Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute (MPSI) Research Colloquium Series

Freer House Parking: Gated parking in Lot 35 off John R Street. Gate accepts OneCard and credit card. Enter Freer House through back door.

Dismantling Social Difference for Advancing Justice: The Case for Black Males

Presenter: Waldo E. Johnson, Jr., PhD, Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice, Vice Provost, Diversity and Inclusion, The University of Chicago

Dr. Johnson’s talk will posit the political theory of social difference as context for examining urban Black males’ health and well-being through historical, institutional, and intersectional lenses. A specific focus will examine what constitutes nonresident fatherhood and how economic and cultural responses to barriers that thwart father involvement among Black fathers and their families are racialized. Examining Black men as primary participants in the Great Migration positions Black fathers in parallel paternal involvement engagement to white men who participated in the Industrial Revolution, who also physically left their families to strengthen their economic opportunities for family support. The presentation will also focus on the individual and environmental threats Black men encounter in service to their families. Black males represent a group for whom sustained opportunities for advancement have been thwarted since their arrival on American shores as chattel slaves. Finally, there will be a contemporary examination on how intersectional identities and statuses among urban Black men impacts father involvement and family engagement.