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THE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION OF BLACK MALES: SOME CONSEQUENCES FOR RESEARCH IN PUBLIC HEALTH

ALFORD A. YOUNG JR., PHD

A consequence of pervasive social inequality is the regard by those of higher socioeconomic standing of those at the bottom of American social hierarchies, especially men and boys of color, as unworthy citizens. In exploring the associations that Americans have made throughout history between poverty and unworthiness, historian Michael B. Katz (2013) has argued that many Americans have consistently maintained that people in poverty have brought that condition upon themselves, thus making them unworthy of public sympathy and support. Furthermore, Katz has documented that many believe that the poor have brought their condition upon themselves as a consequence of being embedded in moral, cultural, and biological deficiencies.

Being perceived as unworthy has powerful social consequences. Unworthiness fosters social undesirability, which, in turn, affects social interaction. This amounts to more than generating inner feelings of disdain among those in poverty or simply being looked upon with consternation by those with privilege. Instead, interaction with unworthy people often falls outside of the parameters of the codes of conduct and evaluative schemes that are applied to interactions with those deemed as worthy. Commonly embraced standards of fairness, justice, and appropriateness that are usually applied in the course of engaging others are drastically reconstituted during encounters with the socially undesirable. As a consequence, those deemed unworthy have very different—and often very disappointing—experiences in the societal institutions and spheres (e.g., schools, the workplace) that anchor everyday life. This experience constitutes the social situation of many African American males in contemporary society.

For men and boys of color, especially those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, social unworthiness is rooted in their being portrayed as distinctively

morally and culturally flawed (Anderson, 1990, 1999; Auletta, 1982; Billson, 1996; Liebow, 1967; Majors and Billson, 1992; Tolleson, 1997; Venkatesh, 2000, 2006; Wilson, 1987, 1992; Young, 2004). As this research has shown, these males register in the minds of the American public as threatening, hostile, aggressive, unconscientious, and incorrigible. Beliefs about their moral and cultural shortcomings help engineer a warped vision of not only their capacities for positive individual and collective action but also of their very public identities. Hence, it is not simply what these individuals do as societal actors, but who they are that constitutes their problematic status in civil society. In other words, the very image of the black male body often conjures up indictment. Bearing the mark of unworthiness and the accompanying social undesirability that comes from it subjects African American males to an extreme form of character assassination.

A character assassination is an act of consistently presenting false or indicting arguments about a person in order to encourage his or her public dislike or mistrust. This effort can also take the form of slandering of a person with the intention of destroying public confidence in him or her (Merriam-Webster, 2015; for a more sociologically informed account, see Seidman, 2013). As a consequence of the emergence of the age of the underclass in late 20th-century America (occurring from the early 1980s through the end of the 20th century), African American males have been subjected to a character assassination that largely has to do with the public’s increased sense of fear and anxiety about the urban landscape and its inhabitants throughout that time (Katz, 2013; Ralph and Chance, 2014; Russell-Brown, 2009; Venkatesh, 2000, 2006; Wacquant, 2001, 2005, 2010; Wilson, 1987; Young, 2004). As the concept of underclass has gained purchase as a mechanism for labeling socioeconomically marginalized, urban-based people of color over the past several decades, these individuals have been subjected to extremely negative readings of their social behavior and their dispositions. They also have been assumed to maintain flawed and fatalistic social outlooks. Often, these accounts are presumptions rather than directly informed understandings, because the external parties that make them do not necessarily have access to the inner feeling and beliefs of black males. Rather than coming from intimate knowledge about them, these accounts of their outlook are constituted from the images construed about their behaviors and public identities (Young, 2004).

