Editorial: Developing Human Resources: Where Are the Black Males?

Abstract

This Special Issue was proposed and organized by Dr. Torrence E. Sparkman, who serves as guest editor. Dr. Sparkman assembled a group of scholars who recognized the underrepresentation of Black males holding administrative and executive leadership positions in predominantly White organizational and institutional contexts. Except for diversity-related roles (e.g., Chief Diversity Officers) the few occasions that Black males have been placed in roles or positions of leadership, they are often left without sufficient guidance and support by others who have experienced the trenches and the valleys of being a minoritized leader. In this Special Issue, Dr. Sparkman and the contributing authors address the problem of Black male career advancement and leadership development by presenting the perspectives of those who lead or aspire to lead in contexts where they are the visible minority. Another concern that this Special Issue will explore in depth, is the lack of visibility and voice of Black males in the academic literature. The exploration of experiences encountered by Black males in various contexts and the techniques they use to mitigate the impact of racial bias and structural barriers adds experiential knowledge to the body of traditional career and leadership development literature. The absence of topics related to the development of Black males, specifically in human resource development (HRD) could be attributed to one of two factors. First, it could be that Black males do not submit their scholarship to academic journals that would gain them recognition for their intellectual contribution. Second, and more realistically, it could be that epistemic exclusion has created a boundary that devalues topics, methodologies, and/or knowledge production by minoritized scholars (Settles et al., 2019). Epistemic exclusion is a thinly veiled form of gatekeeping that has excluded the voices of minoritized scholars from academic discourse (Dotson, 2012; Settles et al., 2019). Byrd and Stanley (2009) caution: