In the earlier years of the 1990s, African American directors such as John Singleton and Hughes Brothers seemed to focus on race. More importantly the statistics of the majority of African Americans and life within their community. These statistics include, “at least 56 percent of black families headed by a woman, 45 percent of black children living below the poverty line, and black unemployment generally tripling the rate of white unemployment.” (Quart 197). It was these figures that inspired the largest movements about African Americans since the 1970s. A couple of these movies are Boyz N’ the Hood and Menace II Society. The issue was that instead of the message of struggles in inner-city life, black history and heritage, and necessity for
The film Boyz ‘n the Hood, directed by John Singleton is more than just a Hollywood blockbuster. The film incorporates numerous criminological theories and also demonstrates the concepts of conformity and deviance. This paper will analyze the characters of Tre, Ricky, Doughboy, Furious and other friends and family and show how criminological theories and the concepts of conformity and deviance play a part in their lives.
“Boyz n the hood” takes place in South Central Los Angeles in 1984. The main actors in the movie are Cuba Gooding Jr as Tre, Morris Chestnut as Ricky, and Ice Cube as Doughboy. In the beginning of the movie it says, “One out of twenty-one Black American males will be murdered in their lifetime” followed by “Most will die at the hands of another black male”. Later it shows the main characters in the movie Tre, Ricky and Doughboy as kids each of them having plans in life. Ricky’s dream is to become a football player and Tre going to college and doughboy still not deciding what he wants to do in life.
What if I told you that I know the outcome of your life and where you will end up before you even know it? Wouldn’t you be scared? See for a regular person who has a supporting family around them this question will almost feel almost like a death sentence. Nobody wants anyone to judge them before they even go through life on what they will end up being.
Throughout the 1992 film, “Boyz in the Hood,” John Singleton takes a closer look at urban black America in South Central Los Angeles. Doughboy, Ricky and Trey, along with their parents are chronicled from childhood to adulthood. Each person, though living in the same neighborhood chooses different paths in life. These characters were raised in a very deviant community, however there were many causes as to why they did not all become deviant. Deviance is defined as behavior that goes against what is socially acceptable. It is when a person disregards what is normal in a specific society and acts upon it. Throughout the movie these characters had many chances to engage in deviant behavior, as some did while
In the 1991 drama “Boyz in the Hood”, Written and Directed by John Singleton. He successfully attempts to portray what life was like and in some areas in America still is for African Americans living in a rough Los Angeles neighborhood. It displays a portrait of the harsh realities that plagues the black community and by displaying uninviting living conditions that is South Central L.A, Singleton aims to share to the world the self-destructive deviant behavior that is to this day, destroying the African American community. Some of the self-destructive deviant behaviors include gang life, selling drugs, and gun violence. Various issues are displayed in this movie involving the black community including deviance, poverty, gentrification, the importance of a father in a young man’s life and black on black crime. Singleton displays a tale of three friends growing up in the “hood”, plagued by drugs and violence and layers textures over rough and compelling visuals of black culture that shows us what it means to come to maturity, or die trying, as a black male. In this essay, I will be giving a thorough analysis of the film, as well as covering certain points from the movie from a sociological perspective to explain why singleton chose to write this film.
Within the content of this paper, I will be describing the four theories learned from the readings this week. The theory’s that will be covered are Racial Identity Theory, Social Capital Theory, Critical Race Theory, and what Cultural Competency is. I will also provide examples of each theory along with a brief video and movie clips to further demonstrate my comprehension.
