The Perching and Flights of Racism

Racism <i>is not </i>some static conception reflecting merely xenophobic feelings or hierarchical mindsets among individuals (Miles and Brown 2003). The term “racism,” in association with questions of democracy and individual opportunity, has risen into the primary weltanschauung of the American political and social psyches as represented by the September 12, 2019 Democratic Debate, political organizations, and political media. Given this weltanschauung, the purpose of this article is to seek additional knowledge toward coming to understand the perceptions of young adult Black men’s perceptions and political activations when prompted by the phenomenon of racism. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was engaged in the study of the YABMs to gain their reflective meaning-making and to protect against researcher biases. Key findings established that references to matters political involved the participants experiences with their communities, concerns with helping others in that community in a reciprocal manner, and the exclusionary practices found that challenges said community. These characteristics occur simultaneously as a meaning” of “the political” for each of the participants (Miller 1980). Theoretically, the extent to which these characteristics played into their perceptions of the political in-turn affect their decision-making and activations of political perceptions and behaviors. This theoretical conception was carried forward toward gaining knowledge of young adult Black men’s perceptions of political experiences serve as a source of data for this article; specifically, the data referencing matters of race (Crayton 2019).