Essentially, the character assassination of black males is an effect of longstanding implicit bias directed toward them. This bias, consisting of attitudes and stereotypes that shape understandings, behaviors, and decisions made about them, is done unconsciously and activated involuntarily (Blair, 2002; Rudman, 2004). Although implicit bias can involve both favorable and unfavorable assessments, it is obviously the unfavorable that are of concern here. What makes implicit bias

so powerful is that it is not easily accessible through introspection or immediate self-reflection (Beattie, 2013; Kang et al., 2012). Hence, it is powerfully pervasive because it is so seamlessly woven into the everyday thinking of its holders (Eberhardt and Goff, 2005; Eberhardt et al., 2004; Goff et al., 2008a,b).

There is much recent evidence affirming how black male bodies are both thought about and engaged in ways that reflect character assassination and the implicit bias that circumscribes it. One form is the public conversations about the spate of black-male killings occurring at the hands of police officers and others claiming to act on behalf of justice. For example, after the killing of Trayvon Martin became public news, questions abounded as to whether he was a marijuana user and a petty criminal in the years prior to his February 2012 encounter with his killer, George Zimmerman (Alcindor, 2012; Alvarez, 2013; Robles, 2012). Furthermore, news of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014 was followed by discussion of whether he was threateningly hostile and menacing to those he encountered immediately prior to his being shot and left dead in the streets of that St. Louis suburb (Alcindor et al., 2014; Tacopino, 2014).

Moreover, the public image associated with Tamir Rice—killed on November 22, 2014, in Cleveland by a police officer who came upon him as he was in possession of a toy gun—was that of a black male who appeared to the police as primed to do harm even as seemingly unconcerned African American children and adults shared space with him in a public park near the site of his killing (Fitzsimmons, 2014). Finally, there is the portrait of Freddie Gray—a 25-year-old ex-offender who died on April 19, 2015, after being shackled and placed without a seat belt in a Baltimore City police van. In some of the media coverage of this event and the subsequent court trial of the police officers indicted for Gray’s death, he was referred to as the son of an illiterate heroin addict (Husband, 2015). These circumstances associated with deaths resemble those of many other African American males killed in recent years by police officers or law-enforcement officials, including Laquan McDonald (Ford, 2014), Quintonio LeGrier (Meisner, 2016), Jamar Clark (Pelissero, 2016; Walsh and Jany, 2015), Walter Scott (Elmore and MacDougall, 2015), Keith Lamont Scott (Fausset and Alcindor, 2016; Marusak and Washburn, 2016), Terence Crutcher (Vicent and Jones, 2016), Tyre King (Felton, 2016), Philando Castile (Sole and Wannarka, 2016), and Alton Sterling (Litten, 2016; Sanburn, 2016).

Media coverage of the public debate following the deaths of these and other African American males centered on two forms of public response and inquiry. One was whether these individuals conducted themselves as proper or deserving people. The other was whether they appeared to be highly threatening or

dangerous in the moments prior to their deaths. In the course of these considerations, attention was devoted to whether each was a substance abuser, general delinquent, or an otherwise problematic person. Consequently, underlying the discourse from those who defend or otherwise try to validate the actions of those who killed these young men is the image of black males as badly behaved individuals who are threatening in and to American society. Implicit in these and other tragic deaths of such males was the notion that what they did, who they were, or how they appeared to be at the time in which they were approached by those who encountered them was credible explanation, if not complete justification, for what transpired. In short, the kind of discussions following what occurred to each individual reflects the most extreme form of character assassination—the devaluation of black male bodies.

More important, this portrait of African American males has been sustained by a barrage of negative images about them emanating from mainstream and social media (Altheide, 2002; Burgess et al., 2011; Chiricos and Eschholz, 2002; Dill and Burgess, 2012; Dixon, 2008; Dixon and Linz, 2000; Ellis et al., 2015; Entman and Rojecki, 2001; Ford, 1997, Jacobs, 2014; Kellstedt, 2003; Oliver, 2003; Oliver and Fonash, 2002; Opportunity Agenda, 2012). Such outlets are key mechanisms for fueling the negative public sentiment about black males. Through them, consistent images have been disseminated that reify the image of these males as unlawful, threatening, or unworthy.

