Friday 15 April 2016

Critical investigation final

“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’[2]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 has been through a lot in the past years in the US. 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. An example of this is films like ‘Menace to Society’[3] and ‘Boyz in The Hood’[4] 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. What are stereotypes and how they are formed: "Stereotypes are like fictions they are created to serve as substitutions; standing in for what is real"[5]. Stereotypes are gathered by thoughts, beliefs and reality through individuals then generalised to the rest of the race or gender. So in this essay already formed stereotypes of black males will be discussed and how they are reinforced to the film ‘Straight Outta Compton’.

‘Straight Outta Compton’ is a biopic 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, tour, then their fallout over contracts and alter egos in the group. This links to Todorov’s theory of: “all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages called the equilibrium, disequilibrium and again equilibrium”[6].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”[7] as they said whatever they wanted to in their music on without thinking about the consequence of 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.”[8] These types of lyrics took them apart from the other rappers as they created their own genre of Gangster rap. With that ‘I don't care attitude' and they demonstrate their lack of respect for the law and rival gang members.

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. 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”[9]. The FBI and police didn’t appreciate the song ‘Fuk the Police’ and so there were protests in some cities from civilians crushing their album saying that they would not let them perform in their city. However, in 1991 where footage was released by a bystander of an innocent black male, named Rodney King, getting beaten by 4 police officers made it to local news stations and national news stations. NWA were always talking about this topic in their raps “Ice Cube rapping "F**k the 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”[10]. Then people started giving them more recognition and asking NWA for interviews from the mainstream media. Then when the 4 police officers were found not guilty LA turned upside down as people started rioting and looting in LA. As people gathered together to protest against the men being sent to jail but they were acquitted of the charges and that's when the LA riots in 1992 began:Poverty, police brutality and lack of employment opportunities laid the groundwork for the unrest”[11].The black people took all their frustration out of the streets of LA by rioting and looting.
They are seen to be one of the most influential groups 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: “American dream idea nature of the American Dream in Western media texts, Since the American Dream focuses on the idea of achieving happiness through economic wealth and social status”[12] of fame and money. It’s also a rag 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”[13]. This tells us how western media represented black people in a negative and demeaning way for narrative pleasures. This links to Dyer’s theory of “those with power stereotype those with less power”[14] 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. However, in ‘Straight Outta Compton’ the producer and directors were black so they just try to tell the story as truly as possible while still reinforcing negative stereotypes of black people. They try to be non-biased as possible and try to receive good reviews and credits from the industry but maybe the black community don’t like that they have been represented like this.

The film is an urban drama as 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.”[15] From this we can see that the film received a lot of white audiences, Hispanic and Asian as it received a large amount of money was made in its first weekend and that cannot just happen through the black communities. Furthermore, this means that many people watched the film and maybe have seen a negative representation of black people. As the film had moments that reinforced negative stereotypes: The scene is where the members of NWA in the film were in their hotel after a show on their tour. 2 Black males were looking for one of their girlfriends. As Eazy E was receiving oral sex from his sexual partner in the bathroom. The NWA members came out the room and saw the 2 males and they said we are looking for our girlfriends. Eazy E replies with "she is preoccupied 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 the 2 men as the men run away 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 that the males 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 characters treat women. Director F. Gary Gray doesn't just avoid, he was condemning the N.W.A member for their violence against women, and he turns it into a joke.”[16] 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 an effect on the audience as the NWA members were wearing dark clothing as they had much 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 backlighting 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”[17]. They are represented to be a threat to society just like straight out of Compton and other media film starring black characters. The media present black males to be taking advantage of society and exposes institutional racism on the black characters. This links to ‘Straight Outta Compton’ because these are the black stereotypes in society and ‘Straight Outta Compton’ is reinforcing them.

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-star 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")[18]”. Rap culture for a very long time has 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, also known as “groupies”, they just refer to them as hoes. Furthermore, in the scene the males were also laughing at 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 this a significant event in the film as we see action and their violent side to reinforcing the black stereotype of being violent and disobeying the law.

 Also, the NWA member uses 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 a dick in her mouth nigga". This also links to the Laura Mulvey theory on sexual objectification and male gaze as: "presence of women solely for the purpose of a display (rather than narrative function)"[19] as the theory says female are seen as extras in the movie and not the main thing. 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"[20] This is a great example of 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 the example of the film reinforcing the dominant ideology of black rappers disrespecting females, being violent and swearing constantly just like in this scene.

