Race and Media Literacy, Explained (or Why Does the Black Guy Die First?)

Talking about race does not have to be incredibly awkward. In this book, Gooding offers twelve clear, cogent, and concise racial rubrics to help users of mainstream media more readily discern patterns hidden in plain sight. The text primarily leverages popular movies as the medium of analysis—since they are unparalleled in their cultural significance—but the rubrics apply to other forms of media, such as television, print, and social media. “Why does the Black guy die first?” is a well-known rhetorical question that challenges the disparate treatment of non-White characters onscreen. This subtle statement about the representation of persons of color within mainstream movies has remained largely unexplored until now. Race and Media Literacy, Explained provides concrete concepts and a uniform vocabulary with which to recognize and further analyze these formulaic images. After participating in this dynamically interactive experience, readers will never see media the same way again!

Book Features:

• An interdisciplinary approach to teaching race that draws on cinema and forms of popular media that most students know.
• Guidance for honing media literacy skills with middle, high school, and undergraduate college students.
• A HARM Theory Rubric that identifies 6 consistent patterns for depictions of non-White characters and 6 consistent patterns for White characters within mainstream movies.
• Questions for Questing sections provide critical questions for further exploration.
• Concrete vocabulary/glossary terms to engage with the subject matter more precisely.
• Innovative analysis of depictions of race and ethnicity in the top ten highest-grossing films of all time.

Frederick W. Gooding, Jr. is associate professor of African American studies and the Dr. Ronald E. Moore Professor in Humanities in the Honors College at Texas Christian University.

“Accessible, historical, and personal, Race and Media Literacy, Explained extends scholarship from a leading historian on representation and misrepresentation in Hollywood cinema. Gooding positions his personable analysis in this book as a challenge to fans, critics, students, scholars, and makers of film alike to correct harmful omissions in Hollywood with active and thoughtful forms of commission to produce humane and equitable representations of all on screen.”
—Jamal Ratchford, associate professor of history and race, ethnicity, and migration studies, Colorado College

“Race and Media Literacy, Explained is a masterpiece of textual analysis that deftly explores the intersection of race, entertainment, power, and gender. With a sophisticated historical framework, Frederick W. Gooding, Jr. charts the discursive ways in which movies in particular explore the human condition under the creative constrictions of race. Black life, the author demonstrates with keen quantitative and qualitative analysis, has been often reduced to a particular marginality that is not always flagrantly racist. From the “Angel” figure to the “Physical Wonder,” this book details the curious examples of the diversity of racial imagery in Hollywood and beyond.”
—Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of Popular Music at the University of Connecticut, author of America’s Black Capital: How African Americans Remade Atlanta in the Shadow of the Confederacy

“Race and Media Literacy, Explained is a timely and much needed contribution to the fields of ethnic studies, Black studies, film and media studies, and cultural pluralism in U.S. education. With rich materials, deft analyses, and a combination of both a poignant storytelling style of narratives and a concise and unequivocal presentation, Frederick Gooding, Jr.’s work showcases how viewers can—and should—vividly see race and race relations in American mainstream cinema.”
—An Tuan Nguyen, clinical assistant professor, Asian American studies, University of Houston

Contents

Acknowledgment  xi

Series Foreword  James A. Banks   xiii

Part I: White Screens, Dark Theaters

Introduction: Evaluating the Worth of a Motion Picture  3
Setting the Stage  3
1,000 Words?  4
Judgment Day  6
Beware Black Engineers  8
Whose Fault?  9
Whose House?  10
The Black Guy Really Does Die First  12
Doing the Math  13

1.   Have We Seen This Movie Before?  17
WDF?! (Why Die First?!)  17
But What Is a Mainstream Movie?  20
Take It From the Top  21
Mainstream Racism in Black and White  29
Racism: Now in Living Color  31

2.   Value and Visibility  35
Nothing New to Report  35
Introducing the HARM Theory Rubric  38
Sixth Sense: I See White People  41
Seeing (White Hot) Stars  44
The Curious Case of White Women  45
Coming Soon  46
Bottom Line #1  46

Part II: Color Me Bad: Archetypes and Prototypes

3.   The Angel Figure Archetype  49
30-Second Spot  49
Trailer  49
Main Feature Analysis  49
Black Mirror  56
Angel Figure Archetype Examples from the Top Ten  57

4.   The Background Figure Archetype  61
30-Second Spot  61
Trailer  61
Main Feature Analysis  61
Black Mirror  63
Background Figure Archetype Examples from the Top Ten  64

5.   The Comic Relief Archetype  67
30-Second Spot  67
Trailer  67
Main Feature Analysis  68
Black Mirror  69
Comic Relief Archetype Examples from the Top Ten  70

6.   The Menace to Society Archetype  75
30-Second Spot  75
Trailer  75
Main Feature Analysis  75
Black Mirror  76
Menace to Society Archetype Examples from the Top Ten  77

7.   The Physical Wonder Archetype  81
30-Second Spot  81
Trailer  81
Main Feature Analysis  81
Black Mirror  82
Physical Wonder Archetype Examples from the Top Ten  82

8.   The Utopic Reversal Archetype  87
30-Second Spot  87
Trailer  87
Main Feature Analysis  87
Black Mirror  88
Utopic Reversal Archetype Examples from the Top Ten  89

9.   The Assumed Affluent Prototype  95
30-Second Spot  95
Trailer  95
Main Feature Analysis  95
Black Mirror  101
Assumed Affluent Prototype Examples from the Top Ten  101

10.   The Family Tied Prototype  105
30-Second Spot  105
Trailer  105
Main Feature Analysis  105
Black Mirror  106
Family Tied Prototype Examples from the Top Ten  106

11.   The Hero Prototype  109
30-Second Spot  109
Trailer  109
Main Feature Analysis  110
Black Mirror  110
Hero Prototype Examples from the Top Ten  111

12.   The Intellectual Prototype  115
30-Second Spot  115
Trailer  115
Main Feature Analysis  116
Black Mirror  116
Intellectual Prototype Examples From the Top Ten  117

13.   The Manipulator Prototype  119
30-Second Spot  119
Trailer  119
Main Feature Analysis  119
Black Mirror  120
Manipulator Prototype Examples From the Top Ten  121

14.   The Romantic Prototype  125
30-Second Spot  125
Trailer  125
Main Feature Analysis  125
Black Mirror  126
Romantic Prototype Examples from the Top Ten  127
Bottom Line #2  128

Conclusion: What the Black Guy Dying First Means  131
Using Logic With Emotion Pictures  132
But It’s Just a Movie, Right?  134
Adding Up the Bottom Lines  135

Appendix: My Non-Horror Top Ten Movies for “Why Die First?!”  137

Glossary  145

Watchdog Guide  154

References  158

Index  164

About the Author  173