Culture

While Black boys and men share the experiences of racism, prejudice, and bias throughout their lives, there is often an evolution of how this discrimination presents itself. While in older age, Black men are often not taken seriously or treated as professionals, Black youth are taken too seriously and not allowed to act like children.  In their youth, Black boys are disproportionately punished in academic settings and expected to mature much faster than their non-Black peers. They are treated with less patience and understanding of the concept that, as children, they will act playfully and make mistakes.  

In a 2024 study, UC Berkeley Professors Sean Darling-Hammond and Eric Ho found that Black students were 2.5 times more likely to face suspension in school than their white counterparts. Of course, the impacts of this pattern go far beyond academics and create a troubling mindset for overpunished Black children. They go on to have poor self-esteem, little interest, and, in turn, success in school, and turn to paths outside of education, sometimes leading to incarceration or other illegal and dangerous activity. 

While this problem is prominent, it is exacerbated by the media, which often shows the outcome of this overpunishment and racism faced by Black men, with violence and negative portrayals of them dominating the media. Rarely are positive stories of Black men succeeding despite the racism they faced and continue to face reported on. On the flip side of things, the violent acts and prejudice that Black men across the U.S. experience every day are underreported, as the attention usually goes to white people with similar experiences.

TikTok & Streaming Culture

TikTok and streaming culture as a whole contribute heavily to the way Black men are represented in the media, as most of the top creators like Kai Cenat, iShowSpeed, Duke Dennis, and more are Black men themselves. 

When asking Black men at UCLA about streaming culture and its implications for Black youth, we got this response:

“I think there are a few positive role models for Black boys; however, a lot of positive role models are overshadowed by not-so-positive media personalities. With TikTok and streaming culture, so many people are chasing a clip. So Black boys see creators such as Kai Cenat, Rakai, or iShowSpeed, they mimic everything they do, the good and the bad. I believe Kai Cenat is a somewhat positive role model, but still has some work to do. At the same time, it is unfortunate that Black men choose to look up to these creators, but at the same time, we don’t have that many people leading us in the right direction,” – Orlando Johnson, first-year UCLA student. 

If we as a community continue to label this type of content as entertaining rather than disreputable, it will be destructive for the development of Black boys. We must push content that allows Black boys to see that they can be more than what the media and content creators show them.

While streaming culture often promotes harmful content and behavior among young Black boys, it is ever-changing, and lately has been for the better. Recently, the two most popular streamers on Twitch, Kai Cenat and iShowSpeed, have pushed out content that influences young boys in an educational and positive way. 

Kai Cenat shared a video of him doing 20 minutes of reading on January 1st, 2026, to “improve the way that he speaks.” While to some this appears as performative or a way to gain positive attention and offset backlash from controversies he’s been involved in, it is bound to have an influence on his young, impressionable audience and encourage them to read books. 

iShowSpeed has recently begun a 28-day series in which he plans to visit 20 countries in Africa, immersing himself in the culture and activities of each place he visits. In doing so and publicizing his travels, he is debunking many of the stereotypes surrounding Africa and showcasing the diversity in culture, lifestyle, and people across the continent. For Black boys who are hearing about Africa at school only through the topic of slavery or if their peers bring up stereotypes, this publicity can be extremely influential and change the narrative.

The actions of Kai and iShowSpeed should not go unnoticed. We hope other creators will follow their wave and do the same in order to shed a more positive light on the way Black men are represented in entertainment and for impressionable Black boys.

Quarter Zips, Matcha, & Respectability Politics

When Black men exhibit behavior or participate in an activity that is viewed as unconventional and outside of the stereotype held for them, they tend to get a lot of attention, both online and in real-world settings. While some of this attention is positive or appears to be positive, much of it is sneakily negative. They continue to be labeled as “YNs,” and typically receive comments that are extremely backhanded and imply that what they are doing is outside of what is expected of them, even if it is something as simple as drinking matcha or wearing a certain type of shirt. Comments such as “professional YN,” “wholesome YN,” “cheerful YN,” etc., often flood the comment sections on these videos, with the abbreviation “YN” meaning “young n*gga.” Regardless of the word preceding YN.

In November, almost everyone opened TikTok to see the start of the “Quarter Zip Movement”. Black Men were shifting the narrative. They were no longer wearing Nike tech hoodie and sweatpants sets and ski masks; they were wearing quarter zips and drinking matcha. This movement has sparked conversation about Black men’s representation based on clothing and appearance. 

“The Quarter Zip movement is a rapid surge of respectability politics that tells Black boys and men that if you drink matcha and wear a quarter zip, then you’re a respectable human being; if you don’t, you’re seen as a YN,” Tehilah Favour Ofumbi, UCLA Student.

