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A Trauma-Informed Approach to Affirming the Humanity of African American Boys and Supporting Healthy Transitions to Manhood

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Boys and Men in African American Families

Part of the book series: National Symposium on Family Issues ((NSFI,volume 7))

Abstract

The dehumanization of boys and men in African American families is a historic and contemporary racial trauma that black males and their support systems must negotiate. While racial socialization and racial literacy strategies provide black males and their families with protective resources in response to racism, Stevenson (chapter “Dueling Narratives: Racial Socialization and Literacy as Triggers for Re-Humanizing African American Boys, Young Men, and Their Families”) notes that these interventions are not equipped to address the trauma resulting from black males’ racialized encounters. In this chapter, I apply a trauma-informed approach to affirm the humanity of boys and men in African American families and suggest the integration of a trauma-informed perspective with a racial literacy lens to support healthy transitions to manhood for this group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The School of Social and Behavioral Science, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

    Jocelyn R. Smith Lee

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  1. Jocelyn R. Smith Lee
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Correspondence to Jocelyn R. Smith Lee .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Trinity College of Arts and Science, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

    Linda M. Burton

  2. Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Dorian Burton

  3. Social Science Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Susan M. McHale

  4. Department of Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Valarie King

  5. Department of Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Jennifer Van Hook

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Smith Lee, J.R. (2016). A Trauma-Informed Approach to Affirming the Humanity of African American Boys and Supporting Healthy Transitions to Manhood. In: M. Burton, L., Burton, D., M. McHale, S., King, V., Van Hook, J. (eds) Boys and Men in African American Families. National Symposium on Family Issues, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43847-4_6

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