Of course, that some of the black males have done terrible things to themselves as well as to other people cannot be dismissed or denied. Research on low-income, African American males has provided ample evidence that those who have ventured into these activities are conscious of what they have done and the societal impact that it has had (Harding, 2010; Sullivan, 1989; Venkatesh, 2000, 2006; Williams, 1989; Young, 2004). However, the depiction of these males as having the capacity to be self-reflective or conscientious is suppressed by the pervasiveness of the character assassination.

More critically, African American males who do nothing to contribute to the indicting public portrait of them suffer the consequences of this pervasive public portrait, as they are assumed to be as problematic as those who effectively contribute to it (Pager, 2007; Pager et al., 2009a, b; Quillian and Pager, 2001; Wacquant, 2001, 2005, 2010). These males experience everyday life and the social institutions that comprise it while being continually susceptible to a negative public identity that they in no way have helped to sustain. This being the case, there is much work to be done to reconstitute the character of African American males that extends far beyond any superficial or shortsighted mandate for them to desist from engaging in problematic behavior. That work involves

a more thorough assessment of the effects of black-male character assassination through a public health lens and then encouraging societal change to eradicate it. This effort necessarily extends beyond the (still necessary) effort to challenge and remediate the conduct of the police and other agents of authority, as they, too, often function with impunity with regard to black males.

CONTENDING WITH THE EFFECTS OF THE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION

The character assassination of black males often compels them to respond in ways that reflect a stereotype threat, which is a manifestation of implicit bias. This threat is a situational predicament in which individuals are or feel themselves to be at risk of confirming negative stereotypes about a social group in which they hold membership (Inzlicht and Schmader, 2011; Shih et al., 2011). Such threat most often has been investigated as a factor for the lower performance of African Americans on the standardized tests used for college admissions (Steele and Aronson, 1995). In such cases, the argument has been that such individuals perform poorly on such tests when conscious of the belief that others regard them as less capable of performing well. It is important to acknowledge that an individual must not necessarily subscribe to the stereotype for it to be activated. Instead, performance anxiety is activated by the stereotype in that its existence depletes the working memory of individuals. Consequently, rather than drawing on the relevant information, understandings, skill sets, or efficacies for task completion, individuals are distracted by the anxiety from performing most effectively (Beilock et al., 2007).

Stereotype threat is applicable only to those who generally perform well. Accordingly, its conceptual value rests in the effort to discern the bases for the less-than-optimal performance of people who are traditionally high performers (Steele, 2010). Introducing the concept of stereotype threat here, however, allows space for considering how threat based on a stereotype can stymie the agency of people irrespective of how highly they may perform at certain tasks or how enriched their skill sets may be for navigating everyday life. The threat for black males, then, is that, irrespective of their class status or ability to access societal resources, they must confront a threat—an assassinated character—that is deeply rooted in flawed, stereotypical depictions of such individuals (more will be said later about the relevance of socioeconomic class differences for addressing the character assassination of these males).

Moreover, stereotype threat is an explicitly psychological phenomenon. However, the point here is not to psychologize the consequences of the character

assassination of black males. Instead, it is to draw attention to how such a negative generalized public portrait can bear upon the everyday lives of individuals who are subjected to it, thus drawing attention to the sociological dimensions of the threat.

The major effect of the character assassination of black males, aside from exposure to the kinds of physical assaults documented earlier, is the proliferation of trauma. In public health studies, various approaches have unfolded for researching trauma in the lives of African American males. Traditional approaches involve researching the psychological and physiological consequences of witnessing or experiencing physical assault and explicit violence (Prothrow-Stith, 1991; Ralph, 2014). This effort has been supplemented with studies that explore how various stimuli aside from exposure to violence affect the emotional and physiological well-being of African American males (Brown et al., 2000; Ellis et al., 2015; Griffith, 2015; Griffith et al., 2012, 2015; Watkins, et al., 2010; Williams and Collins, 1995). Schools, workplaces, and other institutional settings have been the focal points for some of these studies. Indeed, another arena of public health research on African American males has centered more specifically on the health and well-being outcomes emanating from perceived experiences with racism. Here, sociologists such as David Williams, Chaquita Collins, and Tony Brown, among others, have shown that the health consequences of racism include various forms of trauma which affect the psychological and physiological states of being of these males (Brown et al., 2000; Williams and Collins, 1995).

