Black Characters Research Articles

When in Camelot: Space invaders, neurodiversity and popular culture

This autobiographical reflection builds on Nirmal Puwar’s Space Invaders, where she frames women and people not racialised as white as `out of place’ and `out of space’ in white male spaces and places. For me disabled while Black, her work showed we may extend that conversation into how Critical Autism Studies, Disability Studies, and non/fiction publishing of autistic and otherwise disabled authors have been framed as white-only - those not white are seen as add-ons to the frame. Lack of `Black British’ disabled history, further lead me to write disability back into the history of the officially named yet stigmatising `Educationally Subnormal’ Scandal of the 1970s. It is also not difficult to see how `Educationally Subnormal’ [ESN] morphed into ableist term `Special Educational Needs’ [SEN]. The terminology is different but the underlying implications and inequalities remain the same. Going to school in Northants villages for near to the first fifteen years of my life, and playing cricket in those spaces for much longer, Puwar’s work may also point to the experiences of UK Black and Asian people who live and work in towns and the countryside - and in some cases may be able to trace their family history there going back many decades. My in-progress PhD research on Caribbean Northamptonshire Post-1945 takes that further in conversation with media, while I’ve also felt like a `space invader’ to much Black British media centralised on inner-cities - notably London. I found myself in Black characters appearing in rural period dramas, further to shows like Doctor Who and Merlin. From my rural schooling to disability and my questions of popular culture representations, these are all extended metaphors for the possibilities that we might all be space invaders in one context or another - even around people who look like us. This piece is a needed intervention showing there are a million and one ways to be human - just the mainstream is playing catchup, as per usual.

Musicians, Chariot Bearers, and Ghost Characters: The Spectrality of Black Slavery in Early Modern Mediterranean Drama

The article discusses early modern English plays from the 1590s to the 1610s, set in or referring to the Mediterranean, which feature Black African characters in marginal roles. These characters are ‘spectral’ in that they have no speaking part but appear briefly as attendants, servants, musicians, or indeed slaves. The article argues that their spectrality evokes the presence of Black African slaves in the Mediterranean, which has often been ignored in Early Modern Studies. However, through these characters Black slavery is turned into a mere spectacle, performed for the gaze of the theatre audience in early modern London.

Towards novel small-molecule inhibitors blocking PD-1/PD-L1 pathway: From explainable machine learning models to molecular dynamics simulation

Molecular design of small-molecule inhibitors targeting programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) pathway has been recognized as an active research area by the clinical success of cancer immunotherapy. In recent years, using machine learning (ML) methods to accelerate drug design have been confirmed. However, the black box character of ML methods makes model interpretation and ligands optimization obscured. Herein, five explainable ML models were constructed by integrating five ML models with the SHAP method, where these ML models were pretrained with >4000 molecules and their R2 ranged from 0.835 to 0.86 on test set. Subsequently, the explainable ML models were employed to identify the relationship between fragments and bio-activity of a small molecule inhibitor BMS-1166, leading to the modification of BMS-1166 into 60 novel compounds. After consensus docking and ADMET test, 3 small molecules (C27, C52 and C54) with better docking scores and lower toxicity than BMS-1166 were screened out further. Finally, the improved binding affinity of C27, C52 to the PD-L1 dimer was validated by the MD simulation. Overall, this work proposed an efficient protocol on the basis of explainable ML models for designing small-molecule inhibitors targeting PD-1/PD-L1 pathway in a rational way.

Roots and Refuge: A Critical Exploration of Nature in Black Visual Narratives

This article examined the underrepresentation of Black characters in children’s picture books, particularly in natural settings, and its effect on Black children’s relationship with nature. Through an analysis of four contemporary picture books, the study revealed how visual depictions challenge these exclusions and expand narratives about Black engagement with the natural world. Utilizing visual semiotics and the theory of Black Aliveness, this research underscores the transformative power of illustrations by Black artists in enriching children’s literature and advancing joy.

Unjust: Publishing Black and African American Children’s Books and School Availability

Traditional book publishing has a pronounced and unjust deficiency of Black and African American voices. White culture, thoughts, and rules are the standard in traditional publishing. Black and African American authors are not typically picked up by white-dominated publishing companies. In traditional publishing, mostly white literary agents are gatekeepers and acquisition editors shut the doors too frequently to non-white authors. Aspiring Black authors then resort to hybrid or vanity press companies that often use unscrupulous practices, charge exorbitant fees, accomplish little or low-quality work, and deny authors’ agency and full rights in the final disposition of a book. Because a majority of traditionally published children’s books featuring Black or African American stories or characters are written by or illustrated by non-Black people, the wide possibilities of adventure, celebrations, discovery, and friendship stories are not published for Black children. Instead, publishers favor stories about slavery, the civil rights movement, famous Black people, and hair tales as well as racially ambiguous characters. Regrettably, Black and African American culturally relevant stories written and illustrated by Black or African Americans are not readily available to children in school and library settings consistent with schools’ community or student demographics. This article shares research findings and viewpoints of Kathy Anderson and Karen Bowlding, two Black children’s book writers and publishing consultants who are also parents. Black and African American students encounter education and cultural injustice because of the practices of traditional publishing companies, educators, and librarians. Parents and guardians can ameliorate these issues with discernment and action. Foremost, publishing company decision-makers must acknowledge their own racial biases that deny representation and authenticity to all children in our US classrooms.