Jason Gyamfi, Founder of the Quarter Zip Movement says that the entire point of the movement is to allow Black men to feel comfortable in “trying new things, expanding your palette, and expanding your horizons of what it is to live this life, coming from a neighborhood where I live these things [matcha and quarter zips] are not something you see on a day-to-day basis” He goes further by mentioning how beautiful it is to see Black Men who are often subjected to stereotypes feel good about themselves and do things such as putting on a suit for the first time. He ends the video on a powerful note, saying that: “The man makes the clothes. The clothes do not make the man. It was never about clothing.”

Black Suffering Goes Unnoticed

While the media is full of content that displays Black boys and men in negative ways, we almost never see when they suffer, especially at the hands of white rage. On December 31st, a Black man by the name of Keith Porter Jr. was murdered by an off-duty ICE agent. Porter was shot outside his home after firing one gunshot into the air, his way of ringing in the New Year. A resident in his apartment complex just so happened to be an ICE agent, and he decided to take matters into his own hands by murdering Porter.

What makes this situation worse is that Porter’s death was not uncovered until days later. Black Lives Matter Los Angeles Chapter reported this information to Instagram on January 2nd, when it should have been reported immediately after it happened. Additionally, Porter’s murder has not received any mainstream media coverage, unlike the murder of  Renée Nicole Good, who was shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Porter is human just like Renée Good, but his Blackness creates a discrepancy in how their stories are reported and characterized. 

Porter was a father, son, worker, and beloved community member. However, as a Black man, his suffering went unnoticed until Black Lives Matter Los Angeles brought it to light. We stand with BLM Los Angeles in their demands to “release the name of the agent who murdered Porter,  arrest the agent, cease all character assistantion, and abolish ICE”. Furthermore, we demand accountability and action. We demand that Porter’s story and all those similar all be treated with the same attention and humility as others.

Black men and Black people in general are also underreported in cases where they are missing or in danger. The most recent example that we have seen of this, although new, and old cases are brought to the news every day, is the case of Sam Beal. Beal is 29 years old and a former player for the New York Giants and has been missing for seven months, although his story has only been publicized by major news pages as of January 12, 2026.

If Beal, a Black man in a profession with a lot of publicity, can have his case go unreported on for seven months, imagine how long it takes Black men who aren’t well known publicly to get their stories out and get the resources they need to be safe. For both Beal and every other Black man who is missing, we can only wish and make efforts to ensure that their stories are reported on in a timely manner to maximize the chance of them returning home safely. 

Black Success Goes Unnoticed Too

Black men are not a monolith. We know there are Black boys and men doing great things in the world; we are not just aware or informed. Despite making up small percentages, we know that Black men are doctors, lawyers, and community activists. A Black man was president of the United States. However, these positive figures are overshadowed by society’s perceptions of Black men being only able to reach success as athletes or entertainers, or only being seen as a thug or criminal. 

Mitchell Stevens, a 4th-year UCLA student and member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, Gamma Xi Chapter, gave Nommo his thoughts about Black men’s representation in the media and how Black men’s success is overshadowed by negative perceptions 

“When I think of Black men’s representation in the media, I really just think of Black men being visible. What does it mean to see somebody who looks like you in spaces the world tells us we aren’t meant or fit to be in. Now I believe the problems themselves lie with the narrative written on centuries of perceptions built about our people. We can’t inherently change the structure of stereotypes that group Black Men in what seems like an impenetrable bubble. But we can change the nature of what we continue to do as Black men and more importantly how we show up for each other. 

I think creating spaces, whether that’s in the media, on campus, in the community, where Black men SEE each other is where our power and strength are fostered. With the work of my organization, the Gamma Xi Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, we work to build these spaces that otherwise weren’t there. That’s a part of the entire founding of my fraternity: a space created for and by Black Men. 

To build upon our respective strengths. One of our notable programs, Barbershop Talks, does just that. A ‘Barbershop’ experience is tailored for Black men to come into a space with other Black men, contribute to meaningful dialogue related to our respective experiences and get a free haircut. And that’s only a glimpse honestly. We as Black Men are very powerful and have that much more unforeseen power together. When we see each other, we dismantle every narrative that said we wouldn’t. It’s living proof that the stereotypes never told the full story.”

As a community, we should be amplifying the stories of the groups and organizations that are putting in the hard work to give back and shift the narrative.

Algorithms 

Nommo Newsmagazine created a survey to gauge UCLA students’ and the community’s opinions about how Black boys and men are represented in the media. We then shared this data with Dr. Tanksley, UCLA Education and Information Studies Graduate School Alumna, and a researcher who studies young people’s experiences and perceptions of artificial intelligence and its role in education and the media. Here are her thoughts: 

“These student responses confirm what decades of scholarship in race and media studies have been saying: the media ecosystem is rife with anti-black misandry, not because these depictions of Black men and boys are true, but because the dissemination of these images plays a key role in the maintenance of the violent and inequitable racial status quo.

