Waiting for Superman: Neoliberal Educational Reform and the Craft of Filmic Direction

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Notes

From this point forward they are referred to as the directors of the Waiting for Superman cultural project.

Greater analytic attention is given to the concept of colorblind race relations below.

See also discussion of “reiterations” in Winant (2000).

There are multiple examples in the trailer and in the documentary itself. These will receive attention in subsequent work.

Black families are not the only subjects of the WFS cultural project. This article provides an analytical slice of the treatment black students and their families receive. Subsequent work will expand upon this analysis and link it to the attention and treatment of other racial communities in the WFS cultural project.

Dyson's critique is not specific to the educational system. Its pertinence here rests in its capacity to illuminate the particular ways that racist and exploitative institutional policy advocates appropriate the legacy and memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. See, for instance, the promise of “additional funds … for character education grants” in No Child Left Behind legislation.

Though many other arguments can be made about the WFS cultural project, we attend to the two identified here: (1) corporate control of public education is facilitated through the appropriation of civil rights era narratives around racial justice and integration, and (2) corporate control of public education is facilitated through the demonization of black youth.