Boyz n the Hood & The New Jim Crow
Not publishing this paper to bore you — give it a chance. I know it is a 90's movie, but some would argue cinema becomes more shallow every decade.
As African Americans continue to riot and protest because of “police brutality.” Many deeper issues have come to mind and this movie may help shed some light…
“Boyz n the Hood” is a portrayal of African American culture in an urban and suburban context; its themes include gender roles, femininity and masculinity, black-on-black violence, and the image and role of education in coming-of-age African Americans. The fact that this movie discusses so many different themes and develops the coming-of-age story of an individual, demonstrates the complexity and the endlessness of education in an individual’s life. Education is endless: it does not end within a classroom’s walls; and a classroom’s walls do not block outside factors from affecting a child’s education. The ‘New Jim Crow’ refers to the social norms and non official regulations and happenings that are factors of large amount of African Americans becoming segregated from the rest of society through imprisonment, and segregation.
Important ‘out of school factors’ that are shown in the film include: parental involvement, television watching, summer gain or loss, and others (Alexander, 1). These factors are important to look at because they allow for freedom and enslavement on both spectrums of society’s socioeconomic statuses. These factors can positively influence more affluent or privileged families, and they can negatively affect families that do not have the same affluence or commodities. “It is important that professionals understand and have some empathy for the emotional and family history dilemmas invariably associated with children with communication disorders” (Gargiulo, 387). In Boyz n the Hood, these factors are the factors that keep Tre and his neighborhood friends such as Dough Boy, Ricky, and Chris in danger and in dangerous environments of urban and suburban life. Their family values truly shape them and this is shown in the movie as they are portrayed before and after puberty. Tre, being raised by a strict father who was well-spoken and well-read influenced his personality and actions to contrast most of those people of his age in the South Central neighborhood that he lives in. The main characters: Ricky and Tre, are the exception to the neighborhood rule. They actually have ambitions and goals further from high school graduation and have not gotten involved in major fights or gotten arrested. Ricky does have a son at 17 years old and his character demonstrates the feminization of the African American black man as the stereotype athlete and only successful jewel of many minority families from urban backgrounds and low income homes. The neighborhoods’ youth is seen skipping school, drinking cheap liquor at a young age, and using violence numerous times to settle petty issues. Killing and shooting guns is a day-to-day event in their neighborhood. The teens in this environment are seen surviving a real violent battle to stay alive and “go somewhere.” While watching the film and seeing the real struggle that I have seen in my past in “bad” neighborhoods of San Juan, I could not help but think: “how do you get out and stay away from the ghetto, when you can’t leave the ghetto.” The environment around a child has an effect on all aspects of their development — it reflects on their academic performance. “Children can be at risk because of threats whether or not those threats actually materialize… Divorce, poverty, maltreatment, hunger, and many other factors can all place children at risk” (Sternberg, 142). All of these factors are present in Tre’s neighborhood and children are seen unsupervised and abused by negligence; Tre’s father is the only father figure of the film.
The reason why these factors affect their academic performance is because the students who are typically raised in such environments, as that mentioned above, do not have exposure to activities and concepts that challenge their cognitive skills until later on in life. Lower-ability students may not necessarily be the same as lower-exposure students; however, both of these should be held to the same standards by their teachers, but this does not commonly occur (Sternberg, 144). The ideal and expert teacher holds these students up to the same standards; however, most teachers receive a biased education and unknowingly expect less out of minority students and students with Limited English Proficiency. Because of this, multiple studies have shown that minority students graduate at much lower rates and have higher dropout rates and teen pregnancy rates as their white counterparts. One should not blame white teachers or white people in society for the misery of minorities; however, I believe the problem is that the white majority refuses to accept that there is an advantage and current status of segregation and separation of resources between them and most minorities in most urban areas of the United States.
