It Don’t Affect Them Like it Affects Us: Disenfranchised Grief of Black Boys in the Wake of Peer Homicide

Abstract

Black boys’ grief coping with peer homicide remain under-researched and undertheorized (Bordere in Omega J Death Dying 58:213–232, 2008; Smith in Am J Public Health 105(3):483–490, 2015; Smith and Patton in Am J Orthopsychiatry 86(2):212–223, 2016; Voisin et al. in J Interpers Violence 26: 2483–2498, 2011). This is especially significant when combined with the emerging understanding that Black boys may experience homicidal death in significantly different ways and durations than others (Piazza-Bonin et al. in OMEGA J Death Dying 70(4): 404–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222815573727 , 2015). This manuscript examines the experiences of three Black boys attending an urban school, in the wake of the homicidal death of their peer. We purport the absence of grief counselors and the lack of administrative sensitivity, created a misalignment between the boys’ need to grieve, systems within an urban school context that denied and erased trauma. Drawing from concepts of disenfranchised grief (Doka in Handbook of bereavement research and practice: advances in theory and intervention. American Psychological Association, pp 223–240. https://doi.org/10.1037/14498-011 , 2008; Rowling in Disenfranchised grief: new directions, challenges, and strategies for practice. Research Press, pp 275–292, 2002), we situate our analysis using Brofenbrenner's theory of proximal processes (Making human beings human: bioecological perspectives on human development. Sage Publications Ltd, London, pp 106–173, 2005). This framework reveals a perspective that counters the hegemonic ontologies which deny Black boys’ the right to grieve. Furthermore, in examining one Black male mentor’s support of the boys in the aftermath of this tragedy, this manuscript contributes to an increased awareness of the need for urban school policies and practices that reflect reframed understandings of Black boys' mourning.