Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Using Poetic Transcription and Critical Race Theory to Re-Present Young, Rural, Black Men’s Experience with Police

Chronic life stressors, racial injustices, and social factors create disparities in care for Black men often hindering their ability to confidently manage their health. Black men in the United States have poorer health and die younger than men of other ethnic backgrounds and suffer extremely high rates of chronic conditions. The study that informed this manuscript focused on preventive health services use among rural, Black men ages 18-34. This article details the process of using poetic transcription to share stories of race and police encounters. Found poetry or poetic transcription was used to analyze the interview transcripts to interpret experience depicted in the interviews. Four stories and poetic transcriptions are presented and analyzed using Critical Race Theory. The narratives and poems presented reveal experiences of fear during racially charged situations the impact of this experiences on Black men’s identities. Using poetry as an analysis of interview data gives validity to the participants’ self-representation and offers a way for researchers to re-see a static data-driven text and offer new insights for the field of public health.