The Face of Black Men

By Dori Maynard

Immersed in the Trayvon Martin coverage and reviewing some of the many studies that document the media’s inaccurate and distorted depiction of black boys and men, I started thinking of the black men in my life.

Of course the first faces that came to mind were those of my father and my younger brothers. But then other faces kept springing to mind - my friends, colleagues and mentors, all important to me, all working to make this world a better place and all virtually invisible to the wider world .

A couple of weeks earlier I had joined Pinterest. At the time I had no idea it was known as a place where people shared pictures of pretty things they liked, wanted or had made.

I just thought it was a great place for visual story telling.

And this, the everyday reality of black men, I thought was an important story to show. So I started pinning. And under each picture I wrote a small caption talking about who this person was in my life. By the end of the day, I had about 30 pins, hardly a fraction of the men I wanted to celebrate, but all I could accomplish over the weekend.

I showed it to a few people and tweeted it out.  A friend and colleague responded by  advising me to turn it into a Tubmlr so we could crowd source and gather other people’s stories about the black men in their life that are neither criminals nor the President.

Here it is. We hope you will contribute your stories and urge your family and friends to do the same so we can begin to present a more accurate picture of African American boys and men.

The Tumblr has received some attention on other sites as well: 

Black Men Aren't Superpredators, They're Accountants

Son, You Could Be Trayvon