Black males have been playing these troubled characters in the film have been happening for many years but the first and most important genre was Blaxploitation films. ‘Straight Outta Compton’ links to many Blaxploitation films such as ‘Super Fly’[21], 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 the 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. This film was very influential as: “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”[22]. Critics stated it was a bad time to make these types 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[23]”. As Perkins said “stereotypes are not all negative and not always false”[24]. Similarly, ‘Straight Outta Compton’ use of ethnic slurs, gang violence, drug use and selling all of these negative representations of black people are as shown in the movie. "These movies used a black cast and featured stories set in urban America"[25] they both also show other factors of black stereotypes such as poverty, unemployment, having no father in families and see white people as their enemies.

So this created Levi Strauss theory binary opposition:Given the colour "white" people recognize "black" as it’s opposite. When we label skin colour as white and black, we set ourselves up to contrast the races.”[26] 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/black binary represents a long struggle between the races in the United States of America”[27] the white Americans were the ones who put the black Americans through slavery so in the media 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 the popular culture whose representation tended to be quite stereotypical and especially problematic."[28] 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’[29], ‘Baby Boy’[30] and ‘Juice’[31] and many more showing the dominate representation of young black males in America: The most negative characterisation-that African American men are "thugs" and in gangs is true for only a very small percentage”[32].The stereotype is very repetitive in the media and so the media try to represent society so what they believe African Americans are they reinforce in their film but the stereotypes are very negative.

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 overexposed. Now that we are in the 21st century different characters and different portrayals of African Americans need to be shown"[33]. This quote sums up the whole issue on reinforcing black stereotype in movies. It done as 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 the positive representation of how NWA put their mark on 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 invoices that were defiantly unapologetic."[34] 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 touring in packed out arenas so the black community finally had something to celebrate.

However, some stereotypes are backed by facts as the film represents the black’s males contributing to illegal activities as it shows to the audience that they have no fear of 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)”[35]. 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."[36] 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"[37].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.

Also, Medhurst states: “that stereotyping is shorthand for identification”[38]. 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 a 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. It’s all a 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 to tell a story using the media they have just reinforced the negative stereotypes. Another post-colonialism theory it links is Fanon's where he talks about the impact post-colonialism has had on black 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 doesn't obey the law.

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 members. Many of them being killed on the streets started the whole #Blacklivesmatter campaign because of many black lives being taken by the police. “Police killed at least 102 unarmed black people in 2015, nearly twice each week”[39].Some of the stereotypes used 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”[40] these stereotypes are being injected 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 reinforcing them in their films in directing that every black person does those things. So it has become a dominant stereotype from Levi Strauss theory on representation “A dominant representation is one which is repeated across the media over time and so are the values it carries”[41] 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. “Stereotype is a particularly damaging one. It deleterious effects young black male ability to find employment, receive respectful and appropriate treatment in schools and be treated with appropriate civic regard in public spaces”[42]. “The media is the single most powerful tool at our disposal; it has the power to educate and result in social change”[43] 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"[44]. 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 changes 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 for 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.

Word count: 3639

Bibliography
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Grossberg, L. (1992). Cultural studies. New York: Routledge
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Roberts, Kevin D. 2006 African American Issues. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood. Print
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Ward E. Jones (2011) Ethics at the Cinema and Samantha Vice. Ethics at the Cinema. Oxford: Oxford University Press
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Dyas P, Odd Future, Stranger Past – (2012) Issues of Representation in Contemporary Hip-Hop- https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16057
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Carroll, Rory. (2015) "Straight Outta Compton Film Puts California City Back under Scrutiny." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2015. Web http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/08/straight-outta-compton-california-film-review
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Moving Image Texts
Baby Boy June 29, 2001 (USA), (Directed) John Singleton, (Produced)John Singleton, Columbia Pictures
Boyz N the Hood, July 12, 1991 (USA), (Directed) John Singleton (Produced) Steve Nicolaides, Columbia Pictures
Juice, January 17, 1992 (USA)Ernest R. Dickerson (Director), David Heyman Neal H. Moritz Peter Frankfurt (Producers), Paramount Pictures.
Menace II Society, May 26, 1993(USA), The Hughes Brothers(Director), Darin Scott (producer) New Line Cinema
Paid in Full, October 25, 2002 (USA), (Directed) Charles Stone III, (Produced)Roc-A-Fella Films, Miramax Films
Straight Outta Compton, August 11, 2015 2015 (USA) (Director)F. Gary Gray,(Producers), Dr. Dre, Wright, T. Bernstein, Universal Pictures.
Super fly, July 1, 1972 (USA) (Directed)Gordon Parks, Jr., (Produced) Sig Shore, Warner Bros.
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Jet 3 Apr 1995 American leading black magazine
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http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150813-nwa-the-worlds-most-dangerous-group