Criminological theories have evolved considerably in terms of their interpretations of crime and deviance. Shifting away from the classical and neoclassical schools of criminology, we move towards a scientific approach that explains criminal behaviour as “determined by biological, psychological and social” (William & McShane, 2018: 25) factors. The question of what causes conformity and deviance is one that is asked by all positivist theorists. It is through the various positivist theories that we are able to answer this question and analyze both conforming and deviant behaviour, while simultaneously providing explanations for such behaviour. In the film Boyz N the Hood, we can see that crime is rampant, and through the multiple positivist
The characters: Tre Styles and Mookie are two young African-Americans in the films “Boyz N The Hood” and “Do The Right Thing” respectively. Both films were released around the same time period, with DO THE RIGHT THING being released in 1989, and BOYZ N THE HOOD in 1991. Both films are coming of age tales for Tre and Mookie, they both reside in a low-income, predominantly black neighborhood. Both films share a common theme: the idea of hopelessness and survival as a young black male in the “hood.” Both men are a product of what can only be described as “urban decay;” they are trying to find their place in a society that doesn’t care much for their well being or success. BOYZ N THE HOOD and DO THE RIGHT THING have a common
In this paper, I will analysis the film Boyz N the Hood based on and around the criminology concept of the General Strain Theory. The film Boyz N the Hood depicts a story about an African-American boy growing up in “the hood” of South Central LA. South Central is a place where on average 1 out of 21 African American men will be die as a result of “the streets”. African Americans within the African-American community are more susceptible to becoming a casualty to gang affiliation and violence. If a person makes the wrong choices in life or even if they are faced with the right circumstances that force this person to join a gang their likelihood of dying as a result dramatically increases.
“Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood” was directed and released by Paris Barclay in 1996. “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood” is an American comedy that tells the story of how Ashtray moved in with his father in the inner city of Los Angeles. Once he is settled in, he is reunited with his pot smoking grandmother and his nuclear armed cousin, Loc Dog. Through this union Ashtray is introduced to different situations that are generally associated to black people. This includes “the man”, gang violence, and police brutality. Though “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood” is meant to be a comedy it really satires stereotypes placed on
According to Tukachinsky, Mastro, and Yarchi, prior to 1930, the role of Blacks on screen were seen involving mostly in criminality and idleness (540). That role still persists until the present, with Blacks usually have to withstand to “longstanding and unfavorable media stereotypes including sexually provocative females and aggressive male thugs” (Tukachinsky 540). 1970’s movies such as The Mack, Black Caesar and Coffy have reinforced this stereotypic image of the black community. The
Some challenges between anti-social behaviors and geographic are evident in the film Boyz n the Hood. It a 90’s films created by John Singleton, about a boy Tre styles who is sent to live with his father Furious styles in South Central Los Angeles after he got into a fight at school. At his father 's house, he is taught morals and values of being a respected man. On the other hand, his friends Ricky and Doughboy who are half-brothers has a different upbringing with no real support system, resulting in forming a gang, involvement with drugs and a tragic ending. This film is based on the African American experience in terms of environmental conditions which results in a great deal of African American males being pushed into the criminal justice system.
John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood is an American teen drama film released in 1991 that focuses on three black teens who live in the dangerous neighbourhood of Crenshaw, Los Angeles. The main characters Doughboy, his half-brother Ricky, and their friend Tre grow up together but meet drastically different fates as young adults. As Swanson (2011) points out, it is important to understand the tension within black communities in Los Angeles at the time of the film’s release; the Rodney King beating had taken place only months before and LA’s gang wars were reaching a peak. As a Los Angeles native, Singleton’s goal with the film was to alert people about the situation around them, as he said: “I couldn’t rhyme. I wasn’t a rapper. So I made this movie” (Swanson 2011). To reflect the environment as accurately as possible, the film was shot on the streets of South Los Angeles, so the crew was just as on edge as their characters would be; there were even threats of gun violence from local gang members.
Hood: slang for neighborhood or black area/life. Before 1991 this concept of hood life was never before portrayed or looked into until John Singleton produced the black social drama Boyz N the Hood. This is the first film by a black director that actually goes deep inside the ghetto or inner city. Singleton carefully directs this film so that it appears to mirror the real world “having value as a kind of anthropological study of an unfamiliar way of life'; (Thompson 2).
The amount of black cinema breaking through at that time is astonishing. Hip-hop, and white audiences’ interest in it, fed into the movement. Rappers and musicians transitioned into film as actors like actresses Ice Cube, Ice-T, Tupac Shakur, Queen Latifah Janet Jackson. It wasn’t just youthful “hood dramas”, Black Cinema changed television. Black tv show series came out starting mainly in the 90 such as Moesha, A Different World, Family Matters, Kenan and Kel, Martin, Queen Latifah’s Living Single, Sister Sister and Malcolm & Eddie, In Living Color, The Fresh prince of bel air and