“Our art is a
reflection of our reality”[1]
To what
extent do the representations of black people in 'Straight Outta Compton' reinforce negative stereotypes?
‘Straight Outta
Compton’ was one of the most successful movies
in 2015 and received so many good reviews. However just once when we thought
stereotyping was unacceptable in society as the African American community have
been through a lot in the past years in the US such as the police brutality
situations as many black lives have been taken due to police stereotyping them
and believing they are guilty while they are actually innocent. Still a large
amount of African Americans actors plays criminal roles in Hollywood fuels the
racial stereotype that black men are dangerous and have zero respect for the law.
Example of this is films like “Menace to Society” and “Boyz in The Hood” they
all showed young black males dealing drugs, stealing and gang violence. Also
disrespecting women, swearing and killing each other these are the main factors
in many movies starring African Americans. We need to what stereotypes are and
how they are formed "Stereotypes are like fictions they are created to
serve as substitutions, standing in for what’s is real"[2] stereotypes
are gathered by thoughts, beliefs and reality through individuals then
generalised to the rest of the race or gender. So in this essay I will be
discussing to what already formed stereotypes of black males are reinforced to
the film Straight out of Compton.
‘Straight
Outta Compton’ is a bio-pic about
the rise and fall of the very successful and controversial rap group NWA. The
film showed the audience the beginning of how the group came together, then
their success from their album and tour and then their fallout over contracts
and alter egos in the group. This links to Todorov theory of narrative where
the film has an equilibrium, then a disequilibrium and then a new equilibrium. The
film director F Gray Gray was black and the producers were NWA members
themselves Ice Cube and Dr Dre so the film tried to portray everyone in a fair
way while telling the truth about what happened. "Compton, California, was
some of the most dangerous places in the country. When five young men
translated their experiences growing up into brutally honest music" NWA
are the “godfathers of gangster rap”[3] as
they said whatever they wanted on a song without thinking about the consequence
with great flow and amazing rhymes. “The rap group’s 1988 album ‘Straight Outta Compton’ seared into
popular culture with their lyrics expressing an underclass’s rage and
alienation: “See I don’t give a fuck, that’s the problem/I see a motherfucking
cop, I don’t dodge him.”[4]
They were the voice of the voiceless as the
ghetto areas in America were huge fans of them as they understood them and
could relate to what they were rapping; even young white people were fans. As
what they say in their raps are about drugs, partying, police brutality, girls,
money etc. Their fan base grew but so did their hate club as “they received a
letter from the FBI, declaring that their music encourages violence against law
enforcement and requests them to stop”[5]. Then
there were protests in some cities from civilians crushing their album saying
that they would not let them perform in their city. They got even more
publicity in 1991 where a footage of an innocent black male, named Rodney King,
getting beaten by 4 police officers made it to local news stations and national
news stations. As they were always talking about this topic in their raps “Ice
Cube rapping "F**k tha police/A young ni**a got it bad cause I'm brown/And
not the other colour so police think/They have the authority to kill a minority”[6]. Then
people started giving them more recognition and asked them for interviews. Then
when the 4 police officers were found not guilty LA black males and females
started rioting and looting in LA.
They are seen to be the most influential group
ever as their music affected a lot of people. It’s an eye opener for many as
these men go on to live the American dream of fame and money. It’s also a rags
to riches story as they grew up in the ghetto however they go to eat lobster in
fancy hotels. However, I believe that some scenes exaggerated to make the film
more entertaining and please the viewers as “One feature of ethnic
representation in the western media is the gradual disappearance of crude
stereotypes and demeaning representations of "black people”[7].
This tells us that the stereotypes of black’s males are the same for them as
they represented them in a negative and demeaning way for narrative pleasures. This
links to dyer’s theory of those with power stereotype those with less power so
in this case it’s the media, producers and directors of these black urban
films. They are probably white middle aged and middle classed men who
represented them negatively in films to get a better storyline. Many Hollywood
films have the villains as foreign people and also violent or drug dealers are
played by black American males.
The film is an urban drama so it contains sad moments,
funny moments and action moments as the film is explicit and contains strong
language but the primary audience would have been black males mostly and black females.