Children's social preference for peers engaged in brilliance-required activities: The impact of gender and race.

Women's underrepresentation in academic fields and professions emphasizing high intellectual talents persists as a prominent societal issue. To explore early antecedents of this gender imbalance, the present study investigated the developmental changes in children's social preference of boys and girls who pursue brilliance-required (vs. effort-required) activities. Importantly, we took an intersectional perspective to explore whether children consider target race in their social preference. Five- to 9-year-old U.S. children (N = 207; Mage = 7.53; 104 girls and 103 boys; 48% White) were presented with pairs of Asian, Black, and White characters matched in gender. One character was depicted as enjoying a game requiring high intellectual talents and the other enjoyed a game requiring effort. Participants were then asked to choose the character that they liked more, as an indicator of their social preference. With age, children became increasingly likely to prefer White boys and girls of color (i.e., Black and Asian girls) pursuing activities requiring brilliance (vs. activities requiring effort). In contrast, children did not develop increasing social preference for White girls or boys of color who opt in for brilliance-required activities. Our data suggest that, as early as elementary school years, children's social preference in contexts valuing sheer brilliance becomes both gendered and racialized. These findings highlight the importance of using an intersectional approach to identify the specific developmental processes that contribute to social disparities in brilliance-required contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Children’s perceptions of race and ethnicity in media: a 25-year update to children now

ABSTRACT In 1998, Children Now surveyed 1,200 U.S. 10- to 17-year-olds about TV racial depictions, finding white children reported the most visibility. As a 25-year update, we surveyed 834 U.S. 10- to 17-year-olds: Asian/Asian American (n = 177), Black (n = 206), Hispanic (n = 150), Indigenous/Native American (n = 86), and white (n = 215). More youth now say it’s important to see their race in media, but fewer report seeing their group, with Hispanic and Asian youth reporting the lowest frequencies. Overall, youth perceived disparities: 93% said there were ‘enough’ white characters; fewer said there were enough Black (54%), Hispanic (43%), Asian (32%), and Indigenous (19%) characters. Perceptions of qualities varied, with Indigenous characters scoring lowest in positive qualities and Black and Hispanic characters highest in negative qualities. Indigenous, Hispanic, and Asian/Asian American youth perceived fewer positive ingroup representations than white and Black youth. Implications for media message design and the theory of invisibility are discussed.

Social Conflict In Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures Novel

The purposes of this study to find out the kinds of social conflicts exist Hidden Figures Novel and to describe how the impact of the social conflicts on characters such as Dorothy Voughan, Marry Jackson, Katherine Jhonson, Christina Darden and the other black people character in this novel. The data in this research part of the novel that is related to the social conflict. The source of data comes from the novel Hidden Figures. The method of the research is descriptive qualitative research. By using the Soerjono Soekanto’s theories (2017). He stated there are five kinds of social conflict. The five social conflict are conflict of an International Nature, Political conflicts, conflicts between social classes, Racial conflicts, and Personal conflict. Then there are five impacts of social conflict in his theory.

Ungraspable: Black life in Juan Cárdenas’s novels

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the representation of Blackness in the fiction of Colombian author Juan Cárdenas, particularly emphasising the novels The Strata and Shadow Elastic. It explores the challenges faced by Cárdenas when integrating Black characters into narratives narrated by white male protagonists. The novels question the perspective of the male narrator, which often extends beyond the confines of European rationality. As a result, the act of portraying Black life becomes intricate when a character’s lived experience exceeds that of the narrator, prompting a reconsideration of the storytelling itself. The concept of the ‘shadow archive’, inspired by Tavia Nyong’o, plays a central role in Cárdenas’s vision of Black life. This archive serves as a repository of memory and self-representation, defying conventional narratives by recovering stories suppressed or disregarded by the white world. Cárdenas employs the notion of ‘afro-fabulation’, blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction and delving into the possibilities of what could have occurred by incorporating everyday, fantastic, and mythical elements. Through their elusive narratives, the novels disrupt hegemonic culture, challenge biased knowledge, and establish connections within Black cultures.

