The culture, social organization, and experiences of African-Americans reflect the oppression that reverberates throughout the community. As a daily reality, African-Americans face a history of slavery, segregation, hate crimes, police brutality, and discrimination in nearly every arena, including housing, education, employment, and the construction and perpetuation of stereotypes that continually distort their image. In discussing violence, the cumulative effect of these identified inequities, stresses, and frustrations and the inevitable result of all these compounded must be considered. In order to impact domestic violence with lasting change, there must be an understanding of the sources of frustration and change the conditions that continue to perpetuate violence. Not only should the physical and psychological violence that African-American men direct toward women be addressed, but that which they direct toward other males and themselves. Violence in the African-American communities has reached epidemic proportions. Domestic violence, as one aspect of violence, in the African-American communities has been under-studied and under-theorized. An understanding of the distinct nature of this violence requires an investigation/research of the interactions of marginalization, persistent structural inequality, masculinity, power, poverty, popular culture, identity, and stress. References