To begin, Tre learns to display loyalty to his family from his father. Black men are stereotyped as not wanting to work and having an inability to care for their children or their families. However, Furious seeks to prove this as a myth. The film illustrates Furious’s dedication to raising his son to be a respectable young man and provide for him. Not only does he instill self-responsibility in Tre but also, communal responsibility. Tre learns
Society is faced with various problems that hinder the development of its communities. These issues affect the society in a numerous of ways and has a major effect on the citizens of the community as well. Social adversities causes grief and is also the cause of crimes and other miscellaneous activities that occur in inequitable areas. In the film, Fruitvale Station, there are abundant amounts of these adversities and societal issues that are illustrated. Fruitvale Station is a great example of a film that shows accurate social issues that occur in today’s society. The movie demonstrates issues of inequality, racial prejudice, gang involvement and also unemployment. It also shows how the people who are forced to live with these issues, fight for survival to maintain to see another day.
The West side of Chicago, Harlem, Watts, Roxbury, and Detroit. What do all of these areas have in common? These areas, along with many others have become mine fields for the explosive issues of race, values, and community responsibility, led by the plight of the urban underclass. Issues such as violent crime, social separation, welfare dependence, drug wars, and unemployment all play a major role in the plight of American inner-city life. Alex Kotlowitz's book: There Are No Children Here, confronts America's devastated urban life; a most painful issue in America. Kotlowitz traces the lives of two black boys; 10 year old LaFayette, and 7 year old Pharoah, as they struggle to beat the odds growing up in one of Chicago's worst housing projects. Their family includes a welfare dependent mother, an alcholic-drug using father, an older sister, an older brother, and younger triplets. Kotlowoitz describes the horrors of an ill-maintained housing project completely taken over by gangs, where murders and shootings are an everyday thing. Kotlowitz does a fine job at portraying ghetto life; those who are outside the American dream. He succeeds at putting a face on th people trapped inside the housing projects with virtually no hope of escape. One can truly feel a sense of great loss for the family, and a great deal of hope for the two young boys. You can truly feel yourself hoping that things will work out for them, and you can really feel like you know these young men on a personal basis. Kotlowotz spent a great deal of time with the boys so he could portray the world from the eyes of a child growing up in the ghetto, and he does an amazing job.
John Singleton’s 1991 film Boyz n the Hood is a portrayal of a struggling black community in South Central, California. The film most closely follows the lives of Tre, Doughboy and his brother Ricky, all of which are young black men who are presumed to be in their senior year of high school. While the 1990’s may have been a time of economic prosperity for the masses, the underbelly of the country struggled. The film aims to carve out a place for the strife of black communities in the cinematic canon by shedding light on the urban landscape that traps its inhabitants. This exploration of the myth of upward mobility is intertwined with a multitude of issues that affected black America at the time. Through plot and symbolism, Singleton poignantly touches on all these subjects. However, I offer the criticism that he should have simply picked one or two of these issues instead of trying to cram them all into one film.
The film Boyz in the Hood opens with the kids that will be followed throughout the movie. It is foreshadowing of the events that will follow them all their lives. Ricky and Doughboy are without a father and having committed a crime, are on th...
James Garbarino (1999) discusses the boys who are lost and ways that they can learn to see again in his book Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them. He takes an in depth look at what he calls the "epidemic of youth violence" in America in order to determine its causes and origins. By gaining an understanding of the problem, Garbarino hopes to be able to ascertain some sort of solution. He provides useful advice and insight about steps we as a society can take to ensure our boys do not become lost. In order to develop Garbarino’s ideas in my mind, I thought it would be interesting to apply some of his points he makes in his book to a case. I chose to write on the two main characters, Derek and Danny, in the movie American History X. I will provide a brief summary of the movie, followed by an extensive examination of the characters, using Lost Boys as a critical lens. First I will discuss the importance of viewing the boys lives in their entirety rather that isolating one incident. I will then look at the risk factors and the racial implications involved in Derek and Danny’s life. The next two sections will focus on the lack of a father figure and the powerful influence Derek has as a result of the absence of a father. Then I devote a short section to Garbarino’s idea of affirmation instead of discrimination and how this could have helped Derek and Danny. Before concluding, I take into account psychologist James Gilligan’s ideas on violence and how they apply to this case. In my conclusion, I look at Garbarin...
The main protagonist of the film, Scotty Smalls, is introduced as a straight-A, friendless young boy who has just moved into a new neighborhood in new state. While
New Jack City, noted as ‘the crime film of the 90’s’,serves as an important episode for African-American people in America. Set in New York city, the film depicts the story of a success-driven antagonist Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) who builds an empire powered by organized crime, drug trafficking, and Black delinquent young adults trapped in the cycle of crime. Ronald Reagan’s economic policy coupled with the popularity of crack-cocaine in the inner city creates inconsistencies and untapped markets in the poor community which Nino Brown brilliantly capitalizes on and exploits. His empire is able to successfully cut out the middle men in the drug trafficking market and centralize their operation in a single low-income housing complex inhabited
All in all, Boyz N’ the Hood seems to be the epitome of deviance and social control examples. The whole premise of the movie relies upon it. Through the various theories such as: Differential association, Control-bond theory, Labeling theory, Rational-choice theory, and the Strain theory Boyz N’ the Hood can be seen through a new scope. Certain aspects of the film become more apparent when compared to just watching the film for entertainment.
Boyz N the Hood was a film created to convey an anti-gang message as well as to provide societal members an in-depth look at life in “the hood” so he or she can expand their culturally awareness of identifying societal issues (Stevenson, 1991). Upon the debut of “Boyz N the Hood” violence erupted at theaters across the nation, resulting in multiple shows pulling the film from scheduled showings to alleviate future violent behaviors (Stevenson, 1991). The film profoundly illustrates the realty of the events revealed within the storyline that frequently occur on a daily basis within every impoverish community; however, is overlooked by the individuals who are not directly involved and or affected (Leon-Guerrero, 2016) Children of lower socioeconomic status often are raised in ghetto neighborhoods where they often witness, crime, violence, gang activity, abuse, and drugs (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). Ghetto communities envelop tumultuous cycles of violence and substance abuse creating a pervasive occurrence within the residents of the community. This is prevalent in lower developed communities that unfortunately many children and the youth populace indirectly inherit and sadly conform to, as there are no other means to an end for them (Leon-Guerrero,
The film that interested me for this assignment was “Boyz n the Hood”. The movie was about a Los Angeles neighborhood expanding of drug and gang culture, with increasingly tragic results. It was about how one teen had family support to guide him on the right path in life regarding the social problems around him. The other two teens in the film wasn’t as fortunate and fell into the social problems of drugs, violence, and gangs; where one ended up dead.
Negus, Keith. "The Business of Rap: Between the Street and the Executive Suite." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 525-540. Print.
Ellis, B.J., et al. 2003. Does father absence place daughters at special risk for early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy? Child Development 74(May/June):801-821.
King, Ryan D., Steven. F Messner, Robert D. Baller. 2009. “Contemporary Hate Crimes, Law Enforcement and the Legacy of Racial Violence.” American Sociological Association. 74: 291-315.
Jeffries, M. P. (2011). Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-hop. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.