NWA vs. Corrupt Cops

The relationship that the group NWA had with the cops is terrible. They would be called “niggers” every run in with the cops they had there was one black cop who said it too. Even if one of them was walking down the street a cop would go out of his way to harass and racially profile them into being a drug dealer. In one scene Ice Cube is walking home and there are cops outside his house slamming boys on the hoods of their car arresting them. They see him and with no hesitation grab him and slam him too and hand cuff him all while verbally harassing them. Ice Cubes mom comes out of the house and says how that is her son and one cop says, “lady get back in side or I promise you I will ruin your fucking night.” Another cop that is arresting Ice Cube says “this is LA PD I am the only gangster around here.” This is the cops and other higher powers suppressing the black people of Compton. There is racial profiling but also I think there is an aspect of cultural studies. The LA PD at this time is very racist to the people of Compton. Stuart Hall came up with cultural studies and our textbook says, “Hall wanted to liberate people from an unknowing acquiescence to the dominant ideology of the culture. … However, Hall placed less emphasis on rationality and more emphasis on resistance. As far as he was con- cerned, the truth of cultural studies is established by its ability to raise our con- sciousness of the media’s role in preserving the status quo” (p.340).

Word count — 278

References

Griffin, E. A., Ledbetter, A., & Sparks, G. G. (2014). A first look at communication theory. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.