Reconstituting the object:Black Male Studies and the problem of studying black men and boys within patriarchal gender theory

Contemporary theories of Black masculinity often insist that Black men and boys seek to imitate white patriarchy through violence and deviance. These arguments rely on outdated criminological assumptions such as subculture of violence theory. Consequently, feminist gender theories restate classist and racist interpretations of Black males that are out of line with contemporary social scientific research. Black men and boys are objects defined by lack and interpreted as being in need of remedy from Black maleness. This chapter introduces Black Male Studies as a challenge to the mimetic theories of Black masculinity found within contemporary feminist and intersectional research. Through a historiographic reconstruction of the mid-twentieth century idea of gender, and an alternative account of patriarchy as a race-sex kinship system, this chapter argues that Black Male Studies provides a more accurate and verifiable account of Black male life and death in Western patriarchal societies

Can misandric aggression be accommodated within Smith’s Theory of Dehumanization and Monstrosity?

Over the last decade, David Livingstone Smith has committed himself to develop a psychological theory of dehumanization. Unlike earlier theories of dehumanization which sought to document the historical events and describe the sociological conditions that precipitate genocides (Fein 1979, 1990), Smith interrogates the thought processes through which humans dehumanize groups they believe to be outside of, and without, humanity

Parental education ain’t enough:A study of race (racism), parental education, and children’s thalamus volume

Introduction. The thalamus is the hub of the brain and has a significant role in various brain activities. Purpose. This study explored racial differences in the association between parental education and thalamus volume among American children. Methods. Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD), we analyzed the structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (sMRI) data of 11141 9-10 years old children. The main outcome was the thalamus volume. The independent variable was parental education. Age, sex, ethnicity, family marital status, and intracranial volume were the covariates. Race was the moderator. To analyze the data, we used mixed-effects regression models. Results. In race-stratified models, high parental education was associated with smaller thalamus volume in White but not Black children. In the pooled sample, significant interactions were found between race and parental education suggesting that the effect of parental education on left thalamus volume is significantly smaller for Blacks and mixed/other race children than White children. Conclusions. The effect of parental education on children’s thalamus volume seems to be weaker for Black and other/mixed-race children than their White counterparts. This finding is in support of Minorites’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) that suggest due to social stratification and racism, economic resources have weaker than expected effects in minority populations

Parents’ perceived neighborhood safety and children’s cognitive performance:Complexities by race, ethnicity, and cognitive domain

Background:Aim: To examine racial/ethnic variations in the effect of parents’ subjective neighborhood safety on children’s cognitive performance. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 10,027 children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. The exposure variable was parents’ subjective neighborhood safety. The outcomes were three domains of children’s cognitive performance: general cognitive performance, executive functioning, and learning/memory. We used mixed-effects regression models for data analysis. Results: Overall, parents’ subjective neighborhood safety was positively associated with children’s executive functioning, but not general cognitive performance or learning/memory. Higher parents’ subjective neighborhood safety had a more positive influence on the executive functioning of non-Hispanic White than Asian American children. Higher parents’ subjective neighborhood safety was associated with higher general cognitive performance and learning/memory for non-White children relative to non-Hispanic White children. Conclusion: The race/ethnicity of children moderates the association between neighborhood safety and cognitive performance. This becomes more complicated, as the patterns seem to differ across ethnicity and cognitive domains. It is unknown whether the observed racial/ethnic variations in the effect of neighborhood safety on cognitive performance are neighborhood characteristics such as residential segregation. Addressing neighborhood inequalities is needed if we wish to reduce racial/ethnic inequities in the cognitive development of children