About the ExceptionAL project

The Motivation

Trayvon Martin. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Between 2012 and 2014, media seemed saturated with stories of Black men losing their lives at the hands of “law enforcement” officials.  Those tragedies spurred countless debates and discussions, many of which almost always offered an incomplete picture of the men being discussed.  Rather than focus on their humanity, they were often criminalized and their murders justified.

The virtual exchange on Meet the Press between former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Professor Michael Eric Dyson in November of 2014 (linked HERE) was a prime example.   While discussing the recently decided grand jury decision in Ferguson, Missouri’s Michael Brown case, Giuliani commented, 

“We are talking about the exception here… we are talking about the significant exception…” -Giuliani

Giuliani's use of "exception" to describe the lives lost at the hands of law enforcement officials was troubling, to say the least. The men who have been murdered without cause or due process were no "exception" to the mothers that bore them for nine months, the children who now live life with no father, and certainly no exception to the countless friends and loved ones who mourn them daily. Indeed these men were ExceptionAL - unique, rare, worthy, and without comparison.

The Movement

The book ExceptionAL: Black Men Leading, Living, and Loving elevates the images and stories of 32 Black men and boys. They are our sons, our brothers, our fathers, our mentors, our people. We see them. We know them. We love them.

The ExceptionAL Project, aims to change the narrative by ensuring that images and stories like the ones in the book are seen and read across our country and ultimately throughout our world. The ExceptionAL Project