In this article, the author considers how dominant cultural framings of African American adolescent males intersect with literacy research, policy, and practice. The overrepresentation of statistical and policy reports that place African American males and their low academic performance in the center of the frame risks further reifying and perpetuating deficit constructions of African American youth. The author urges educators, researchers, and policy makers to move beyond negative statistics and dominant representations and to insist on systemic investigations of the kinds of practices that sustain both in- and out-of-school literacies of African American adolescent males.