Abstract
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).