Black Men and Racial Trauma: Impacts, Disparities, and Interventions

Abstract
Black males in the United States face unique and often overlooked forms of trauma resulting from systemic racism, patriarchal violence, and structural inequality. In a society shaped by anti-Blackness, Black men are disproportionately subjected to lethal violence and downward social mobility. This trauma is not only personal but also collective and vicarious, transmitted through families, communities, and media. Black males are overrepresented among victims of sexual violence, intimate partner violence and homicide (IPV/IPH), police killings, and suicide. For young Black men, being killed by law enforcement is one of the leading causes of death. Despite these grim realities, dominant theoretical frameworks such as intersectionality often fail to adequately capture the specific vulnerabilities of Black males. Additionally, most frameworks that address the experiences of Black men are grounded in deficit-based or pathology-driven models, many of which lack empirical support and reflect deep-seated racial biases.

This workshop challenges prevailing assumptions by drawing from Social Dominance Theory (SDT), which posits that outgroup males are particularly vulnerable to violence within hierarchically organized societies. Genocide studies further reveal the phenomenon of gendercide, in which outgroup men are systematically targeted for extermination during conflict. Yet, the field of trauma studies has largely failed to recognize or integrate these gendered and racialized dynamics into its conceptualizations or treatment models.

By addressing these gaps, this workshop offers mental health professionals a critical and comprehensive framework for understanding Black men and racial trauma. Participants will gain tools to identify, articulate, and respond to the specific forms of trauma experienced by Black males in both clinical and non-clinical settings. Emerging scholarship is beginning to identify anti-Black racism as a misandric aggression, underscoring the need for theoretical frameworks and clinical practices that reflect this reality. Ultimately, this session seeks to fill a long-standing void in trauma-informed care by centering Black male experience and offering concrete clinical interventions to improve therapeutic outcomes.