The Stories They Tell: Mainstream Media, Pedagogies of Healing, and Critical Media Literacy in the Wake of Racial Violence

• In Event: 25.022 - From Racial Violence to Racial Justice: Praxis and Implications for English Education

Abstract

Pedagogies of Healing and Critical Media Literacy are increasingly necessary and important, especially in the wake of racial violence when agents and forces within mainstream media work to stigmatize, characterize, and marginalize Black youth and other youth of color by projecting them as dangerous Others (Mahiri, 2004). Indeed, in the wake of racial violence, educators must be willing to engage in revolutionary praxis by reimagining their classrooms as spaces for triage, self-care, healing, and social transformation. In this session, presenter #1 will (1) unpack patterns of media injustice that illustrate the longstanding, deep, and abiding connection between mainstream media and white supremacy (hooks, 1992), (2) highlight the impact uncritical consumption of mainstream media narratives about Black people has on media consumers and Black youth, and (3) discuss practical ways that educators can use critical media literacy as a tool that works toward healing the wounds of youth who are impacted by racial violence, and provides youth with opportunities to investigate, dismantle, and rewrite the damaging narratives that mainstream media and other social institutions use to construct and oppress Black youth. This session will conclude with sample lesson plans and a discussion of how English educators have a responsibility to use our discipline “to transform our world and raise awareness of the crisis of racial injustice” (Black Caucus, 2015).

Author

• April Baker-Bell, Michigan State University