The new Jim Crow is linked these factors because it is the epitome of a silenced and accepted racial barrier and colonial attitude. By colonial attitude, I mean that the social barriers placed on most African Americans and Hispanics have led them to become helpless and end up incarcerated or killed. Doughboy, in the film, ends up dropping out and going to jail, and this event seems to be a normal life event in the people of his neighborhood. Doughboy expresses that he wants to go to college and receive the attention that his brother Ricky has from superiors and his mother; however, he is always shown to remain in his porch with neighbors and friends and is almost always consuming cheap liquor. In the film the liquor is the symbol of what African Americans are given to remain content with their current life status. Being addicted to drugs and alcohol gives people this conformity; this is portrayed numerous times in the film. Addictions develop because people develop dependencies toward different substances due to what the physiological feeling that these substances provide; addictions are usually very complex and hard to break (Sternberg, 242). As the white majority that currently controls industry, economy, politics, and other areas that indirectly and directly influence the daily lives of Americans, the minorities adhere to standards and take in substances to block out the common social problems they deal with — then, they become blissfully unaware of all the disadvantages and injustices they conform to. “There are more African-Americans under correctional control today—in prison or jail, on probation or parole—than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began” (Alexander). This fact shows that the Jim Crow laws had everlasting effects even after reconstruction. The laws were still in effect in the early and mid 1800s, which was also the time of U.S imperialism in Latin America under the “Good Neighbor Policy” after the Roosevelt’s Monroe Doctrine. For me, it is shocking to find a comparable effect and relationship between white and black culture to that of the relationship and effects of the U.S’s Good Neighbor Policy in the 1800s and countries like Cuba, Guam, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico. I think this colonialism and imperialism stems from personal level of superiority that white culture and American culture holds. Furious, Tre’s father in the film, explains to some people from his neighborhood that “gentrification” is occurring. The white majority, property investors and real estate is purchasing properties to remove the African American demographic from that geographical area and inflating property value, later on reselling for a much more expensive price. The children of these environments, the children in these homes that encourage and ignore the negative effects of multiple media sources such as: television, radio, music, and the internet, are the same homes that use physical aggression for discipline; these are also homes of either government dependant parents, or hard working parents that do not have an education. These homes are allowing their kids to stay in a negative environment and are suffering from ‘majority rule’ and the New Jim Crow. The country’s majority complains if its students are not the best test takers or the best industry leaders of the world, but it does not encourage any real educational reform to benefit the disadvantaged minorities (Ravitch). Without raising awareness within this majority and understanding how the New Jim Crow is becoming part of the daily reality of the urban majorities in the U.S, American students and schools will continue to be the epitome of social failure, injustice, and inequality. True intelligent and influential leaders allow for true equality, which is an element that lacks in the lives of children like Tre.
There have been many solutions proposed to all the problems discussed above as they are portrayed in Boyz n the Hood. For me, it is important to point out that not all minorities in the United States live within such evident violence, nor do they have exposure to daily social discussions and social ills. However, it is important to note that the inequality gap is widening, and if the “richest nation on Earth” does not want to become socialist, or a land of aristocrats and corrupt beneficiaries of government reform, it must adhere to and open up to programs that encourage social equality and the existence of equal opportunities for all of America’s children. I personally believe that equal opportunity does not really have to include only educational opportunities and standards. I think equal opportunity should also include government financial and health aid. Being unhealthy and living in malnutrition does not help people; it inhibits them from performing to their best standards. Living in poverty takes people away from establishing goals and it makes them live in a day-to-day survival mode (Nieto). It is important for this country’s majority to see the reality of poverty and its crude effects. Trying to end poverty will not only allow for educational changes, because it is the only reason why the achievement gap is widening, this will also help with the effects of the New Jim Crow. Trying to change these effects should decrease African American presence in jails and the amount of people in jail, which in turn will allow for better family lives for children and more educated people.
Race relations and has allowed ethnic minorities of the United States to turn against themselves in all social classes and to compete between themselves in all aspects of life. This is negative for this country, and it shows a contradictory effect of what the utilitarian and deist Founding Fathers intended the Union to accomplish and what they believed the role of the union should be in the world. Americans must look back, ironically, to the times of slavery and how education and economy worked at the time. America society needs to stop being a society that “takes in” information, “takes in” what is handed to them, and “takes in” facts and existing standards. Education needs to teach children and future leaders to seek information, participate in government, and be aware of what is happening, like Tre’s parents teach him in the film. Awareness is equally important for the majority and the minority. Without awareness, information, and active participation the ignorance and negative effects of inequality for both ends of the spectrum will remain.
Sources
Alexander, Michelle. “The New Jim Crow” The New Press (2010). N.p. Web. 16 April 2014.
Costello, Robert. “Mass Incarceration is the New Jim Crow” Crime Law Social Change (2011): 53–55. Web. 16 April 2014.
Nieto, Sonia, and Patty Bode. Affirming Diversity — The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.
Ravitch, Diane. “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.”
Romanik, Dave. “Out-of-School Factors Affecting Academic Achievement.” Information Capsule Research Services. Vol 1004 (2010): 2–17. Web. 16 April 2014.
Sternberg, Williams. Educational Psychology. New Jearsey: Pearson, 2010. Print.
“United States History: The Good Neighbor Policy” United States History, n.d. Web. 16 April 2014.