Parents’ differential trait, mental state, and coping talk about White and Black child storybook characters

AbstractLimited literature has examined parents’ unsolicited trait, mental state, and coping talk about media characters by race as they co‐view with their children. We observed 195 US parents describing an illustrated depiction of racialized social exclusion for their child (53% male; Mage = 5.46 years; 60% White) in their home setting. Families discussed a Black child being excluded by White children or a White child being excluded by Black children. Parents’ victim, emotion, personality, and coping talk about the excluded child were coded. Parents were more likely to use victim talk (e.g., “she's being excluded”) and emotion talk (e.g., “she's sad”) when the excluded child was Black and were more likely to use personality talk (e.g., “she's shy”) when the excluded child was White. We further explored parents’ demographic, personal, and neighborhood correlates with their trait, mental state, and coping talk. White parents with greater levels of egalitarian attitudes used more victim talk and coping talk (e.g., “she should go play with them”) about the White excluded child. Being more politically conservative was associated with White parents using more coping talk about the Black excluded child. White parents living in predominantly Black neighborhoods were less likely to use victim talk toward the Black child. BIPOC parents showed more nuanced patterns. These findings suggest that parents’ unsolicited racial messaging varies by racial identification, sociodemographic characteristics, and neighborhood context.

Double Consciousness: A Subject Formation in Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby

This paper based on Toni Morrison's "Tar Baby" delves into the intricacies of race, identity, and belonging. It explores the expressions of double consciousness in Morrison's work and its significance in understanding the characters' motivations and relationships. It employs W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness as a literary tool to describe the internal conflict experienced by African Americans. Double consciousness refers to the psychological experience of African Americans who perceive themselves both as individuals and as members of a racially marginalized group. This duality arises from the social construction of race and the historical context of oppression, leading to a fragmented identity. The female protagonist, Jadine Childs, embodies the struggle of double consciousness as a young, educated black woman. She gets divided between her African heritage and the allure of white culture. Her relationship with Son, a male protagonist, serves as a catalyst for her exploration of self-awareness and cultural identity. This study examines how Morrison portrays the internal conflicts faced by her characters. Additionally, it navigates the reasons behind the formation of split personality of the characters. It also discovers the role of history and memory in shaping the characters' perceptions. Over all, this research contributes the readers to comprehend how double consciousness acts in order to formulate fragmented personality of the black characters.

Who Benefits from Your Ignorance? Visualizing Black (Super)Heroism and Refuting Respectability Politics in Victor LaValle’s Destroyer

ABSTRACT: In Victor LaValle’s 2018 collected comic book Destroyer , the limits of respectability politics and the goals of representation for Black characters are both tested. Destroyer focuses on the death and rebirth of a young Black boy named Akai, who is murdered by police while walking home; his mother, a descendant of Victor Frankenstein and a researcher working on nanotechnology and reanimated life, brings him back in a “super” powered form. In the graphic narrative’s depiction of Black heroism and struggle, its radical politics and its visual work deny the peacemaking impulse of respectability politics that have been linked to the representation of Black characters in comics and other sequential art. This essay traces how Destroyer rejects respectability politics, explores the often-disregarded righteous rage of Black women, and conveys its protest of the premature death Black people are vulnerable to on a regular basis through a highly referential and often intertextual graphic narrative. LaValle’s comic ultimately embraces the rage, heroism, and humanity of its Black characters in its speculative approach to the issues of life and death that it is in conversation with throughout its panels and pages.

Racial Discrimination and Resistance in Judas and the Black Messiah Film

Judas and the Black Messiah reflects the real events focusing on O’Neal’s betrayal to Hampton in the late 1960s directed by Shaka King. This research aims to determine the racial discrimination towards the black characters and resistance strategies in the Judas and the Black Messiah (2021). In this research, the writer applied a qualitative research method with a descriptive analysis technique in analyzing the data. Furthermore, in this research, the writer utilized Racial Discrimination theory proposed by Rebecca M. Blank and Marilyn Dabady to examine the racial discrimination against the black characters. The results show black characters facing racial discrimination on a daily basis in three forms, such as in Explicit Discrimination, Statistical Discrimination and Profiling, and Organizational Processes. The members of the Black Panther Party are labeled as a group of criminals by the government and stated as a threat to national security. Thus, this makes the black characters have to suffer on a daily basis through physical attack from the police and often receive racial slurs. Nevertheless, the result also portrays the black characters in utilizing the resistance strategies to fight against racial discrimination. There are several strategies utilized by the black characters, such as Political Education, Coalition Building, Direct Actions and Protests, and Empowerment Through Leadership. It attempts to fight back against injustice treatment and government oppression of minorities. Keywords: Black Characters, Racial Discrimination, Racism, Resistance Strategies

Black body representation in Get Out (2017) and Us (2019) by Jordan Peele

Black characters soon appeared in Hollywood films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916). They are recognised as criminals, not conceded as human rights. African-American directors created films to change the image of black people. Jordan Peele inherits the efforts of his predecessors and takes the story of black people in cinema to a new level with identity clarification. That is clearly shown in the movies Get Out (2017) and Us (2019). The research aims to identify the black body representation in the above two films by Jordan Peele as an expression of identity. Body denial is the root cause of violence among African Americans. This acts as a form of identity tracing. The research combines the use of cinematic narrative and semiotic approaches with interdisciplinary research methods such as culturology and anthropology. The basic principle of the position of the research is the theory of ethnic identity. The use of comparison, collation, analysis and synthesis will be applied in the process of developing theses.

