Tommy J. Curry

In The Man‐Not: Race, Class, Genre, and the Dilemmas of Black Manhood, Tommy J. Curry called for the creation of a new field, Black Male Studies, which would engage a genre study of Black male death and dying. A variety of scholars have answered this call, cultivating new research on Black and other racialized males that defies the conventions and assumptions of predominant approaches to the study of Black males. Although both Curry's The Man‐Not and the nascent field of Black Male Studies have been subject to much backlash on social media, only three scholarly critiques of Black Male Studies have been published. This analysis examines the criticisms of The Man‐Not as articulated by Olúfemi Táíwò, Freeden Blume Oeur and Saida Grundy, and Patrice D. Douglass, finding that none of these critics engage the conceptual and empirical foundations of Black Male Studies. In lieu of methodological criticism, these scholars resort to rhetorical, personal, and moral appeals that evade the primary issues at stake. In some instances, these critics deliberately misrepresent Curry's claims in The Man‐Not. Having come to the end of the first decade of Black Male Studies, critics have yet to offer a genuine critique of the field.

Black Male Studies has emerged as a new field of study that aims to correct contemporary theories of Black men and boys and provide a new conceptual grounding for future research into the sexual vulnerability of racialized male populations within Western patriarchal societies. This article introduces key concepts of Black Male Studies, as well as the literature base surrounding anti‐Black misandry, phallicism, and the role masculinization has in dehumanization and racialization more broadly. This article also analyzes foundational disagreements between Black Male Studies, Black masculinity theory, and Black feminist gender theory. The author concludes that Black Male Studies not only offers empirically testable and verifiable theories concerning Black men and boys, and racialized male populations more broadly, but can better explain historical processes and sociological findings concerning Black males than existent literature.