The fallacy of race as a product of the categorization of the cognitive systems of human beings is well documented (Feagin & Ducey, 2019; Higginbotham, 2013; Hirschfeld, 1938; Miles & Brown, 2003). Recently, the calls to dismantle racism is reaching crescendo catalyzed by the movement ignited by the murder of George Floyd. In fact, a Google search of “dismantling racism” produces 13,600,000 results (June 7, 2020). But what are the criteria, or system of ideas, to determine if racism is, or is not, ‘dismantled’? Are we aware and in agreement as to “what” racism is individually, let alone collectively? And when we know, will we then know “how” to dismantle it individually and collectively? Toward establishing and developing a mechanism for addressing questions of this nature, the semeiotic theory of Charles Sanders Peirce (Houser & Kloesel, 1992; Houser & colleaugues, 1998) and an explanation for the thinking process argued by John Dewey (1991), this developing hypothesis for this work is to provide guidance for answering these questions by first establishing a method aimed at discovering the reasoning criteria that determine meaning of ‘racism’ for each of us. These logicians, and others including Burke and Stets (2009) and Ryan and Deci (2017), for example, make it clear that the reasoning process, including how one perceives, interprets, and reasons, sheds some light on the influencing criteria of these phenomena. So, what happens cognitively as a person makes meaning of entities, phenomenon, and events through the reasoning process including subprocesses of perceiving and interpreting associations to race.

In recent years it seems that violence against black folks has exponentially increased. However, the case is that this ‘exponential increase’ is really bringing to the fore historically persisting results of Jim Crow beliefs, laws, and practices. The ability to record such events so readily paints a façade of some increase in such racial violence. When the excesses of violence and discrimination against black folks has persisted for centuries. And the sociohistoric residue of folks’ attitudes and practices has perdured through the generations of individuals. How many times have we heard the phrase, “I’m not racist, I have black friends”? Or “I feared for my life, so I shot in self-defense”? This manuscript, as a continuing series of working hypotheses, contends that these events are related. Toward gathering the knowledge about individual reasoning processes, these events are related by either supporting or thwarting that racist thinking is a product of fear.

The K-12 system of education is a complex organization that has historically denied students of low socio-economic status the opportunity for political engagement through the exercise of power (Apple, 1993; Ben-Porath, 2013; Boggs, 2000; Crayton, 2014; Ethiraj & Levinthal, 2009; Fazzaro, 2006; Gordon, 1980; Horowitz, 1969; Karabel, 1977; Lukes, 2005; Shipps, 2008; Wedel, 2009). This statement is in response to a series of questions presented by members of my Academic Advisory Committee, respectively, as a Qualifying Exam for doctoral candidacy in Urban Education Studies. This article is a response to the series of questions that will address the concern of the opening statement including: Professor Peter Seybold’s Questions of Power in the K-12 Education System; Professor Brendan Maxcy’s request on the state of political youth engagement in Urban Secondary Schools; and Professor Jim Scheurich’s request for focus on PAR (Participatory Action Research) and YPAR (Youth Participatory Action Research) in the education system as they relate to the political engagement of Urban Secondary Students.

Grave engagements continue contemporarily based from sociohistoric norms of American society. The norms being referred to are those specifically related to racism and the moral intolerances conjured between folks of different cultures and attitudes (Miles and Brown 2003). The purpose of this manuscript is to gain knowledge of the perceptions of young adult Black men (YABM) as they are exposed to race associated phenomena. An additional aim was to develop and provide a solution for the root challenges discovered from the study participants’ reflections. The proposed solution is a structure of instruction that is based upon racism being understood and drawn as an ideology. As argued, anyone can adopt an ideology of racism based from their respective identities as a source of instruction and tolerance over time (DiAngelo 2018; Miles and Brown 2003).

Racism is not 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).