(Un)Natural Saviors and Motivators: Analyzing the Encoded Meaning of Black Male Teachers in Hollywood

• In Event: (Mis)Educating (Black) Sexed and Gendered (Some)Bodies

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which Black male teachers in Hollywood films continue to be encoded with meaning derived from deficit social science discourse generated through a white-controlled epistemic. Drawing from the framework of critical public pedagogy (Hall, 1997; Giroux, 2000, 2011) and utilizing the critical visual cultural tradition (Brown & Kraehe, 2011; Hall, 1997; Mckee, 2001), we contend that the representation of Black male teachers on film is rooted in longstanding conceptual narratives of African American men and boys. Findings indicate that cinematic films both develop their scripts around and contextualize the sole existence and necessity of Black male teachers within the context of absent Black fathers and their endangered sons.

Authors

• Daniel Thomas III, The University of Kansas

• Marcus W. Johnson, Texas State University