All in The Game: Representations of Black male mental health in The Game

Presenter: Patrick Johnson

Presenter Status: Faculty

Academic Year: 22-23

Semester: Spring

Department: American Multicultural Studies

Funding Source/Sponsor: RSCAP

President's Strategic Plan Goal: Diversity and Social Justice

Abstract:
For nine seasons (2006-2015), The Game focused on the professional and personal lives of players on the fictional San Diego Sabers football team. In 2021, after an almost 7-year hiatus, The Game was revived on the Paramount+ streaming service. Two of the show’s original characters returned as series regulars, star quarterback Malik Wright and his mother/agent Tasha Mack. The show’s setting moved from San Diego to Las Vegas, with Malik now playing for the league’s newest franchise, the Las Vegas Fighting Fury. As Malik approaches retirement, he has his eyes set on becoming a part owner of the team. It is at this time that he starts seeing and talking to his best friend and former teammate, Caleb, who died after suffering a debilitating hit during his last high school football game. We are also introduced to a new character, Jamison Fields, a once promising high school football player who went to prison for three years. As an undrafted free agent, Jamison is fighting for a spot on the team and looking to rebuild his life. How Malik and Jamison process their individual traumas and the support they provide each other are dominant themes in The Game’s tenth season. While my analysis focuses on The Game’s representation of Black adult males and their struggles with mental health, I argue that this project has particular relevance to the nascent field of black boyhood studies. Both Malik and Jamison’s traumatic events occurred when they were in high school. Rather than framing their trauma as isolated to those single moments, The Game offers a glimpse into how the various forms of trauma that they experienced as boys informed the men they became. Identifying a dearth of work on Black boyhood outside of educational research, Drake (2016) points to the ways that Black boyhood is largely unimaginable within popular discourse and scholarship. She implores us to recognize that “Black boys are feeling, human beings who need love, nurturing, and encouragement just like boys of other racial groups who tend to be more easily seen as children” (p. 451). The Game offers a representation of the adult lives that can emerge when such support is absent, while also highlighting the ways Black men care for another, counteracting the various forms of neglect that they experience from institutions such as family, school, and the judicial system. Within the field of television studies, this project makes several interventions. My research contributes to a body of work on representations of Black men and Black masculinity on the small screen. Furthermore, this project makes a particular contribution to the growing scholarship on the work of The Game’s creator, Mara Brock Akil. Akil has created, written, and produced shows such as Girlfriends (2001-2008), Being Mary Jane (2013-2019), and Love is ___ (2018) (White & Harris, 2019). While scholars and critics have lauded Akil for her ability to capture nuances of Black women’s interior lives, her work in developing multi-dimensional Black male characters also deserves considerable attention (Tounsel, 2017). Finally, this work builds on existing work about representations of Black mental health on television, specifically those related to Black men (Luisi, Jones, & Luisi, 2020).