Media Experiment: A Lesson from Boyz In The Hood
What Furious Style taught me about Gentrification.
While immersed in deep thought about my research study of gentrification and displacement, I remembered the term gentrification was not first introduced to me in Baltimore City. I actually first heard the concept used when I was a child watching the movie Boyz in the Hood. If you have seen this movie, you most likely know which scene I am talking about. It the scene where Furious Style takes his son, Tre Style, and his son friend, Ricky Baker, to view a billboard in a near by neighborhood advertising to offer up money to buy their homes. I often seen sign like that before but it was not until this very moment, as I watched that movie clip, that I realized I have only seen these signs displayed in low income neighborhoods. In this movie clip, Furious explains why this advertisement exists in Black/African American neighborhoods.
When Tre and Ricky fail to interprets the billboard message, Furious reveals that the sign is the beginnings to the process of gentrification. Furious states, “It called gentrification, it happens when property value of a certain area is brought down…they bring the property value down [so] they can buy the land at a lower price. Then they move all the people out, raise the property value, and sell at a profit”. The purpose of his lecture was to educate the youth about gentrification and expose the symbolic violence of capitalist dominance over Black/African American neighborhoods. He accuses the racism within our capitalist structure of our society of assisting the genocide of Black/African American individuals.
To prevent gentrification he advocates to empower Black/African American communities by buying only from Black ownership's for the money can come back to their communities. He also urges young Black/African American individuals to educate themselves to stop the pattern of violence in their neighborhood and see through capitalism illusions, such as, the billboard.