“46% African American, 23% Caucasian, 21% Hispanic, 4% Asian, 6% “other.”[8] However,
it received a lot of white audiences, Hispanic and Asian as it received a large
amount of money in its first weekend and that cannot just happen through the
black communities. The film had moments that were very memorable and because
it’s a biography film it was hard to believe they actually happened and it represented
the members being sexists and violent people. The scene is where the members of
NWA in the film were in their hotel after a show on their tour. Dr Dre says
"Yo some guys are outside looking for Felicia" as that’s Eazy E
sexual partner as he was receiving oral sex from her in the bathroom. The NWA members
all come out and Eazy E asks "who's looking for her" as he only peaks
his head out and one of the men start walking towards Eazy E and says “I’m
looking for her" and Eazy E replies with "she is pre occupied with
some real nigga dick". The men start speed walking towards Eazy E reaching
for their pockets and as the man says "what did you say lil nigga". Eazy
E replies swiftly again saying " I said she got some dick in her mouth
nigga" with him bringing out a sniper rifle as he walks towards them and that’s
when the NWA members, all of them, come showing no remorse and pointing their
guns at them as the men runaway down the five-star hotel corridors. The males
are seen to misogynists as they have a lot of women in their room and most of
them are in relationships and have kids. This also conveys to the audience they
are irresponsible and don’t care about the opposite sex and this just
reinforces the stereotype of young black people have kids but are not
physically capable of caring and taking care of them.
The members walk back to the hotel room laughing
about what just happened. “The movie has a significant woman problem, female
perspectives in the story and in how the main character’s treat women. Director
F. Gary Gray doesn't just avoid, he was condemning the N.W.A member for their
violence against women, he turns it into jokes.”[9] This
connotes the characters were represented negatively as they treated the women
with very little respect in the film. As Director just laughed and didn’t talk
about how extremely bad they were treated. Also the costumes had effect on the
audience as the NWA members were wearing dark clothing as they had many black
clothing on them so it seems they were on the dark side sometimes knows as evil.
Then the girls were not wearing nothing as they are in the bed or on the sofa
performing sexual acts. Also the use of the back lighting gives the actor a
glow effect on their edges as the focus is on them not their environment so it
shows they don’t care about the hotel or the next door neighbours. So once
again the black characters are seen to have zero remorse about the law or
consequences and they are seen to be very dangerous as Alvarado theory states
black characters are represented to be the dangerous ones in films. Another
post colonialism theory it links to is Fanon’s where he talks about the impact
post colonialism has had on black people. He talks about them putting on the
white mask, the acting and talking like white people. He also talks about the
typical black stereotypes one of them is them being decivilised as they are
represented to be pimps or gangster who don’t obey the law. This links to
straight out of Compton because of the main characters are represented
negatively.
However, we were still as an audience on their
NWA side and we wanted them to escape alive as us as the audience we have built
a relationship with them throughout the movie and so now we see them as the
heroes in the film. The scene connotes that the members are normal with what
happened as they just pointed specialised guns in a five start hotel at an
innocent man looking for his girlfriend. “Hyper sexism has increased
dramatically, and violent portraits of black masculinity have become rap
calling cards. Gangsters, hustlers, street crimes and vernacular sexual insults
(e.g., calling black women "hoes")[10]”.
Rap culture for a very long time have been always portrayed themselves for “not
loving these hoes” since Snoop Dogg said it in one of his songs in 1994 and
it’s just become a thing. As rappers receive many fan love and they are offered
to have sex with female fans they just refer to them as hoes. Furthermore, in
the scene the males were also laughing in their facial expression and connect
their knuckles to each other shows this is something they grew up doing and saw
happening so it did not affect them but this is not normal for an average person.
As they were a lot of action codes as them pulling out the guns is a
significant event in the film and so we may not have seen this side to the
characters yet in the film.
