Targets: The Existential Crisis of Black Male Youth in the U.S

This article uses intersectional analysis and critical race theory to investigate how race, age, and gender intersect in black, male youth in urban areas in the United States to create life outcomes that likely represent an existential challenge for people in this social location.  The prosecution of the federal-based War on Drugs in the 1980s led to a moral panic that categorized black, male youth in urban areas as the new “folk devils.”  The continuation of the War on Drugs has prolonged the “folk devil” status of black male youth over the course of the last two decades.  This contributed to the tendency in this society for dominant forces to construct young black males as criminals.  Their status as criminals has shaped their interactions with representatives of the state as well as with other individuals.  It has made them targets, at a disproportionate rate, of laws intended to curb criminal behavior such as the New York State Stop and Frisk law being enforced by the New York Police Department (NYPD).  This status also contributes to the racial profiling they experience from individuals, who deem them dangerous, particularly in non-black spaces and react to their presence with deadly force as in the case of Trayvon Martin. This paper examines significance of marginalization in these contexts to their future as members of that society.