Guest Editors: Kevin Cokley, Ph.D. and Helen Neville, Ph.D.
The Journal of Black Psychology is issuing a call for papers on the psychology of Black activism in the 21st century.
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd died while handcuffed and lying face down on a city street in Minneapolis, Minnesota because a White officer put and kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. On March 14, 2020, Breonna Taylor was fatally shot in her apartment eight times by Louisville police officers. Numerous unarmed U.S. Black people, especially Black men, have died in the custody of police officers and have been caught on video since Rodney King in 1991. However, the distribution of the Floyd video has had an impact on the psyche of people worldwide, especially Blacks, that have not been observed since the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Protests of George Floyd’s death started on May 26, 2020 and have been continuous since then. What is the meaning of this specific event that has sparked worldwide protests about oppression, in general, and anti-Blackness and/or Black racism, specifically? How can the discipline of Black psychology inform a Black activism agenda for research, policy, and practice?
What has sparked the activism of Black folk despite the coronavirus pandemic, where social distancing has been considered minimal compared to the death of George Floyd? What is the psychology of Black protest that has activated Black youth and adults, Indigenous and other People of Color, and Whites to speak out and march? Were these factors prevalent during the Civil Rights Movement the same now? If not, what is different?
Thus, the purpose of this call is to (a) generate scholarship about the psychology of Black activism, (b) enhance the awareness and knowledge among scholars who are working in various capacities with Black populations during this eventful time to work for justice and healing in the face of the pandemic; that is, activism around police brutality, health disparities, food safety, and financial insecurity, just to name a few of the issues. The aim is to not only enhance knowledge and awareness of the lived realities of persons of African descent who have been affected by the death of George Floyd, but also to share scholarship that will have implications for best practices for practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in eradicating anti-Blackness and/or Black racism.
Below are some factors that might be considered for the papers, but are not limited to:
• Activism and mental health and/or community wellbeing
• Theoretical and conceptual papers on the psychology of Black protest in the United States, on the Continent of Africa
and/or throughout the Diaspora
• Self-care practices among Black activists
• Individual and collective benefits of Black activism
• Factors contributing to activism
• Movement building vs individual protests
• Intersectional analysis of Black activism
• Black liberation
• After the protests
• Youth activism (models of, consequences, parental responses)
We are interested in a mixture of papers ranging from full-length manuscripts, brief reports, quantitative and qualitative, mixed methods studies, literature reviews, and conceptual papers. Social policy papers are also possible if they address the complex realities that persons of African descent in the United States, on the continent of Africa or throughout the Diaspora are currently facing that have contributed to the activism and its perpetuation. These papers must be conceptual or evidence- based, guided by scholarship, but not editorial. Finally, we will also consider case studies, as exemplars of the experience of activism and guided by scholarship.
Submission Information
1. Submit the manuscript through the journal’s portal and create an account:
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jbp
2. Deadline for submission is August 15, 2020
3. Evaluation: The manuscript will be reviewed by a review panel and authors will be notified of the decision within 45
to 60 days of submission.
4. Submission of a manuscript does not guarantee eventual publication, as all manuscripts will be peer-reviewed as per
the protocol with submissions to The Journal of Black Psychology