Without question, these more traditional inquiries must continue. However, there is more work to be done aside from addressing the psychological and physiological consequences of these phenomena. Is it shortsighted to assume that the terrain for public health inquiry concerning black males be restricted to how they respond to the prevalence of violence and threats to physical well-being or to perceptions of explicit racism in their lives? While it is imperative that such work continue, it is equally so that the public health agenda expand to include investigation of the psychological and sociological effects of living in a social world circumscribed by imagery that constitutes African American males as hostile, aggressive, and incapable of self-regulating behavior. Indeed, more thorough considerations may allow for a better grasp of the range of trauma that may be produced from living under the conditions of character assassination. Hence, more critical attention must be given to how black males take account of and respond to the broad range of conditions and circumstances that pertain to the character assassination. This effort involves further unpacking the social-psychological, psychological, or physiological ramifications that may exist for males who continually engage a social world that sustains their character assassination.

That black males often believe that they must exemplify or validate various kinds of vulgar or rugged masculinities that have been associated with them, even if they do not personally adhere to these depictions, has been well documented in social-scientific inquiry (Ford, 2008, 2011; Hooks, 2003; Hunter and Davis, 1992). Their doing so often appears to them as a prerequisite for attaining the social and physical security necessary to engage everyday life in turbulent communities (Anderson, 1990; Ford, 2011; Majors and Billson, 1992). It is also the case that black men consistently wrestle with the persistence of the imagery tied to vulgar or rugged masculinities as these men think about what kinds of self-images to foster in their social and intimate interactions (Hooks, 2003; Neal, 2006, 2013). This circumstance is a precursor to the issue raised here in that, in addition to having to situate oneself against the traditional vulgar or rugged masculinities associated with black men, these individuals must also situate themselves against the imagery associated with the character assassination.

In the domain of public health research, however, the concern rests not in how males manage social interaction in public spaces but rather in devising means and measures to assess any individual and collective emotional impact of consistent subjection to character assassination. The existence of character assassination may not result in any explicit impingement upon individual behavior or conduct. However, the extreme surveillance of and critical social judgment made about the conduct, action, or disposition exemplified by black males may be causal factors for a range of unhealthy emotional and physical states of being.

THE CALL FOR NEW SCHOLARSHIP IN PUBLIC HEALTH

Black males are continually forced to take regard of the narrow parameters by which others interpret and respond to their public behavior. Ultimately, this results in a stultification of their agency. Hence, it is imperative that focused attention be given to the personal effect of everyday living in a state of social unworthiness. While the work of the public health scholars cited earlier provides evidence that much of black-male agency with regard to dietary practices and social activities poses threats to their physical well-being (hypertension, anxiety, and other conditions aside from those that subject them to violence), there still remains the issue of how living as a black male, coupled with how continual reflection on how oneself is being interpreted by others as a black male, may cause threats to or problems with one’s personal health and well-being.

The new agenda in public health research must involve broadening the scope of understanding of what is at stake for African American males, given the

construction of the character assassination. That is, it must involve documenting and interpreting the effects of basic, everyday living under that lens for these males. Part of this effort involves studying the psychological and physiological effects of engaging police and other agents of authority. It also means exploring more deeply how black males feel about their schooling experiences in terms of how they believe they are depicted by their teachers, principals, and other school officials. Furthermore, it means gauging how men react to their employment situations, including the personal effects of contending with the reactions and responses of actual and potential coworkers and employers.