Also the
NWA member use the word "nigga" so casually as for someone watching
it may be disrespectful and a bit too much. They also call women bitches and
use graphic words as some say they don’t have any filter as Eazy E said "she’s
dealing with some real nigga dick" and "she got dick in her mouth
nigga". This also links to the gender and ethnicity theory as the theory
says female are seen as extras in the movie and not the main thing. As they
just there such as the Mulvey theory of the male gaze as the film is R rated
the women parts were on show too. "male sexual dominance, with women
framed as objects and denied any agency or their own gaze"[11] This
is a great example as the women in the scene are just there to satisfy the rap
stars and if they misbehave they can just get kicked out and the audience and
the characters find that funny. Here example of the film reinforcing the
dominant ideology of black rappers disrespecting females, being violent and
swearing constantly. Also this scene reinforcing the negative stereotype of
black males being violent and being disrespectful to women.
Black males playing these troubled characters
in film have been happening for many years but the first and most important
genre were Blaxploitation films. ‘Straight
Outta Compton’ links to many Blaxploitation films such as Super Fly, 1972,
a crime drama an African American cocaine dealer who is trying to quit the
underworld drug business. Blaxploitation films were in the 1970's it was genre
with a black audience but it grew as the film was very entertaining showing the
audience life’s in urban neighbourhoods of a drug dealer, gang members or even
a gang member. “Several California organised crime veterans, including drug
trafficker "Freeway" Rick Ross, have cited the film as an influence
in their decision to take up drug dealing and gang violence”[12].
Critics stated it was a bad time to make these type of movies as they were
reinforcing stereotypes of black people and a media website stated that
"The films focused heavily on the dark undercurrents of society and
promoted many incorrect stereotypes about black people[13]”.
As Perkins said stereotypes are not all negative and not always false”[14] can
be false. However, ‘Straight Outta
Compton’ use of ethnic slurs, gang violence, drug use and selling all of
these negative representations of black people areas shown in the movie.
"These movies used a mostly black cast and featured stories set in urban
America"[15]
they both also show other factors of black stereotypes such as poverty,
unemployment, having no father in a families and see white people as their
enemies.
So this created Levi Strauss theory binary
opposition as the black main actors are criminals however the white people in
the film are seen to be the villains as black people were poor and white were
rich and the white police were negative towards the black communities. The
white Americans were the ones who put the black Americans through slavery so in
the films you can see the rivalry through the white vs black. As the whites are
seen to be represented to be the villains whether they are police or FBI or Jerry
Heller the manager of NWA who some say he was the reason for the groups break
up. “For many years, African Americans were simply objects within popular
culture whose representation tended to be quite stereotypical and especially
problematic.”[16]
From Blaxploitation movies it just grew and became the genre of urban drama or
any other actions films as the villains were either foreign or coloured. In
urban dramas the black males had the negative stereotypes in their characters throughout
the 90’s such as Paid in Full, Baby Boy and Juice and many more showing the
dominate representation of young black males in America.
The film also had a positive representation of
young black males turning into successful entrepreneurs and rappers. Then
becoming older, having kids and carry on being successful since the death of
their friend Eazy E. “African Americans don’t always have to be the victim, those
characters are overused and over exposed. Now that we are in the 21st century
different characters and different portrayals of African Americans need to be
shown”[17].
This quote sums up the whole issue on reinforcing black stereotype in movies
just for narrative pleasure as the success stories are not taken away from the
movie, the negatives are. There should be more light on the fact that the movie
showed positive representation of how NWA put their mark on to the rap scene as
many of the famous rappers such as Jay z, Tupac and Kanye west looked up to
NWA. The positive representations are there such as the whole film is based on
the fact that they worked hard and chased dreams and never gave up chasing their
American dream. "NWA coined the phrase "reality rap", a term
that refined black male expressions of anger and angst in the late 1980s. If no
one else was speaking for urban black men, NWA was, and in voices that were
defiantly unapologetic."[18]
They were loved by others because of the truth they were speaking so
authentically and gave the people a voice who were living in poverty or been
abused by police. They brought communities together to celebrate their music
with their albums going platinum and them touring in packed out arenas the
black community finally had something to celebrate.
