Social institutions in the United States may have already labeled Black boys and men as problems within neighborhoods and school campuses, a visiting professor said here last week. 

Sociology and Africana Studies professor from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Dr. Derrick Brooms presented his lecture, “Navigating the Stakes: The Lives and Experiences of Black Boys and Men,” for the final event of the 25^th Annual Unity through Diversity Week last Thursday. Unity Week is Highline’s annual week-long series of events that bring students, faculty, and staff together as one by discussing the issues diverse communities may face.

Dr. Brooms’ lecture presented 10 movie scenes and quotes from former interviewees within his research, which correlated with his lecture of how Black boys and men are perceived as an issue. Neighborhoods and school campuses are examples of where this can occur, but there are resources you can reach out to within your own community, he said. 

“I want to use these scenes as a way to tap into your own kind of cultural repertoire, your cultural tool kit, your frames of understanding to help you,” said Dr. Brooms. 

“We are who we are, we do not need to compare us to others. Let us make sense of who we are through our very real heterogeneous communities,” he said. 

Dr. Brooms presented the first scene from the movie Moonlight, where the main character Chiron is seen looking from behind a fence that represents how young Black boys are challenged in the education system and in neighborhoods, he said. 

“There’s some representation with regards to looking out at a fence, and the things that might elicit in terms of our own kind of social memories or community memories,” he said. “Social institutions within this nation, where Black folks in general, but more specifically Black boys and men, experience multiple forms of suffering in school.” 

Such challenges can be having to get around limited resources, “the conditions of the neighborhood,” or even, “the strategies they might have to engage in to navigate the structural violence of these particular entities, these communities,” said Dr. Brooms. 

Dr. Brooms also tied in the movie scene with an interview he conducted. 

“Everyday situations make it hard to be a Black man in society [because] people aren’t letting go of what they see in the media or T.V. and they don’t give us a chance to be us,” said Dr. Brooms, quoting Malik, a former interviewee. 

Dr. Brooms then displayed the second movie scene from Boyz n the Hood where young Black boys and men may be challenged with violence in their neighborhoods. 

“Even within our neighborhood there are particular challenges that we are faced with and in this particular case it might be gang affiliation,” said Dr. Brooms. 

Dr. Brooms also cited evidence from his research that dives into the stories of young Black men,  who talk about the stakes when it comes to gang affiliations in their neighborhoods. 

“You have those that make it out, they come back and don’t make it out again. And you have those that make it out and don’t ever come back,” said Tyson, a former interviewee of Dr. Brooms. 

Another interviewee of Dr. Brooms, Dwain, said, “Economic depravity contributes to the violence of poverty, which of course then creates a particular type of conditions where folks are in survival mode which is fertile ground for perhaps some illegal and illicit activities that happen in that neighborhood.” 

The third movie scene Dr. Brooms presented is from the movie Menace II Society, where not only are Black boys and men seen as an issue but may also be supervised by police. 

“Over-policing, hyper policing, hyper surveillance kind of condemns their lives again, where it again as disposable, as marginalized, as unworthy,” said Dr. Brooms. 

Another young man interviewed by Dr. Brooms said, “As a Black man in this country. I know somebody’s thinking that I don’t belong or that I’m a criminal or a thug—or an athlete,” said Jeff.

Not only are Black boys and men marginalized in neighborhoods, but on school campuses as well, said Dr. Brooms. 

He used a movie scene from Finding Forrester, where the main character, Jamal, has to prove himself enough for others, he said. 

“Notions of Blackness, and the ways in which Black boys and men have to always prove themselves to others to be considered as worthy,” said Dr. Brooms.

Dr. Broom tied in the entire lecture by giving examples of how you can help and where resources can be found for Black men and boys, and anyone else in need of them on campus.

Building relationships, caring for them, and “create and sustain open lines of communication,” are some of the smallest ways of helping, said Dr. Brooms. 

There are also staff support resources, class-based support classes, and resources available within the community by creating relationships with community agencies, he said. 

“Black boys and men – they are already labeled in a position as problems regardless of where they are, whether it’s their old neighborhoods, neighboring community, whether it’s on college campuses, whether it’s across pre-K-12 education systems. They already consider us this problem that needs to be surveillance,” said Dr. Brooms.