Abstract
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.
Highlights
In many social and political contexts, the concept of black boyhood has been marked with negative associations
The public discourse on young black males usually describes them as dangerous suspects living in poverty and addicted to illegal substances
Rather than being perceived as underage and immature human beings, they are assessed with adult standards, with a special focus on their “suspect movements, threatening physicality, and malevolent intentions” (Dumas and Nelson 2016: 28). It was Emmet Till, murdered in 1955, who was first described in this mode. This case has brought into the public discourse a number of negative terms pertaining to black boyhood, which are still used in popular media
Summary
In many social and political contexts, the concept of black boyhood has been marked with negative associations. After the court’s verdict on the death of Trayvon Martin, in which the white man who killed the boy was found not guilty, Christopher Myers, one of the most popular contemporary African American children’s authors, published his seminal article “Young dreamers” in The Horn Book He admitted he had decided to write the text due to the sense of responsibility he wanted to share with his readers. African American children’s authors are not preoccupied with the violence and threats but they take more interest in the boys’ suffering and search for their true identity With their verbal as well as visual narratives, they produce alternative pictures of black boyhood, offering what is missing in the public discourse. In the course of refocusing, we may help a child who is coming out or struggling with abuse or with family or with health to acquire a clearer vision of the world and thereby grow up stronger” (Woodson 1995: 713)
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