The crux of the book is that black males are targeted for a special type of oppression in American society-because they are black AND male. Further complicating attempts to objectively engage this type of discourse is the deconstruction of “traditional” ideas of sex and gender, such that historic understandings of male and female experience can be argued invalid on grounds that they are social constructions. These engagements are often attacked on grounds that they de-center women's oppression and reinforce patriarchy, regardless of the body and strength of empirical data supporting the incidence of such violence (or the idea that gender discourse is not a zero-sum game). Confounding this is the ascendancy of feminist, intersectionalist discourse which, while aiming to raise valid critiques and interventions of male-imposed sexist violence, has also made it almost taboo to meaningfully engage the idea of any type of unique or exclusive violence experienced by males. What remains unexamined is the distinction in the ways that black males and black females are victimized by structures and ideas of this society. Paraphrasing one of the authors’ statements, “any oppressor who’s worth his salt knows it’s the males you target.” Black Americans as a whole remain under the destructive weight of white supremacy, which has transformed and shapeshifted in various ways but as an overarching paradigm has been a constant and immovable since America’s inception.
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