Walking While Black: The Overt Criminalization of the Black Body—A Case for Intersectional Pedagogies

• In Event: (Re)Teaching Trayvon Martin: Critical Pedagogy for Racial Justice and Human Freedom

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of the “suspicious” Black male and questionable female body and the role popular culture plays in reifying narrow constructions of Black masculinity and femininity that are often intertwined with criminalization and imbecility. Ultimately, we argue that critical pedagogy and media literacy are a necessity in classrooms, especially teacher education courses, in order to help debunk the myths that popular culture constructs about all racial/ethnic groups, but especially about Black youth.
First, the paper examines the history of the black male and female body and explores the ways Black embodiment has been perceived as “suspicious” and questionable. Historically, there has been a forced split between the Black body and mind. In fact, according to Brown (1999), Black men have more regularly been viewed as bodies instead of as intellectuals, while the Black woman’s body has been depicted as grotesque. Ironically, the Black body in popular culture (Whites and the Black educated elite) and in the scientific community has been a site of examination, objectification, and provocation. In the words of hooks, we "continue to think about the meaning of healing the split between mind and body in relationship to black identity, living in a culture where racist colonization has deemed black folks more body than mind. Such thinking lies at the core of all the stereotypes of blackness (many of which are embraced by black people) which suggest we are 'naturally, inherently' more in touch with our bodies, less alienated than other groups in this society" ("Feminism" 129). This thinking proliferates in popular culture representations that construct and capitalize on Black youth’s bodies as tough, aggressive, and lacking moral and intellectual aptitude. We see in the Trayvon assassination, for instance, that he was easily depicted as less than educationally committed, and thus, concomitantly depicted as a thug and drug addict.
Finally, we discuss the importance of critical pedagogy and media literacy in enabling people to problematize their perceptions about Black youth’s bodies (and, ultimately, all marginalized others). We specifically focus on pre-service and veteran teachers socialization, since educators exert a tremendous influence over how youth interpret and navigate the world as well as how they are interpreted in it. If practitioners and scholars do not understand how to question their own assumptions and preconceptions, if they are lacking cultural literacy about Black masculinity and feminine identity construction, we cannot expect them to properly engage in discussions with each other and youth about the state of (their raced, classed, and gendered) reality. In the end, we call for intersectional pedagogies and theoretical models that take Black boys and girls’ lived experiences into consideration (Evans-Winters, 2011; Evans-Winters & Esposito, 2010) to empower youth and counter media and neoliberal attacks against the Black body.

Authors

• Venus E. Evans-Winters, Illinois State University

• Jennifer R. Esposito, Georgia State University