Black Atlas: The Weight of White Judgement

Title

Black Atlas: The Weight of White Judgement

Description

Despite living in a climate that touts that racism has been eliminated, true racial equality is still absent in the modern United States. My thesis research is a study of how American society identifies, categorizes, and reinforces stereotypes onto Black men, and how those expectations shape the personal identities that these men create. Grounded in a series of in-depth interviews with ten collegiate Black men, my research examines the hyper-focus that American society places on Black men, as well as the impact this fixation has on the way these men perceive both themselves and the world around them. I argue that my findings support the existence of a new sociological concept I am calling “Black Atlas” theory. Black Atlas theory stipulates that the lived experience of an American black man is tied inherently to defying the expectations of white society—of disproving stereotypes, learning specific, self-protective capital, and all the while, bearing the weight of the Black racial monolith on his shoulders. Black Atlas theory further argues that the lived experience of a Black American man means that he is constantly viewed as an example before he is viewed as an individual; chained simultaneously to defying white expectation and representing the entirety of the Black community.

Creator

Harvey, Lauren

Publisher

Rider University

Contributor

Zdan, Richard

Relation

Baccalaureate Honors Program

Format

Adobe Acrobat PDF

Language

English

Type

Capstone

Files

harvey_presentation.pdf
Harvey_capstone.pdf

Citation

Harvey, Lauren, “Black Atlas: The Weight of White Judgement,” Rider Student Research, accessed March 28, 2024, https://riderstudents.omeka.net/items/show/21.

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