However, some stereotypes are backed by facts
as the film represents the black’s males contributing in illegal activities as
it shows to the audience that they have no fear for the law. “The major issues
for African American is poverty, low graduation rates, high rates of wedlock births
(parents who are not married) high rates of incarceration (in prison)”[19]. These
are all real facts and it represented in the media as many black males grow up
without a father figure or don’t finish schools and grow up in poverty. This
backs real life events as "Black males make up less than 7 percent of US population,
yet they constitute almost half of the prison population."[20] This
just shows where the stereotypes and representation of black males come from in
the US as there’s a small amount of them in the US however they occupied all
the jails in the US. An example of this is when Dr.Dre got arrested at the
beginning movie for talking tough to the police officers. "Blacks and
Hispanics are about 70% percent more likely to have had contact with the police
than white people are"[21]
this is represented in the film as police have a huge role in the film as they
are in the main scenes. They do random searches in the black communities in LA
to find any illegal weapons and drugs in possession in the movie this is shown
as they are searched very violently and aggressively. So young black males try
to stay away from police as they were very violent towards the NWA members.
Also Medhurst states that stereotyping is
shorthand for identification. This means the film directors and producers use
stereotypes to tell the audiences a lot in a short space of time. For example,
the customs in the film like the red and blue bandana suggesting the character
represent as type of gang (blood and Crips). The way they talk by saying
“nigger” and swearing and then their actions like selling drugs or carrying a
gun. All this thing is shorthand identification to help the audience understand
the characters more by using stereotypes. However, this can carry value
judgements and therefore be very negative for the representation of minority groups.
As the stereotype becomes permanent into the audience’s mind and therefore by
trying tell a story using the media they have just reinforced the negative
stereotypes.
This is something the US are going through
right now as the police are harming innocent black males because they have the
stereotype of them being drug dealers or violent gang bangers. Then the whole
#blacklivesmatter campaign because of many black lives being taken by the
police. Some of the stereotypes use in the media “Some stereotypes about blacks
include African American being uneducated, loud, violent, males sagging their
pants, bad attitudes, disrespectful, Love fried chicken and Kool-Aid, do drugs
and many more”[22]
these stereotypes are being injecting to the audience through hypodermic
needles as they are being reinforced in all urban dramas or any other film
playing a black person. These stereotypes are not facts but the media has
produced this through stereotyping as every black person does those things as
there are not many films that show alternative stereotypes in black successful
men.
Overall the film did reinforce negative black
stereotypes as the film is a biographic drama so what the film represents
actually did happen in reality so it portrays the truth of what happened. So
the film reinforces the stereotypes even more as other ethnicities watch the
film that may have their ideas or thought about black males, when they see the
film their thoughts strengthen due to the reinforcement of the film
representation of the black males. “The media is the single most powerful tool
at our disposal; it has the power to educate and result in social change”[23] as
the media can create educate, inform and entertain the audience it can also
reinforce and challenge stereotypes as the film industry has a huge following
especially this film. “As the film made a whopping $60.2 million in its debut
weekend. That’s the fifth-biggest August debut ever, the seventh-biggest
R-rated debut of all time"[24].
The film made a lot of money as a lot of people went to watch so the film was
educated today’s generation of kids on rap music and police brutality. However,
the film probably change people perspectives on black people as the film shows
how they were brought up in Compton in poverty and against all odds they became
successful and wealthy. Furthermore, the film reinforced negative stereotypes
have not changed some of the other audience’s perspective of black people and
so they still believe all black people are violent, disrespectful to women, have
no respect to the law and they are drug dealers. As the movie represents them
in this negative way therefore this creates a moral panic by the media through
the audience thinking black people are criminals and thugs.
Bibliography
Work Citied
Books
Boyd, T. (2008). African Americans and
popular culture. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. 1
Grossberg, L. (1992). Cultural studies. New
York: Routledge1
Livesey, C. (2014). Cambridge international
as and a level sociology coursebook. Place of publication not identified:
Cambridge Univ Press.1
Rose, T. (2008). The hip hop wars what we
talk about when we talk about hip hop--and why it matters. New York:
BasicCivitas.1
Woldu, G. (2008). The words and music of Ice
Cube. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
Media
magazine
Odd Future, Stranger Past - Issues of
Representation in Contemporary Hip-Hop
Website
links
Doris, John M. "Reflection."
