Critical Social Inquiry 0216 - Framing Blackness

In the 1970s artist Gil Scott Heron announced, "the revolution will not be televised." In the 1990s critic bell hooks observed a direct relationship between oppressive images via mass media and the maintenance of global white supremacy. And today, professor Jared Ball writes, "all that is popular is fraudulent." This course takes these perspectives into serious consideration while exploring the complex relationship between African Americans and the function of mass media in the United States in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Using an African American Studies interdisciplinary framework that incorporates political history as well as popular culture, this course begs the question of how media influences the perception of Black people in the U.S. and the world. Importantly, this course will also look at contemporary visionary efforts to challenge dominant stereotypic images of African Americans and communities of color in the media and their participation in current media justice efforts.

Power, Community and Social Justice Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research Students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time. This time includes reading, writing,group assignments and Mandatory Friday noontime film screenings.