[1] Doris, John M. (2015) "Reflection"Our Art is a Reflection of Our Reality"
[2] Straight Outta Compton, August 11, 2015 2015 (USA) (Director)F. Gary Gray, Dr. Dre, Wright, T. Bernstein, S.(Producers), Universal Pictures.
[3] Menace II Society, May 26, 1993(USA), The Hughes Brothers(director), Darin Scott (producer) New Line Cinema
[4] Boyz N the Hood, July 12, 1991 (USA), (Directed) John Singleton (Produced) Steve Nicolaides, Columbia Pictures
5 Grossberg L. (1992) Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge, Print. Pg 341
[6] Dyera Mike, (2012) A2 media studies Todorov Theory. Web.
[7] Movie information "Straight Outta Compton."  (2015). Web
[8] Carroll, Rory. (2015)"Straight Outta Compton Film Puts California City Back under Scrutiny." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, Web.
[9] "Straight Outta Compton 2015 480p Download English WEB-DL 400MB ESubs - FokatWorld." FokatWorld. 2015. Web.
[10]  ""Fuck The Police" Lyrics." N.W.A. LYRICS. Web 
[11] Straus, Emily E. (2014) "Death of a Suburban Dream." Web.
[12] "The American Dream: (2013) Anomie and Strain Theory." Media. Web.
[13] Livesey C. Cambridge International AS and A Level Sociology Coursebook by pg270
[14] Halsey. M, (2015) Mediamacguffin Representation theories. Web.
[15] Mendelson S. (2015) Box Office: 'Straight Outta Compton' Tops Weekend, 'Mission: Impossible 5' Tops $170M’
[16] O'Keeffe K. (2015) The One Scene in 'Straight Outta Compton' That Resonates Most in 2015
Kevin O'Keeffe's avatar image
[17] Upton S, (2013) Representation in Media.Web.
[18] Rose T. (2008) The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why It Matters
2008 pg1/2
[19] Morris W. (2010) Slideshare Gender Representation. Web.
[20] Dyas P, (2012) Odd Future, Stranger Past - Issues of Representation in Contemporary Hip-Hop-
[21] Super fly, July 1, 1972 (USA) (Directed)Gordon Parks, Jr., (Produced) Sig Shore, Warner Bros.
[22] Johnson S. (2011) The return of "Freeway" Ricky Ross, the man behind a crack empire
[23] Harris Ellis, Jessica, B. (2007) WiseGeek. Conjecture. Web "Blaxploitation Films of the 1970s." (2007). Web.
[24] Jayde C, (2014) Tessa Perkins Stereotype Theory
[25] ibid Harris Ellis, Jessica, B. (2007) WiseGeek. Conjecture. Web "Blaxploitation Films of the 1970s." (2007). Web.
[26] "Levi-Straussian Semiotic Analysis." Levi-Straussian Analysis of Organizational Schemas. Web.
[27] Binary Opposition as a Foundation of Societal Thought – White/Black Binary." Polar Opposites A Study of the Binaries. 2012.
[28] Boyd T. (2008) African Americans and Popular Culture pg8
[29] Paid in Full, October 25, 2002 (USA), (Directed) Charles Stone III, (Produced)Roc-A-Fella Films, Miramax Films
[30] Baby Boy June 29, 2001 (USA), (Directed) John Singleton, (Produced)John Singleton, Columbia Pictures
[31] Juice, January 17, 1992 (USA)Ernest R. Dickerson (Director), David Heyman Neal H. Moritz Peter Frankfurt (Producers), Paramount Pictures.
[32] Way, N. (2011). Deep Secrets 225pg
[33] Bake R. (2015) Our Art is a Reflection of Our Reality’
[34] Gail Hilson W. (2008) The Words and Music of Ice Cube pg18
[35] Roberts, Kevin D. (2006) African American Issues. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood. Print. Pg172
[36] Williams Z. (2009) Africana Cultures and Policy Studies New York pg100
[37] ibid
[38] Halsey M, (2015) Mediamacguffin Representation theories. Web.
[39] "Police Killed More than 100 Unarmed Black People in (2015) Mapping Police Violence. Web.
[40] Henok D, (2013) "Tyler Perry Reinforces Negative Stereotypes of African Americans in His Films Diary of a Mad Black Woman & Madea's... (with Images, Tweets) · Dinitenagne." Storify. Web.
[41] "A Dominant Representation Is One Which Is Repeated across the Media over Time and so Are the Values It Carries, Discuss." Representationmedia. 2011. Web
[42] Ward E. Jones (2011)Ethics at the Cinema
[43] Salinas E, (2015) Challenging media and film stereotypes on gender sexuality and women´s rights.Web.
[44] Mendelson S.  (2013) Box Office: 'Straight Outta Compton' Tops Weekend, 'Mission: Impossible 5' Tops $170M.Web