Introduction to Volume 20

This powerful opening statement from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man summarizes the challenges of being an African American male in the United States. This extraordinary piece of literature was published in 1952; yet, a large segment of African American men continues to witness and experience the pain and confusion that come with the challenge of being identified as having African ancestry and a Y chromosome. More than six decades later, modern telecommunication devices, traditional mass media, and social media have begun to provide the world a glimpse of how African American males have become all too frequent victims of police or vigilante killings. These same sources have shown how they are feared and disdained by ordinary American citizens in public places like restaurants (Duke, 1993; Stewart, 2018), sidewalks (Baker, Goodman, & Mueller, 2015), and parks (Ali, 2017). Although such targeting is said to be a response to high rates of crime among black males, it has much deeper roots. These are roots that are deeply embedded in the nation’s long history of systemic racism.