Black Pain, White Care: A BlackCrit Analysis of Black Masculinity and Therapy in Shrinking

Much like in real life, Black men are rarely depicted as therapy clients in the media. Media portrayals of therapy are often framed as progressive spaces for healing and emotional growth, yet when Black men are presented as clients these narratives often mask anti-Black power dynamics and historically stereotypical character tropes. Guided by Black Critical Theory and Black Masculinity, we analyze how race and masculinity influence the media representation of Black men in therapy through the character Sean in the Apple TV+ series Shrinking . Through reflexive thematic analysis, we identified two themes: Black Masculinity-Survival as Performance and White Saviorism. This study contributes to scholarship on Black masculinity and media representation by showing how therapeutic narratives can simultaneously humanize Black men while reinforcing anti-Black stereotypes and white saviorist approaches to care.