Centering Black Voices

Posted on January 13, 2021

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Zun Lee visited Ferguson, Mo., twice in 2014, as protests ignited nationwide over the killing of Michael Brown by a police officer.

Jocelyn R. Smith Lee, now an assistant professor of human development and family studies at UNC Greensboro, was interviewing a young man in Baltimore. It was part of her work as a doctoral research assistant, examining how young Black men transition from childhood to adulthood in communities where they’re disconnected from traditional school-to-work pathways.

His interview went four hours, uninterrupted. Nobody got up. Nobody went to the restroom.

That really spoke to me about his need, and perhaps the larger need I was tapping into, of creating a space for the men to tell their stories.