The Broken Lens: Equating Badness with Blackness Renders Latino Males Absent

ABSTRACT

At first glance, the Latino male condition may seem impervious to notions of blackness. Critical scrutiny of My Brother’s Keeper and the popular documentary Gang Wars: Oakland reveals otherwise. This theoretical article unveils how blackness is infused in the interpretation of Latino males via education policy and, in turn, how Latino males internalize this phenomenon in the construction of their identity, creating a cyclical process. Understanding this phenomenon aims to repair the broken lens that frames blackness as badness and, by extension, distorts the Latino male condition.

KEY WORDS:

• Critical social theory
• Latino males
• My Brother’s Keeper

Acknowledgments

Special acknowledgment is due to Drs. Patricia Baquedano-López and Michael Omi for providing important feedback in the development of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Weather reports are based on historical archives from Weather Decision Technology. http://wdtinc.com/2014/02/27/national-weather-summary-thursday-february-27-2014/.

² The term “Latino” represents a gender-specific term, referring to boys and men of Latin American descent; “Latina” refers to girls and women of Latin American descent; and “Latinx” represents a non-binary, gender-neutral term referencing Latin American ethnoracial identity broadly. I employ each term with respect to the context of the sentence.

³ The interview between President Obama and Noah McQueen is posted online via My Brother’s Keeper website. Visit the following link to view the full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnMCsxJjEd8.

⁴ The video introduces Javier Arango, and was designed for the Charities of the East Bay and Restaurative-Trauma Informed Practices (RTIPS). https://vimeo.com/87926540.