Michael Jordan And The Pedagogy Of Desire Analysis

In “Be Like Mike? Michael Jordan and the Pedagogy of Desire,” Michael Eric Dyson explores Michael Jordan’s impact on African American culture and society. He discusses Michael Jordan’s success as an athlete calling him, “perhaps the best, and best known, athlete in the world today” (1). He also points out his role as a positive influence, and a success in both marketing and business, specifically referring to his impact in the “sneaker” world. The audience for this article is specifically African Americans. The writer makes comparisons to other successful people, all of whom are African American, including Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, and Muhammad Ali. The author argues that Jordan is the best known athlete in the world today and states that he has had an impact on African …show more content…
Michael Jordan and the Pedagogy of Desire by Michael Dyson is an interesting article about the effects Michael Jordan has had on society and African-American culture. The article however is not written in such a fashion that portrays the claim that Jordan is the “best and best-known athlete in the world today.”(1) Dyson does not use any credible sources to back up his claims throughout the article. The only source he uses is from Playboy Magazine but it is not a credible source at all. Dyson also contradicts himself throughout the article. He tries to explain to the reader that Jordan selling his image is a great thing for American society but then later in the article tells how Jordan’s shoe company is like the underground political world of the crack game. Dyson also tries to explain that Jordan has a squeaky clean image even though he has had some personal problems such as gambling. Dyson could have done a much better job explaining each of his claims and using more credible sources. His claim that Jordan has affected African-American culture isn’t even supported by Jordan himself for as Jordan has said that he “wishes to be viewed as person, neither white nor