“I See Death Around the Corner”: Black Manhood and Vulnerability in Me Against the World

Abstract

This essay uses Tupac Shakur’s Me Against the World as a case study examining how Black male artists use hip-hop music for articulating the racialized vulnerability organizing their manhood. By thinking about how Shakur understands his Black maleness through his social relationality to the world around him, Shakur’s album creates resistive space for defining Black maleness despite how Black masculinity is often defined and imposed on Black men. Shakur’s album maps a relational network for understanding a brand of Black manhood obscured by dominant discourses about Black men and their masculinity. Specifically, Shakur’s album frames Black maleness through poverty and how it orients Black men, his perpetual susceptibility to harm and death, and suicide ideation as a response to his despair. Connecting Black maleness and vulnerability, Shakur’s album offers insight about being Black and male in a patriarchal White supremacist society.

“Is it Okay Not to be Okay?”: A Critical Literature Review of Barriers to Mental Health Treatment for Black Men

“…Conceptually, Black masculinity acknowledges these stereotypes and differences between the Black and White male experiences due to the prevalence of anti-Black social norms (Harris et al, 2011;Hooks, 2004). Scholarly literature is ripe with explorations of the Black masculine phenomenon which often examines how Black men work for or against anti-Blackness associated with masculinity (Belle, 2014;Ferber, 2007;Rudrow, 2019;Smiley & Fakunle, 2016).…”

“…Black men do not go to counseling; instead, we attend church to pray away our problems, abuse drugs or alcohol, engage in excessive and sometimes risky sexual encounters, or do nothing about it at all, right? This is a common way of thinking among Black people due to our cultural, racial and sociohistorical experiences (Hannon & Vereen, 2016; Rudrow, 2019). Legendary lyricist, Tupac Shakur compared being a Black man to being cursed as we navigate life being criminalized, demonized and often susceptible to an early death (American Counseling Association (ACA), 2021; Rudrow, 2019; Smiley & Fakunle, 2016).…”

“…This is a common way of thinking among Black people due to our cultural, racial and sociohistorical experiences (Hannon & Vereen, 2016; Rudrow, 2019). Legendary lyricist, Tupac Shakur compared being a Black man to being cursed as we navigate life being criminalized, demonized and often susceptible to an early death (American Counseling Association (ACA), 2021; Rudrow, 2019; Smiley & Fakunle, 2016).…”

HIStory against the World: Religion, Black Iconicity, and the Haunting Stretcher Photos of Michael Jackson and Tupac Shakur

“…2 For a detailed engagement with the concept of racialized vulnerability in the work of Tupac Shakur, see (Rudlow 2019). Rudlow, engages the work of philosopher Tommy Curry's notion of "Black Male Vulnerability", which is an analytical category highlighting how the lived experiences of black males are erased from theory.…”

Exploring research on the coping strategies of black survivors of homicide victims: a scoping review protocol

“…Black people suffer disproportionately from direct and indirect exposure to homicide. [1][2][3][4] For the purpose of this scoping review protocol, the term 'homicide' will be defined as the killing of one person by another. Homicide is a more expansive and common term that refers to non-criminal and criminal acts of murder.…”