Disrupting Racial Dehumanization As a Root Cause of Youth Violence Through Community Engaged Visual Storytelling and Narrative Change

In 2020, firearm violence became the leading cause of death for American children and teens, a critical datapoint informing the 2024 U.S. Surgeon General's advisory on firearm violence. However, firearm violence has been a leading cause of death for Black youth-particularly, Black males-for decades, disproportionately impacting their morbidity and mortality. As the rights of Black youth to experience safety from firearm violence converge with the interests of white youth now increasingly impacted by it, it is imperative that prevention scientists critically interrogate what contributes to the national willfulness to see Black youth as perpetrators of violence deserving of punishment and a national reluctance to see Black youth as victims of violence deserving of healing and prevention? Guided by the Cycle of Dehumanization framework, we contend this pattern is symptomatic of racial dehumanization, a root cause of structural racism and violence. We argue that to successfully prevent youth firearm violence using a structural approach, we must disrupt dehumanizing narratives about Black male criminality and offer a viable solution through our visual storytelling and narrative change campaign, In All Ways Human. Using an adapted community engaged participatory action research approach and qualitative interviewing, our multimodal narrative change project captured 50 strategically disseminated (mural, billboards, kiosks, exhibits, digital galleries) portraits and stories that construct a counter-narrative with the power to prevent youth violence by transforming the ways in which Black males are seen, see one another, and see themselves. The impact and future directions of our narrative change effort are discussed.