A Critical Race Media Discourse Analysis of the Kissing Case of 1958: Implications for Understanding Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Black Boyhood Play

• In Event: Advancing Gender and Racial Justice in Early Childhood Education: Persistent Challenges and Promises

Abstract

Purpose and objectives: In this presentation, the presenter draws on Black Male Studies and employs critical media discourse analysis to revisit the historical Kissing Case of 1958. The Kissing Case detailed the Black boyhood play experiences of James Thompson and David Simpson. These two Black boys were accused of raping and kissing a young White girl while playing in a racially segregated community in Monroe, North Carolina (AUTHOR, 2021). Implications are provided for early childhood educators to help them understand how historical narratives shape teachers’ understanding of race, gender, and sexuality in Black boyhood play in early childhood classrooms.

Theoretical framework: Critical Race Theory and Black Male Studies are the primary theoretical frameworks for this presentation. Critical race theory theorizes race and racism as foundational to American institutions, including media and the popular press (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995). Black Males Studies addresses the racialized, sexualized, and gendered conditions of Black boys and men. Curry (2017) describes such conditions by acknowledging that Black boys and men are victims of anti-Black misandry. Anti-Black misandry is the historical and contemporary disdain and disgust for Black boys, and men concretized in American laws and policies as well as school curricula, pedagogies, and practices (AUTHOR, 2021a; Curry, 2017).

Methodology, Methods, and Data Sources: This presentation uses Critical Media Discourse Analysis (CMDA) to arrive at the study’s findings. Critical race media discourse analysis serves as a critique of critical media discourse analysis. Born out of critical discourse analysis, critical media discourse analysis (CMDA) is a methodology that aims to unearth how language is employed in media and popular press to maintain, sustain, and reproduce oppression (Fairclough, 2015). According to Black et al. (2022), CMDA is born out of a theoretical movement that situates language in media and popular press within social and historical contexts and seeks to interrupt how it continues reproducing forms of oppression. In this study, the social contexts include media and popular press, which have been historically sites of anti-Black misandric violence that have interrupted and disrupted Black boyhood play. Data sources, including archival newspapers, news stories, and public media commentary, are used to determine the study’s results.

Results: Findings suggest that the normalization of anti-Black misandric restrictions and anti-Black misandric phallic policing shaped the misperceptions, biases, and stereotypes of Black boyhood play in media and popular press and serve to protect young white girls from playing with Black boys in schools and communities.
Scholarly significance of the study: The results from this study illuminate how historical anti-Black misandric misperceptions of Black boyhood play in media and popular press serve to normalize the racialized, gendered, and sexual oppression of Black boyhood play that further exacerbates the safety of Black boys in schools and communities.

Author

• Nathaniel Bryan, University of Texas at Austin