Boys, Boyz, Bois: An Ethics of Black Masculinity in Film and Popular Media

Boys, Boyz, Bois concerns questions of ethics, gender and race in popular American images, national discourse and cultural production by and about black men. The book proposes an ethics of masculinity, as ethnics refers to a system of morality and valuation and as ethics refers to a care of the self and ethical subject formation. The texts of analysis include recent films by black/African American filmmakers, gangsta rap and hip-hop and black star persona: texts ranging from Blaxploitation and New Black Cinema to contemporary music video to autobiography and the public image of Sidney Poitier. The book is a significant contribution to cultural studies and gender studies and critical race theory. What is distinctive about the book is the question of ethics as a question of race and gender.

About the Author

Keith Harris is an assistant professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts, School of Film and the Department of African American Studies at Ohio University. He completed his studies at the TISCH School of the Arts Department of Cinema Studies at New York University. Dr. Harris' primary research interests are in visual culture (media, film, television and video, especially) and gender and race and ethnical constructs of gender and race found in visual cultural production. Other secondary interests are Kantian ethics and aesthetics.