Pretty Little Liars
The above clip is provided to give those who are unfamiliar with the character of Nate/Lyndon James (he will be known as LJ for the rest of this page) a taste of his characterization. The scene above is from the last episode that he was involved in. He had an 8 episode arc (although he did not appear in everyone episode of those 8).
LJ is the first, and only, Black male character on Pretty Little Liars. He is one of two Black characters on the show (the other Black character was a young woman, Maya, who was also characterized in incredibly problematic and stereotypical ways but for the sake of space and time we will keep our focus on LJ) and is the darkest of all the characters of color. We emphasize the darkness of his skin because the argument can be made that for certain shows the darker the skin the more criminalized/evil the character (to take a note from Christensen we can look at a popular Disney film for an example of this. Jafar, the villainous character, is also the only character in the film to actually have physical traits that are immediately identifiable as “Middle Eastern”. To emphasize his evil nature the animators played up his “ethnicity”. The same happened with LJ on Pretty Little Liars).
LJ is the first, and only, Black male character on Pretty Little Liars. He is one of two Black characters on the show (the other Black character was a young woman, Maya, who was also characterized in incredibly problematic and stereotypical ways but for the sake of space and time we will keep our focus on LJ) and is the darkest of all the characters of color. We emphasize the darkness of his skin because the argument can be made that for certain shows the darker the skin the more criminalized/evil the character (to take a note from Christensen we can look at a popular Disney film for an example of this. Jafar, the villainous character, is also the only character in the film to actually have physical traits that are immediately identifiable as “Middle Eastern”. To emphasize his evil nature the animators played up his “ethnicity”. The same happened with LJ on Pretty Little Liars).
More Black death! There is a high tendency for Black death, particularly because Black folk are seen as inherently criminal and thus are targeted by Police, security guards, and citizens deputized by the White Supremacist/antiBlack society
Most of the analysis for LJ can be shared with the previous analyses made for Mercedes, when it comes to course connections. The fact of media as a medium for dominant ideologies, and thus a provider of a “secret education” is true for most mediated images. Instead of reiterating some of what was said on Mercedes’ page I would urge you to check out the Glee page if you haven’t already, or return to it if a refresher is needed.
For LJ our primary concern is the way in which his characterization completely explodes particular discourses laid forth by Raby as it pertains to adolescence. LJ, being a Black male, makes him inherently criminal in the eyes of an antiBlack, White supremacist, civil society. LJ, being an adolescent, also marks him as criminal (a “social problem” and “at-risk”) Raby notes that the discourse of “at-risk” tends to be “used to justify almost any technique of surveillance and social control of young people”. We are always made aware that Black youth, particularly Black male youth, also, just through the fact of their being, is used as a justification for society’s desire to constantly surveil* them. The combination of being a Black male and an adolescent causes a type of multiplication of the social problem and at-risk discourses that results in the characterization of a sociopathic young man whose main desire is sex (see: hypersexuality of Black males) or violent revenge on those who reject him. It would seem that LJ is motivated by no other objects than the ones listed previously. This characterization is utterly one-dimensional and is quite common when it comes to Black male youth (albeit the characterizations tend to be done somewhat differently with every incarnation but the motives are the same: sex or violence [sometimes both]).
*As noted in the caption beneath the second photo of LJ, not only are Black youth surveilled but the surveillance also all too often ends in gratuitous fatal violence. It's been found that in 2012 every 28 hours a police officer, security guard, or someone deputized by the ideologies of this society, murdered a Black body.