuanced to include subpopulations of Black men who are oftentimes underrepresented and/or overlooked in the literature. That is the impetus for this special issue titled, Contemporary Perspectives on Black Men in Higher Education: Emerging Populations, Critical Frameworks, and Innovative Methods. This timely collection of articles highlight the varied ways that Black men experienced inequitable systemic structures in their collegiate and professional journeys and provides recommendations to higher education stakeholders who are committed to fostering affirming and transformational experiences for this population. We view this issue as a salute and an echo of resilience to these understudied and underserved subpopulations of Black men who were committed to persisting despite the systemic racism and inequitable structures they consistently negotiated. We hope readers are encouraged to conduct empirical studies about and in community with other understudied populations of Black men in future scholarly contributions.

Overview of articles

As context for this special issue, we were deliberate in extending invitations to scholars who used critical frameworks and/or innovative qualitative methodological frameworks to illuminate the lived experiences of understudied populations of Black men and the ways they negotiated their respective postsecondary milieus. We intentionally sought empirical and timely research from contributors who are in community with and lift up the experiences of Black men in their scholarship and praxis. Jointly, these pieces come together to serve as an important reminder of the work required by higher education stakeholders to create equitable and affirming environments for this population. Okello employs a critical discourse analysis to investigate the gendered and sexualized vulnerabilities of Black men at a historically white institution. Within, he grapples with how white supremacy operates to threaten Black men’s bodies while simultaneously disregarding their pain. Johnson and Manyweather center the experiences of formerly incarcerated Black men at community colleges and the manner in which they make meaning of and overcome obstacles in their college experience. They bring to light the importance of nurturing and supportive relationships with institutional agents (parole officers, faculty, and administrators) to support their collegiate pursuits. Hotchkins uses virtual gaming as cyberbonding to negotiate the geographies of racism that Black men face at a Hispanic-Serving Institution. Using a critical race spatial analysis, his study participants’ created education journey maps to illustrate how Black men deliberately play video games as a form of persistence notwithstanding their college geographic hostilities. Livingston uses mixtaping, an arts-informed hip-hop pedagogical approach, and advocates for future inquiries to consider using this technique in understanding Black men’s college experiences. Hip-hop plays an important role in some Black men’s journey and mixtaping unearths untapped methodological possibilities.

The remaining three articles in this issue use critical race methodology to centralize the socialization experiences of Black doctoral students and faculty across varying contexts. Grimes uses photovoice methodology to illuminate how race, gender, and racism influence the motivation of Black men’s pursuit of a doctoral degree in education. Within, he makes a clarion call for educators to respond to institutionalized and systemic racism on policy, practice, and narratives on Black men’s educational pathways. Ford examines the racialized experiences of Black men who are in junior faculty positions. The counterstories offer readers contemporary examples of the ways that racism, isolation, and marginalization show up in Black men’s pre-tenure experiences. Lastly, the issue concludes with an article from Watkins and McGowan that unearths the connections between racism, counterspaces, and undergraduate and graduate choices of Black men pursuing science and engineering.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brian L. McGowan

Brian L. McGowan is an Associate Professor of Education and Associate Director in the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning at American University.

Shari E. Watkins

Shari E. Watkins is a Senior Research Fellow in the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning at American University.