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Intersectionality
Being a Black man is demanding.
--Black Star, K.O.S. (Determination) lyrics
INTRODUCTION
Many policy makers and scholars argue that, in fashioning racial justice strategies, we should treat Black males as a distinct group, separate and apart from Black women and other men. Motivating this idea is the view that African American men need special attention because they face unique circumstances and problems.
I describe this articulation of disadvantage and the accompanying claim for gender/race focused remedies as "Black male exceptionalism." It is a discourse shaped as an appeal for intervention. Its central premise is that African American men and boys fare worse than any other group in the United States. The claim is that by almost every index of inequality, Black males are on the bottom--exceptionally burdened and marginalized. For example, in an amicus brief in Fisher v. Texas, a coalition of "Black male achievement" organizations "acknowledged that many young Americans other than Black male youth face serious life course obstacles in need of attention, but ... the depth and breadth of the negative life outcomes experienced by Black males [are] sufficiently grave to warrant independent investigation and policy prescription" (Fisher v. Texas 2012, p. 33).
A diverse array of organizations has responded to Black male exceptionalism's appeal. It includes state and local governments, traditional civil rights groups, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Urban League, mainstream philanthropic foundations, including the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Institute, faith communities, and Afro-centric and Black nationalist groups.
Black male exceptionalism is a million dollar industry (Martinez et al., 2010). In this respect, Black male exceptionalism has currency both ideologically and economically, structuring not only how we frame civil rights interventions but how we fund them.
This article draws on intersectionality analysis to explore whether the monopoly power Black male exceptionalism wields is justified.2Intersectionality is the concept, from critical race theory, that "group membership can make people vulnerable to various forms of bias, yet because we are simultaneously members of many groups, our complex identities can shape the specific way we each experience that bias. For example, men and women can often experience racism differently ..." (Young 2013, p....