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 disparate treatment of nonwhite 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:

• Employs an interdisciplinary approach to teaching race, drawing 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 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.