Of course, black males have access to different resources for managing and interpreting these and other experiences. Their particular class standing is an indicator of the material, emotional, cultural, and cognitive resources at their disposal for dealing with them. Hence, it is important to assess the impact of character assassination not simply for males who are highly marginalized, and thus most likely to experience the extremely negative consequences of the character assassination, but also for males who experience it while in possession of higher educational degrees, white-collar jobs, or the material means to purchase resources to counteract the effects of the character assassination. Implicit here is that the men who may seem most removed from the negative public portraits of black men also have to engage everyday life with those portraits as backdrop to public interpretations of their behaviors and dispositions.

In short, this agenda must involve inquiry into how black males feel about flawed public assertions about black masculinity and social constructions of black-male identity and the investigation of the bearing this has on their physical and emotional well-being across differences in class, status, and social location. The ways these constructions are formed remain the purview of many standard social science fields of inquiry (e.g., sociology, psychology, and communication studies). Precise understanding of their effects on these males, however, is the property of public health studies.

Inclusive in this effort is the need to be open and accepting of the notion that black males are vulnerable people rather than just victimizers. Obviously, some black males are the latter, but all must be seen as the former, that is, as socially insecure, questioning of themselves, and threatened, rather than simply as purveyors of threat and insecurity foisted upon others (Collins, 2004; Franklin, 1984, 1994). The effects of their being insecure, questioning, and threatened, especially as victims of character assassination, is particularly important to explore as a public health matter.

To most appropriately support this effort, however, an alternative public vision of black males also must come into being. It must capture more accurately and

thoroughly how these males envision social opportunity and the barriers that they perceive. Aside from the general mandate of reenvisioning black males as more complex than is provided by the imagery resulting from character assassination, there is a more direct mandate for those in and interested in public health. This involves advancing new and robust arguments about what constitutes healthy masculinity with regard to black males.

CONCLUSION: DEMYSTIFYING THE CHARACTER OF BLACK MALES

The absence of broader public awareness and acceptance of an alternative image of black males means that the enduring image is one of males who are presumed to be unable to function in any measured and conscientious manner. Thus, they are falsely understood to be preoccupied with living for the present and with reactive rather than deliberative ways of dealing with the circumstances in their lives and with other people. The portrait readily facilitates a sustained vision of these males as fatalistic in social outlook and behavior. Ultimately, any wholesale mitigation of the character assassination of these males can occur only if there is a shift in the public imagination of them.

An effort to demystify the character of black males must first involve acknowledging that fatalism is an incomplete conceptual scheme for encapsulating the social outlooks of the racialized poor (Rios, 2011; Venkatesh, 2000, 2006; Young, 2004). These studies and others (Fergus et al., 2014; Noguera, 2008; Wilson, 1996; Young, 2004) indicate that black males do not necessarily reject mainstream institutional spheres such as schooling but rather have negative experiences with individuals in these spheres. The result is that they face problems with their encounters with schools, employers, and legal authorities such as the police, but not with schooling, employment, or the institution of law in a general sense. Research reveals that such males do value schools, jobs, and family; yet they struggle with their personal experiences in each of these and other domains (Lewis-McCoy, 2014; Noguera, 2008; Venkatesh, 2006; Wilson, 1996; Young, 2004). Hence, it is too simple to regard this population as engulfed in thinking that the world is against them and that they react with aggression and hostility because they believe there is nothing that they can do to change these conditions.

The ensuing challenge for researchers and interested parties, then, is to re-envision black males as complex human beings—a mixture of socially defined positive and negative attributes, much like other people—rather than wholly unworthy. It means embracing a vision of them as adherents to the same cultural schemas that apply to many Americans—as committed to the value of family,

education, employment, and socioeconomic opportunity—even if actions sometimes surface due to the denial of the capacity to access these desires and outcomes. It means that the existence of black males in trouble or who are troubling should not be the bedrock for interpreting the character and dispositions of all such males, nor should it be the basis for a default depiction of black males as inherently flawed people. For the sake of black males, the effects of their character assassination mandates further, more intense, and more specific forms of study. However, the public acknowledgment and acceptance of an alternative image of black males and black masculinity requires work alongside that of public health scholars, and this work necessarily involves the rest of us who function outside of the formal arena of public health studies.

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