Black Men and Racial Trauma: Impacts, Disparities, and Interventions

by Yamonte Cooper

Overview

This volume comprehensively addresses racial trauma from a clinical lens, equipping mental health professionals across all disciplines to be culturally responsive when serving Black men. 

Written using a transdisciplinary approach, Yamonte Cooper presents a Unified Theory of Racism (UTR), Integrated Model of Racial Trauma (IMRT), Transgenerational Trauma Points (TTP), Plantation Politics, Black Male Negation (BMN), and Race-Based Shame (RBS) to fill a critical and urgent void in the mental health field and emerging scholarship on racial trauma. Chapters begin with specific definitions of racism before exploring specific challenges that Black men face, such as racial discrimination and health, trauma, criminalization, economic deprivation, anti-Black misandry, and culturally-specific stressors, emotions, such as shame and anger, and coping mechanisms that these men utilize. After articulating the racial trauma of Black men in a comprehensive manner, the book provides insight into what responsive care looks like as well as clinical interventions that can inform treatment approaches.

This book is invaluable reading for all established and training mental health clinicians that work with Black men, such as psychologists, marriage and family therapists, social workers, counselors, and psychiatrists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032554112
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/23/2024
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Yamonte Cooper is a scholar, author, professor of counseling, adjunct professor of clinical psychology, clinical director of the West Coast Sex Therapy Center, licensed professional clinical counselor (LPCC), and certified sex therapist supervisor (CST-S). He is the co-editor of the book Black Couples Therapy: Clinical Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press). As a Fulbright scholar, Dr. Cooper has exchanged best practices globally in career counseling and development. 

Table of Contents

Foreword by Tommy J. Curry  Introduction  1. What is Racism?  2. Racial Discrimination and Health  3. Racial Trauma  4. The Carceral State and Black Men  5. Starving the Black Beast Part I  6. Starving the Black Beast Part II  7. The Black Messiah Part I  8. The Black Messiah Part II  9. Coping Mechanisms and Interventions

Editorial Reviews

"This highly illuminating book offers an encyclopedic examination of the conditions that confront Black boys and men in the 21st Century. Cooper writes in a very understandable and comprehensible way that presents the everyday reader an opportunity to have a complicated topic within their reach. Black Men and Racial Trauma forces us to confront complex realities that many researchers have attempted to downplay as a rosier picture than the data in this book provides." 

William A. Smith, Ph.D., developer of the Racial Battle Fatigue framework, professor of Education, Culture & Society, University of Utah

"This is a book like no other that I have read. It informs and horrifies about the pervasive effects of racism. We find definitions of racism and are educated about all the different kinds ranging from prejudice to systemic racism and anti-Black racism to white supremacy all embedded in a historical context. The effect of racism on mental and physical health, and on trauma, crime and mortality are all documented. Reading all this solidifies an understanding of the devastating effect of racism, based on empirically-based knowledge rather than on opinion. To add to all this, we are provided with a clinical understanding of racism on Black emotions, especially, shame and anger and helpful suggestions for interventions both psychotherapeutic and social. This is a book for the times."

Leslie S. Greenberg, Ph.D., primary developer of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) distinguished research professor emeritus of Psychology, York University

"Yamonte Cooper examines the unique ways in which structural racism harms Black men, particularly with respect to exposure to deadly violence and disproportionate downward mobility across generations. Marshalling the best available evidence from social science research, Cooper has produced an unparalleled study of the social injuries inflicted upon Black men and what'steps should be taken to prevent continued damage."

William A. ("Sandy") Darity Jr., Ph.D., professor of Public Policy, African American Studies, and Economics and the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity, Duke University

"The challenges of being a male of African descent in America continue to exert a profoundly negative impact on the experiences of Black people generally, but specifically Black males themselves. And yet, if those adversities are only understood at the level of the surface structure, then that analysis fails to capture the deep structured intricacies that impact Black men not only physically, but also psychologically. This text on Black Men and Racial Trauma expertly chronicles the fact that the disruption of Black Men's intellectual, emotional, behavioral, and spiritual sensibilities is not mere racial inconvenience or bias, but rather a more insidious form of traumatic psychic debilitation and dehumanization. Dr. Cooper doesn't leave the reader there but expands his narrative to include coping mechanisms Black men employ, and intervention strategies that clinicians, counselors, therapists, and others can use to help Black men not only cope but thrive. This text is a necessary addition to the arsenal on treating African descent people, and I would encourage and recommend that you absorb its content and consider implementing its recommendations."

Thomas A. Parham, Ph.D., president of California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), past president of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi)

"Cooper's text is probably the most important statement on the connection between race, gender, and stress since the appearance of Alvin Poussaint and Amy Anderson's 2001 study on the biological, medical and mental health correlates of race-related stress."

William E. Cross Jr., Ph.D., developer of the Black racial identity development model of Nigrescence, professor emeritus of Higher Education and Counseling Psychology, University of Denver

"Black Men and Racial Trauma: Impacts, Disparities, and Interventions is a survey that moves far beyond the usual identification and definition of racism to enter into the realms of healing and recovery. As such, its focus both compliments books already on the market and elevates the reader’s knowledge of racial trauma and its lasting, wide-ranging impact on Black men. Even more important, however, is its approach to recovery processes. As Yamonte Cooper, a licensed clinical counselor, navigates the milieu of racial bias and its deep-rooted wellsprings and impact, so he creates opportunities for dialogue and discovery that go above and beyond rote theory. In short: any collection covering cultural anthropology, racial bias, clinical healing, or trauma recovery should not only make Black Men and Racial Trauma a mainstay, but should keep it prominently displayed for recommendation to any patron interested in a deep analysis and applied mental healthcare that moves from individual experience and circumstance to broader racial concerns." 

D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review. 

From the Publisher