Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Klęczaj-Siara, Ewa

Titel

Media Representations of Black Boys and the Response of Contemporary African American Children’s Authors and Illustrators

Ist Teil von

• Res Rhetorica, 2020-01, Vol.7 (2), p.33-47

Ort / Verlag

Polish Rhetoric Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

EZB Free E-Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The concept of black boyhood has always been marked with negative associations. American media usually portray black boys as a potential threat. Rather than focusing on their future, they treat black boyhood as an experience “in the now,” failing to consider the historical context of African American communities. Thus, they create a monolithic picture of young black men, which highlights only their faults. This way of imagining black boyhood has inspired African American authors and illustrators to talk back and join the national debate. Their picture books reject the public rhetoric of crisis and replace it with a new black narrative, which reconstructs the black male identity. The aim of this article is to analyze selected images of black boyhood included in the books, as well as to compare them with the message of today’s media.