Black Teachers Matter! Antiracist Pedagogies and Representations of Blackness in the Series Bel-Air (2022)

Abstract

Racism and structural racism are historical and social phenomena that manifest themselves in different ways and in different social contexts. In this article, an excerpt from an ongoing master's degree investigation, inserted in the field of Education, with post-structuralist biases whose emphasis falls on the theoretical perspective of Cultural Studies in Education, we are interested in understanding ways of composing anti-racist pedagogies and representations of blackness .To this end, episode number three, entitled Compromised, from the second season of the remake Bel-Air (2022) aired on the streaming platform Star Plus, was considered as empirical material. Authors such as: Munanga (2004), Fischer (2002), Kellner (2001), Wortmann (2001) and Hall (1997) are central to the arguments.The methodology used screen ethnography considering that a cultural analysis must relate the semiotic analysis of the text with the historical and socially situated meanings that emerge from ethnographic studies. A total of fifteen field diaries with scene captures were considered to compose the empirical material. The results indicate that the school environment can be a space of resistance, where students and teachers come together to challenge and, eventually, try to transform policies and practices that perpetuate racial exclusion.