Importantly, the students’ responses overwhelmingly highlight the personal and individual level harms – that black boys can internalize and ‘buy in’ to these images, which can have a host of socioemotional, psychological and academic effects. 

This, however, is just the beginning of the discussion. It’s important to recognize these micro level aberrations as canaries in the mines – the first warning signs that there is a deeper, more toxic, more far reaching threat lurking just beneath the surface. Images of black boys as unable, unwilling and uninterested in education; as inherently criminal and culturally deviant; and hyper sexual, hyper violent ‘super predators’ – is used to justify their horrific treatment in schools, in employment scenarios, in public spaces, and in society writ large. When we see our Black boys killed in the streets for laughing, playing, dancing, eating snacks, singing, its easier for the public to justify these as heinous and senseless acts of violence because ‘they probably deserved it.’

I also want to note that invisible apparatus that’s behind these images: 

A contract was uncovered that showed the private prisons purchased by a company – Vanguard – required its prisons to maintain a 90% occupancy rate, regardless of what the crime rates were. So even though crime rates in the US have remained stagnant for years, Black people have been continually funneled into prison systems at exponential rates – at one point, the rates of incarceration had quadrupled despite flattened crime rates

How can rampant imprisonment be justified to the public if the public isn’t committing more crimes? Without a believable narrative, people would question these corrupt practices and perhaps even organize against mass incarceration on a national scale. This is where the stereotypes of Black people as aggressive, violent, and inherently criminal come in. 

The same company that owns a majority of US private prisons as well as juvenile detention centers – all of which have an overrepresentation of Black inmates inside – also own the news stations and television channels depicting Black people as violent, aggressive, hostile. So they create and disseminate the narrative of Black aggression and criminality that allows them to corral and cage Black bodies into prisons. 

Keep in mind that the 13th Amendment didn’t completely abolish slavery; it abolished slavery outside of US prisons. This means that Black folks can still be yoked, chained, and brutalized into completing free or low-wage labor for white-owned corporations – just like they were slaves on Antebellum plantations and as sharecroppers during reconstruction – as long as they are placed into US prisons. 

Finally, private prisons are one of the leading sources of profit for the US. It’s where our ‘made in the US’ products are assembled. Because these products are assembled by inmates, they do not have to be paid livable wages. Inmates make a few dollars a day – if they are even paid – and then the companies sell these assembled products at retail price and make millions. 

This is the prison industrial complex at work, and it is made possible – in large part – by stock narratives about Black people in general, and Black boys and men in particular – that society internalizes as fact.

I want to end by saying that, we know that Black youth constantly challenge, critique and struggle against racist depictions of themselves in the media. So it would be incorrect for readers of this article to assume that the reason black boys continue to struggle academically in school, enroll and attend college in lower rates, suffer stifling unemployment rates, are arrested and contacted by law enforcement at disproportionately high rates, etc. is simply because the boys buy into and subsequently embody these problematic tropes. Though tempting to assume, this rationale simply shifts blame away from the systems of white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism and anti-blackness that creates and sustains this violence, and places it back on Black boys. We need to keep our eye on the true culprit: systemic racism. 

And in order to do so, we must all continue to cultivate our critical media and digital literacies! We also need more positive, nuanced and expansive representations of Black boys/men in media – stories of joy, friendship, love, queerness, perseverance, etc. And even though we are constantly told that ‘there’s no audience for these stories’ or ‘Black boys and men don’t want those stories’ – the data in this study proves that wrong.” 

Conclusion + Writer’s Opinion

The stories of Black people have long been warped by the media, whether it be in history books about the enslavement of Black people, movies and TV perpetuating harmful stereotypes, or news stories reporting inaccurately to promote a narrative. While it is greatly disappointing to see these patterns of misrepresentation still booming in 2026, it is unfortunately not shocking, and many have become desensitized to it. However, it is important that we reverse this desensitization to the best of our abilities, stay emotional, stay passionate, and stay active. Change cannot be made without the presence of passion and the emotion that motivates it. As exhausting as it is, we must remain sensitive to prevent the misrepresentation from being normalized further, and continue working toward efforts to accurately shed light on the stories of Black people.

CONSUMPTION

We curated another list of media outlets that focus on uplifting Black men and the community at large. This list was put together by Nommo Staff and recommendations from our survey. 

Instagram 

• @blackwealthcrew
• @becauseofthem 
• @capitalbnews 
• @ebonyarchival
• @sbrnla
• @blavity
• @thegrio
• @wearepushblack
• @afrotech
• @goodblacknews
• @essence
• @thejaampod

YouTube Channels

• In Class with Carr
• NPR Code Switch

Misc

• Grits & Eggs Podcast