The Stories We Tell Our Young Children: Using Picture Books to Explore Race and Black–Jewish Relations

ABSTRACT Early childhood Jewish education provides an opportune moment to teach about race and Black–Jewish relations as young children grapple with concepts like justice. This article argues that picture books containing interactions between Black and Jewish characters or a Black Jewish character are a powerful pedagogical tool for this purpose. We created the first inventory of picture books that contain these characters, finding 188 of them which we believe can be invaluable in introducing the vital topic of race and racism to young children in early childhood Jewish classrooms through the historically important lenses of Black–Jewish relations and Black Jewish individuals.

The ‘Black Pete’ debate in Flemish newspapers: from conflict to moderation

ABSTRACT In recent years, a lot of academic attention has been paid to the public discussion on ‘Black Pete’ (Zwarte Piet) in the Low Countries. Black Pete is a much-debated blackface character which is part of the Saint-Nicholas tradition – a yearly festive event taking place at the beginning of December associated with gifts and celebration. ‘Tradition’ versus ‘racism’ seem to be the main arguments in the debate. The current study analyses the debate as it evolved in Flanders from 2012 until 2022, applying Critical Discourse Analysis to find out how the thinking about the event and the Black Pete character, as reflected in the newspapers, changed over a decade. Our sample consists of 143 articles from the four most read newspapers in Flanders (De Standaard, De Morgen, Het Laatste Nieuws, Het Nieuwsblad). All journalistic genres were included, news reports as well as opinion articles, but also readers’ letters. Based on an analysis of naming, modality and evidentiality (Fairclough [2013]. Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Routledge; Halliday [1994]. An introduction to functional grammar. Arnold), we illustrate and demonstrate how the tone of the debate gradually changed from a discourse of conflict into a discourse of moderation and appeasement.

“Negros mágicos” e a evolução da representação de negritudes em Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: os casos de Avdol e Pucci

It examines the representation of black characters in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, highlighting how the series addresses issues of black identity and diversity in Japanese culture, albeit in a problematic way. It discusses the importance of representation and explore the social and cultural implications of this representation, focusing on characters such as Muhammad Avdol and Father Pucci to question racial stereotypes.

Stephen King's evolution on race: Re‐reading Duma Key

AbstractStephen King is at times more self‐reflective about his depictions of blackness than it might seem at first glance. He ruminates upon his own complicated role as a white writer who, on occasion, speaks through the mouths of black characters. King has demonstrated a willingness, especially in his twenty‐first century fiction, to interrogate his biases. Put simply, we should not be too hasty in dismissing (or cancelling) King. To address this further, we propose another look at Duma Key, a novel that scrutinizes the role of popular artists in reinforcing as well as revising ideas about race in America.

Explainable artificial intelligence in pathology

With the advancements in precision medicine, the demands on pathological diagnostics have increased, requiring standardized, quantitative, and integrated assessments of histomorphological and molecular pathological data. Great hopes are placed in artificial intelligence (AI) methods, which have demonstrated the ability to analyze complex clinical, histological, and molecular data for disease classification, biomarker quantification, and prognosis estimation. This paper provides an overview of the latest developments in pathology AI, discusses the limitations, particularly concerning the black box character of AI, and describes solutions to make decision processes more transparent using methods of so-called explainable AI (XAI).

Racism in the film The Little Mermaid: Assessing its impact on social media

The controversy surrounding the casting of Halle Bailey, a black actress, as Ariel in the live-action adaptation of "The Little Mermaid" has sparked discussions about racism and representation in the media. Some people have rejected the idea of a black actress playing the role of a character who was initially depicted as white. The controversy highlights the ongoing struggle for representation and diversity in the entertainment industry. This research aims to see how people respond to the film The Little Mermaid in real life with a black main character. The Little Mermaid, a Disney classic, has been controversial due to the casting of a Black actress, Halle Bailey, as Ariel in the upcoming live-action remake. Some people have refused to accept a Black actress like Ariel, which illustrates how a white-centric perspective requires a more profound understanding. The backlash against the movie has led to abysmal box office numbers in China and South Korea, showing the global reach of anti-Blackness. However, the importance of representation in media has been highlighted, and casting a Black actress as Ariel is seen as a positive step towards diversity and acceptance. The negative attention on The Little Mermaid has fueled a groundswell of support from other fans who view such anger as founded in racism.