An overcrowded, demoralized, punitive educational system — combined with the abdication of mental health services to a juvenile justice system that incarcerates Black youth at an increasingly alarming rate — have made it difficult for many Black adolescent boys to find and engage in helpful treatment. When they are able to gain a referral, the complicated effects of White racism often impact the treatment encounter and are rarely addressed in the clinical session. Instead, racism exerts a subtle, unspoken effect that remains chambered in “forbidden talk.” Even when socioeconomic class is not an obstacle, and the clinicians are sincerely motivated, they may still find themselves challenged in raising these issues artfully in order to foster and sustain a working therapeutic alliance.

This presentation is designed to describe the multiple factors in the marginalization of Black youth, including a failure in society’s mentalization of Black boys, a phenomenon most often reflected in the denial of their developmental period of “boyhood.” Thus, rather than an image of Black boys as vulnerable and at risk, a mentalized social image of what has been described as “a denigrated self-image” is perpetuated. The research documenting the need for this presentation grew out of “The Brotherman Study,” a project that interviewed 40 lower- to upper-middle-class Black boys and their parents to give credence to their voices and individual needs. This course is designed for all mental health professionals, from beginning to advanced levels. It is geared towards clinicians who wish to further their knowledge and expand their skill base in psychodynamic clinical work with Black boys.