This week in class we watched “Boyz In The Hood,” Written and Directed by John Singleton. I had never seen the movie before, and I was a little uncertain of how I would like it, but I have to say that I really loved the movie, and the messages that I got from it. It was a movie that was written in a perspective that made you like all of the main characters in it for something, even if they did not do the greatest good in the film.
One of my favorite things about the movie was the friendship that Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his friends shared. I loved the way that they looked out for each other, and even though they may have had different lives, or saw things differently, they were still there for each other. They did not pass hateful judgement on one another for trivial things. One thing that I also found endearing was the way Doughboy (Ice Cube) always looked out for his brother Ricky (Morris Chestnut). Even towards the very end of the movie, when they get in a fight and Ricky and Tre leave to go to the store, Doughboy knows instantly when Ricky is in trouble. The audience is reminded throughout the film that they are half brothers, and their mom treats them differently because of it, but they do not let that get in the way of how they feel for each other.
What I am trying to say with all of this is that, all of the men in their circle of friends, see each other as equals. There is no prejudice towards one another. Tre is obviously better off than all of his friends in the film with his education, and the fact that he has a strong father figure to be a role model for him; however, he never acts like he is superior to them, or better than them. This also works in the reverse: Tre is never made to feel like he is not good enough to hang out with his friends because he is not like them (respectively). Doughboy and his brother are not treated equally when it comes to their mother. She favors Ricky over Doughboy, but all of their friends treat him equally.
One of my favorite scenes in the whole movie though, the one that truly got me thinking about all of this equality and prejudice, is the scene where Tre’s father Furious (Laurence Fishburne) brings Tre and Ricky to Compton to look at a sign. As he starts talking to them, a small crowd joins with them to listen to Furious talk about why there are gun stores and liquor stores on every street corner in the neighborhood, and Furious says they put them there because, “they want us to kill ourselves.” One of the young men listening to Furious talk says, in so many words, that if some guy drives by and comes at him to kill him, he is going to kill him as long as he doesn’t get killed first. Furious then says to the young man “that is what they want us to do. You have to think young brother, about your future.” The statistics were put on the screen at the very beginning of the movie that said most black men will be killed by each other, but the way Furious talks about it, it really moved me.
What it really got me thinking about was how a movie that is so full of equality amongst friends, and there is no prejudices against each other, and they do not let the little things get in the way of their relationship; yet, when it comes to their own race, there is a prejudice. It is evident from one of the very first scenes in the movie. Furious and Tre are waiting for the cops to show up at their house in the middle of the night, after they almost had a break in. When the two cops finally do show up, Officer Coffey, who is also African-American, acts superior to Furious and Tre. He is in a prejudice mind set that they are the stereotypical, no good people from Crenshaw. You can really see in this scene and near the end, when Officer Coffey pulls a gun on Tre, that he truly feels hatred towards his own race. At the beginning of the movie as well, when Tre goes up to teach the class and he comments on how everyone has originated from Africa, and the other little African-American boy refuses to be put in the same category as Tre. He does not want to acknowledge that they are the same race, and that they do come from the same place like everyone else in the world.
When Tre is older, and he goes to take some of the bar-b-que over to his dad, a car full of African-American men pull up and pull a gun on Tre for no reason at all. To scare him? Because he just happened to be in the street when they were driving by? It is this very hatred and prejudice that they have towards their own race that kills Ricky at the end of the movie, and two weeks later kills Doughboy as well. The thing that bothered me the most, is the group of men that killed Ricky. They felt so natural about killing someone of their own race, they were not bothered by it at all. In fact, they were out eating burgers and joking around with each other. They did not feel any sense of guilt for killing someone, or like Furious tells Tre at the beginning, “just would’ve contributed to the killing of another brother,” someone who is no different than a “brother” to them. Would Tre have killed Doughboy? Someone he considers is just like a brother to him? I don’t think so. So why, even though these two groups do not associate with one another, do they have to kill each other? That is the one thing that upset me the most about the movie: the violence and the hate toward towards people of the same race.
Tre and his girlfriend are the only ones in the movie, that we are told, go to Universities and become greater than the surroundings that they came from. The sad thing is that, Doughboy himself could have gone to college, and did something with his life as well, if he did not let his surroundings mold him and generate hate against his own race. He did not allow himself to “think about his future.” He allowed himself to follow into the stereotype that Officer Coffey thought of everyone in that whole community.
So how is it that these boys who have so much respect and equality for one another, yet when it comes to other people from their own race, they feel so much hatred and prejudice? Is it because they don’t know each other, or because they are from another area of the city? For so many years, when African-Americans were slaves, did they hate and murder each other? Maybe they did; however, I could not find anything in my research to prove that there were hate crimes towards each other or acts of "internal oppression," (as Ruth mentioned today) during that time. So why now? Why, after African-Americans fought so long for equality and to banish prejudice, do they turn on their own race with hatred and violence?
It was a wonderful movie that really got me thinking about prejudice and hate in a different way. I wish that they, the actors, filmmakers, and John Singleton would have addressed this idea in the film in a way to try and change what is happening, because it was the one thing that pained me to see. Especially knowing that their lives were depicted as true as possible. If there is to be any fresh start to ending racism and prejudice in the world today, with any race, nationality, and ethnicity, we all need to end the hate and prejudice towards our own race first before we can end it with others. However, I know that it will never happen, and I am just wishful thinking.
Sources:
All quotes are from the movie "Boyz N The Hood," Written and Directed by John Singleton
All images obtained from Google Images: http://images.themoviedb.org/backdrops/926/tt0101507_poster.jpg, http://hulkhatetimetravel.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/red-cay-boyznthehood.jpg, http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uEfetmBCL.jpg
Video is from YouTube
I think in the case of Doughboy he shows a lot of signs of internalized oppression, as you said with him falling into the stereotype. When placed side-by-side with Tre and Ricky they all had similar community experience but Tre and Ricky had supportive parents who told them they would make it out of the community. I think having someone to dispel internalized oppression in children when growing up amongst oppression could have a great effect on how they view themselves and others.
ReplyDeleteYou made a great outline of the film and showed a lot of the things that are endearing about the film while also displaying the messages about race. Great Job!
I loved your point of view and way of thinking.
ReplyDeleteAlso I loved your analyze of this film. I have watched this film two times and at the first time I belived that I had some distance from reality and the film itself. In my home country, we are not allowed having guns, so gun fight gives me a little distance. However, the second time I watched this movie in the class, I was really absorbed and terrified because now I understand it could be real. While I was watching the movie, I was sad because they were just young men and they should have a bright future but they were trapped in severe violence. Finally they killed each other and their life would never been replaced. We have to stop any kinds of violences in this planet. I am sorry for my poor English and I hope you can understand what I am trying to say. I loved your blog. Good luck ~ ^^
Nice job analyzing this film. It is a sad story, and it can be difficult to understand why the violence is directed so often towards other African Americans. I think Kala nails the difference that Singleton was trying to point out. Some young African American men growing up in environments like this don't have anyone - a parent, a teacher, a coach - who tells them throughout their life "You can be successful, you are smart, you can go to college." If no-one tells that to a child, the odds that they will believe it are slim to none.
ReplyDeleteAlso notice that the women in these situations are not violent. They do not kill each other (at least not a nearly the same rate). So there must also be something going on with the way masculinity is constructed for men, and Black men in particular.