Re-reading Dope: Re-fashioning Gifted Black Male Student Status in Mainstream American Film

• In Event: Black Male Futurism: Re-envisioning Giftedness, the Attitude Achievement Paradox, and the Public Personas of Black Male Students

Abstract

This paper argues that gifted Black male student characters in film became worthy of more detailed consideration by the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Unlike other types of special education, Black males, are the raced and gendered group with the lowest numbers of students represented in gifted education. I maintain that Black male students possess a form of “gifted consciousness” that is a portion of a possible self they construct in the public realm. These ideas are exemplified in films like Dope (2015). In this case, Black male students’ gifted consciousness is multi-faceted and comes from their ability to survive against insurmountable odds, demonstrate creativity despite the sterility of formal education, and function as community leaders prior to the age of eighteen. Black male students’ gifted consciousness is only a portion of the “selves” created over the course of an individual’s life.

Author

• Heather Cherie Moore, Allegheny College