Social Justice Implications for Black Men’s Health: Policing Black Bodies

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Abstract

According to the CDC, the top 10 leading causes of death of Black Non-Hispanic Males in 2017 are: (1) heart disease, (2) cancer, (3) unintentional injuries, (4) homicide, (5) stroke, (6) diabetes, (7) chronic lower respiratory diseases, (8) kidney disease, (9) septicemia, and (10) hypertension (Heron, 2019). From this list, we can see that homicide is among the top five leading causes of death among Black men. Due to the adverse health consequences of police and law enforcement involvement, the American Public Health Association (2018) recognized law enforcement violence as a public health issue because of the rates of disproportionality of law enforcement interaction minority groups were facing, primarily Black and African American males. The most prominent theory to help understand and change why and how race plays a role in the violence and killing of Black men at the hands of police is the Critical Race Theory. The liberation of Black males from police brutality and violence cannot occur without addressing the history of enslavement, past and present-day discrimination and inequality, and present life disadvantages. There are several social justice implications at the federal, state, and local levels presented by the author.

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Correspondence to Michael A. Robinson .

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Robinson, M.A. (2022). Social Justice Implications for Black Men’s Health: Policing Black Bodies. In: Dyson, Y.D., Robinson-Dooley, V., Watson, J. (eds) Black Men’s Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04994-1_13

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