Setting the Agenda: Black Families Matter

Abstract

Despite decades of research and multiple calls to diversify family communication scholarship, scant attention has been devoted to exploring communication in Black families. Recent events of civil unrest and racial injustice signify a continued need to address systemic racism in U.S. Black Americans’ lives today, threatening their physical, mental, social, and economic well-being. We contend that family communication scholars can play an essential role in dismantling racism and interlocking systems of oppression by drawing upon interdisciplinary theorizing to center and give voice to Black families’ communicative realities. Further, we urge communication scholars to explore issues within Black families and the communicative organizing of Black families.