To what extent do the representations of black people in 'Straight Outta Compton' reinforce negative stereotypes?

This essay focuses on the representations of black people in Straight Outta Compton and to what extent the film reinforces negative stereotypes of black people. Straight Outta Compton was one of the most successful movies so far in 2015 and made 200 million worldwide receiving 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 of black lives a 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 play criminals roles in Hollywood fuels the racial stereotype that black men are dangerous and have zero respect for the law. Also disrespecting women, swearing and killing each other these are the main factors in many movies starring African Americans. "Stereotypes are like fictions they are created to serve as substitutions, standing in for what’s is real"[i] stereotypes are gathered by thoughts, beliefs and reality through individuals then generalised to the rest of the race or gender.

Straight Outta Compton is a biographical drama film 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. 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 place in the country. When five young men translated their experiences growing up into brutally honest music" NWA are the “godfathers of gangster rap”[ii] 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 tracks like Fuck Tha Police and Gangsta Gangsta, the 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.”[iii] 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”.[iv] 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”[v]. Then people started given them more recognition and ask them for interviews. Then when the 4 police officers were found not guilty LA black males and females started rioting and looting in LA. This why people say they were the most influential group ever as their music affected a lot of people and the movie shows all of this as it has a narrative structure equilibrium as they are seen having good times and bad times as the group split up and Eazy E (NWA leader) dies however they come through by Dr Dre being successful with own new label and ice cube persuading a career in acting. 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, where they represented in the right way or were 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”[vi]. This tells us that the stereotypes of black’s males are the same for them as they represented them in a negative and demeaning for narrative pleasures.

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.”[vii] 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. Then there's a knock at the door by two built African American men who are in possession of a gun and Dr Dre he sees the gun as they ask for one of the men girlfriend. Dr Dre slams the door on them and makes his way into the other room where all the NWA members are in with their own girls. Lights were a bit low but it felt very mysterious there’s was a sense of back light to make it sexual atmosphere as they were kissing. Dj Yella is on the couch with 2 girls and MC Ren is on the bed with 2 other girls where they are naked as well. 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 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 condemning the N.W.A member for their violence against women, he turns it into jokes.”[viii] 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 dark as they had many black clothing on so it seems they were on the dark side sometimes knows as evil. Then the girls were not wearing nothing as they in the bed or 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.

However, we were still as an audience we were on their side and we wanted them to escape alive as us as the audience 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 homophobia along with distorted, antisocial, self-destructive, 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")”[ix] 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 and it’s just become a thing. As rappers receive my fan love and they offer to have sex with them they just refer to them as hoes. Furthermore, in the scene the males were Also in the scene they were laughing in their facial expression and connect their knuckles towards 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 audience yet in the film. Also the NWA member use the word "nigga" so casually as for some 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"[x] 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 most first 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”[xi]. 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”[xii]. As Perkins said some stereotypes can be false. Similarly, 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"[xiii] 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.”[xiv] 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 Menace 2 Society, Boyz n the hood and juice and many more showing the dominate representation of young black males in America.

However, the film reinforced some negative stereotypes of black people in the film however the directors was to trying portray a true story as it’s a biography so the negative stereotypes that are being said can all be true therefore they stereotype were not being reinforced they were being challenged. "Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Wright, gave the actor playing Eazy unseen footage of the rapper — including outtakes of music-video shoots — to help him capture the late MC's personality"[xv] this quote shows accurate the representation was of the NWA member as they had studied and revise their roles. So how actors learned how the NWA members acted, how they talked and performed. The NWA members are products of their environment they were surrounded by violence and drugs growing up in Compton and that is for most African American males growing up in the ghetto. “What's cool about the movie is that it showed how much fun we were having," he says. "We were kids, doing hip-hop and becoming famous. It's like, 'Oh, yeah, FBI? Oh, yeah — policemen too, huh?”[xvi] this quote was taken form an Ice cube interview as its shows the NWA members were young black males being successful which was very rare so they took on the opportunity. With them living their dream they just took each day as it came as they were only trying to say things in their music that actual was happening in real life. “Our art is a reflection of our reality”[xvii]. 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, the suspect, a deadbeat dad, or a baby mama. 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”[xviii]. 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 they have 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."[xix] 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.

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)”[xx]. This 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."[xxi] 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"[xxii] this is represented in the film as police have a huge role in the film as they are in the main scenes as the characters have illegal weapons and drugs in possession in the movie as they try to stay aware of the police as they were very violent towards the NWA members. “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”[xxiii] 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 Dyer theory on stereotypes states that stereotypes are a projection of the real world so what the film represents actually did happen as it was a biography film. 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”[xxiv] 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"[xxv]. The film made a lot of money as a lot of people went to watch so the film was real eye opener to the 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 in Compton in poverty and against all odds they became successful and wealthy. Furthermore, the 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, no respect to the law and 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 are criminals and thugs.

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