Race in American Film: Voices and Visions That Shaped a Nation, 2017
Soul Man is a satirical comedy about an American white male college student who disguises himself as a black man in order to qualify for a race-based scholarship to Harvard Law School. Hence the film’s tagline: “He didn’t give up, he got down.” Akin to a coming of age story, the movie takes place over a college semester in which the white protagonist, donning blackface, learns more about himself and gains a critical consciousness of race relations in American culture.