Talking to Our Selves Reflection, Ignorance, and Agency (2015): 17-40. Web. https://historicstruggle.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/our-art-is-a-reflection-of-our-reality/
Rory Carroll, 30 August 2015,
The guardian Straight Outta Compton film puts
California City back under scrutiny http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/08/straight-outta-compton-california-film-review
Kevin O'Keeffe August 14, 2015
The One Scene in 'Straight Outta Compton'
That Resonates Most in 2015
Perkins stereotype theory
Blaxploitation
Challenging media and film stereotypes on
gender sexuality
and women´s rights by Elisa Salinas
Work consulted
Williams,
Z. (2009). Africana cultures and policy studies: Scholarship and the
transformation of public policy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jet
3 Apr 1995 American leading black magazine
Roberts,
Kevin D. African American Issues. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2006. Print.
Johnson,
Robert Lee. Compton. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Pub., 2012. Print.
Media Magazine
Representation
in rap
Pete
Turner, February 2011: the 'Culture' issue
Jennifer
G. Ghetto Culture
December
2008. Black Ink - Black Press in Britain
The
Wire - American dream as nightmare
Website links
Lisa
Respers France, CNN, August 14, 2015
Why
you should see 'Straight Outta Compton'
The
list of stereotypes OCT 28 2007
by
Beachflute
NWA
World’s Most Dangerous group
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150813-nwa-the-worlds-most-dangerous-group
[1] Doris,
John M. "Reflection." Talking to Our Selves Reflection, Ignorance,
and Agency (2015): 17-40. Web. https://historicstruggle.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/our-art-is-a-reflection-of-our-reality/
[7] Livesey
C. Cambridge International AS and A Level Sociology Coursebook By pg270
[8] http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2015/08/30/weekend-box-office-straight-outta-compton-tops-again-jurassic-world-returns-to-imax/
August 30 2015 Scott Mendelson Box Office: 'Straight Outta Compton' Tops
Weekend, 'Mission: Impossible 5' Tops $170M
[9] http://mic.com/articles/123837/the-one-scene-in-straight-outta-compton-that-resonates-most-in-2015#.4Ythmridc
The One Scene in 'Straight Outta Compton' That Resonates Most in 2015
Kevin O'Keeffe's avatar image By Kevin O'Keeffe August
14, 2015
[10] Rose
T. The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why It
Matters
2008 pg1/2
[11] https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16889
Odd Future, Stranger Past - Issues of Representation in Contemporary Hip-Hop- Phil
Dyas, December 2012
[12] http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_17113312
Scott Johnson 01/09/2011 The return of "Freeway" Ricky Ross, the man
behind a crack empire
[13] http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-blaxploitation-films.htm"Blaxploitation
Films of the 1970s." (2007). Web.
Chloe Jayde, Tessa Perkins Stereotype Theory
[15] ibid
[16] Boyd
T. African Americans and Popular Culture 2008 pg8
[17] https://historicstruggle.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/our-art-is-a-reflection-of-our-reality/
Our Art is a Reflection of Our Reality’ MAY 1, 2015 Rob Baker
[18] Gail
Hilson W. The Words and Music of Ice Cube2008 By pg18
[19] Roberts,
Kevin D. African American Issues. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2006. Print.
Pg172
[20]
Williams Z. Africana Cultures and Policy Studies 2009 New York pg100
[21] ibid
[22] https://storify.com/dinitenagne/do-tyler-perry-films-reinforce-negative-stereotype Dinquinesh
Henok 2013 Tyler Perry Reinforces Negative Stereotypes of African Americans in
his films Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea's Family Reunion
[23] http://www2.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/csw/59/meetings/csw%202015-session%20on%20social%20norms_salinas%2013%20march_km.pdf?v=1&d=20150313T212805
Challenging media and film stereotypes
on gender sexuality and women´s rights By Elisa Salinas
[24] http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2015/08/16/box-office-straight-outta-compton-scores-huge-and-not-surprising-60m-weekend/
August 30 2013 Scott Mendelson Box Office: 'Straight Outta Compton' Tops
Weekend, 'Mission: Impossible 5' Tops $170M
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