ABSTRACT
African American males have the lowest level of college graduation, the highest unemployment rates, the lowest marriage rates, disproportionately higher death rates for some of the nation's ten leading causes of death, and the shortest life span in comparison to White males and females and African American females. Of all the things affecting African American males, probably the most pernicious are negative images and stereotypes. During slavery, stereotypes were generated to justify their enslavement and thus a free labor force. The first of the stereotypes that were generated about African American males were Sambo and Uncle Tom. Generated after slavery, and a rendition of the Nat character, the Black brute is described as "barbaric" and "out to raise havoc". The video recordings of police murdering African American males have captured the world and spawned the Black Lives Matter movement, referred to by some as the new Civil Rights movement.
