Qualitative Description and Black Males: On Race, the Body, and Researching the Unimaginable. (December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brown, Anthony L.
• Other Names: Collins Donald R. guest-editor.; Cannella Gaile S. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Qualitative inquiry. Volume 27:Number 10(2021)
• Page Start: 1159
• Page End: 1168
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Subjects: African American studies -- ethnicity and race -- critical race theory -- discourse -- politics and culture; Social sciences -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 300.72
• DOI: 10.1177/10778004211026893
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1077-8004

Abstract

In this article, I explore how race and the body are central to social and education research on Black males. The guiding question of this essay is, How has the Black male body been conceptualized over time through qualitative description? I argue that, as Black males entered into new systems of reasoning, the Black male body was examined in different ways. Drawing from Sylvia Wynter's concept of subjective understanding and David Theo Goldberg's concept of racial knowledge, I explore the temporal and spatial meaning of qualitative description in the context of African American males. I conclude this essay by arguing for a different approach to qualitative description of Black males that moves beyond recycled stories of deficits or counter-narratives and on to explore the unimaginable.