N. W. A Film Analysis: Straight Outta Dynamite

“ Some of these early productions have racial themes which reorganize the world in such a way that black heritage is rewarded over white paternity; they are schematic renunciations of the prevailing order of things in white American society where, historically, the discovery of black blood meant sudden reversal of fortune, social exclusion, or banishment.” (Gaines, P.3) Within the movie the amount of mistruths about African Americans was sad. Within the movie you notice that the blacks were always or seem to be yelling, acting uncivilized and doing

The movie Napoleon Dynamite directed by Jared Hess and released June 11, 2004 is a comedy about an awkward teen that has trouble fitting in. Napoleon (Jon Heder) the main character, lives with his grandma until she gets into an accident and his life is immediately made worse when his uncle Rico (Jon Gries) who is stuck in his high school football “superstar” days knocks on their door and is there to keep an eye on Napoleon while his grandma is getting hospitalized. Napoleon has a red afro, wears moon boots, and is constantly practicing his atrocious ninja moves. Napoleon has a best friend in high school names Pedro (Efren Ramirez) who decides to run for class president, and it is up to Napoleon to step out of his comfort zone to help Pedro win, and get his information out around school. Napoleon Dynamite was excellent because it met the criteria of humor, acting, and the profound message.

This media addresses socialization, specifically racial socialism. Racial socialism is the belief in race, and racial stratification as a personal and group identity. Straight Outta Compton has various times where individuals and groups are profiled for belief of wrongdoing or criminal activity due to racial identity (Dosan 2015). At one point during the movie the rap group goes outside to take a break, and the police comes out assuming that they are “bangers” and demands they get on the ground (Myres 2015). The manager comes out and says” you can't just arrest people just cause what they look like”, “thats police harassment”. This is indicative of a bigger issue in where they were assumed to be gangsters be cause they are “black”. Racial persecution and socialization is truly shown when Ice-cube

If a movie of this sort had such an emotional impact on me, it is no wonder people embraced these ideas back then. The use of new and popular media methods in those days was more than adequate in transferring the black inferiority ideas to the general public. Beginning at the early 19th century with the happy, dancing, toothless, drunken Negro with big, bold and white lips to the image of the mid 21st century African-American, the media has always used these images to convey inferiority. These images implied inherent traits in the black community. This whole community was represented in the new media as one who can not be collateralized and integrated in to society without being happily enslaved. Most of these images had great commercial values that made it all the more impossible for the rest of the nation not to embrace the African American stereotypes.

Another Issue was the race stereotype, I don’t know what the producers were thinking, but there were a lot of stereotypes like having all neo-Nazi’s look bald, and like skinheads who are out to wipe out the other entire race. I know they are racist, but they wouldn’t take it too far as a school shooting they just don’t like to be around other races. Also on how they had look at my own people the Hispanics they couldn’t have just said that instead of saying Mexican like every ignorant person who don’t know the diversity of the Latino culture it didn’t bother me, but I knew that the movie would have the perspective of people that aren’t diverse. However they could’ve lower the racism I know the actors don’t mean it, but instead of calling everyone an N word they could’ve given another term because the N- Word isn’t suppose to be used by any other race besides African-Americans overall the movie look and felt like a segregated community, until the end which united everyone at the festival, until Remy attacked the school which happens in real life situations. The movie overall got enough controversy to become noticeable. Even though the movie took place in a college campus there are some fears about

N.W.A (an abbreviation of Niggaz Wit Attitudes)[1][2][3] was an American hip hop group from Compton, California, widely considered one of the seminal acts of the gangsta rap and west coast hip hop sub-genres, sometimes credited as the most important group in the history of rap music.[4] Active from 1986 to 1991, the rap group endured controversy due to the explicit lyrics that many considered to be disrespectful to women, and glorifying drugs and crime. The group was subsequently banned from many mainstream American radio stations. In spite of this, the group has sold over 10 million units in the United States alone.

Throughout House Party signs of affluence is present through brightly colorful and flashy clothes, and large elegant houses. However, Straight Outta Compton Shows how a group of poor African Americans escaped the projects and gang affiliation through their rap music. Although police brutality was main issue within Straight Outta Compton, other issues arose throughout the movie. The members of N.W.A face more issues than those in House Party, primarily because of their financial status. The members of N.W.A try to overcome gang life and drug running which they face because they grow up in the projects of urban America. Another issue that a member of N.W.A faces is the epidemic of AIDS which greatly affects the African American community. However, throughout history and to this day, police brutality continues to greatly impact the black

Nearly 30 years ago, five individuals formed the controversial, highly opinionated hip-hop group, N.W.A (Niggaz Wit Attitudes). Like the vast majority of collaborative success stories, N.W.A was not without its share of inner and outer strife – courtesy of hot button issues, including money, police brutality and discrimination, and other personal struggles.

RACISM AS A CAUSE FOR CRIME AND VIOLENCE: CINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF “BOYZ N’ THE HOOD”

During the 1990s; LA riots were still occurring because of inequality and disrespect shown through society. A lot of property were damaged, people killed, and many injuries. Race was such a big factor of it all. I think the filmmakers did an incredible job portraying the history of race and self identification throughout this movie.

The majority of the racism involved in the movie is towards the negro population. They are perceived as thugs, thieves and

The movies came out at a time when the country was at unrest in regards to new age racism. Racism today is well documented through the use of social media s compared to the past. In addition, the time period in which the movies were set people were afraid to express their opinions on racism due to fear of retaliation from the whites but this is not the case today. People are expressing their opinion in regards to racism be it through social media or peaceful protest such as the popular kneeling by Colin Kaepernick a football quarterback. The

The audience who viewed this film was primarily younger adults, having enough knowledge to understand society as well as the initiative to try to make a difference in the racial inequalities of the time period. This film definitely made the general public think about and question social norms and customs, and could have ultimately aided the civil rights

When we try to understand why the characters act as they act and what drives each of them, the viewers are inevitably drawn to the conclusion that they are just like them. They realize they are human; they have both good qualities and bad qualities. Spike Lee also makes them understand that at times they may make terrible mistakes, and that at other times they may display admirable heroism, and that sometimes they simply act without knowing why. Spike Lee does more than try to show his viewers that despite tensions, this Black neighborhood is a community. What Lee does is he makes the viewers think. He simply presents events as they are leaving the viewer to figure out the motives of the characters and the ‘why’ behind the course of events. Lee doesn’t really put a positive light on any particular race while shadowing the other ones. He doesn’t try to make conflicts have an obvious solution. Lee simply re-creates a piece of life, with a little twist of extreme (yet realistic) drama for deeper effect, and by doing this he tries to simply make his audience think and question.

In the light of, the director makes good points through the whole movie about what they went through. I like this movie because it gives me more information of the people who were involved or who were there during that time. Like, Ann Lee Coper (Oprah Winfrey), Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo), and the rest of the people who help fight for African Americans to be able to vote. The movie also shows the difficult and the happy time they went through. Even the problems with their family. No matter what’s going on, they were still focus and full invested in having freedom. What I learned from this movie was that they did not let all the obstacles of what they went through mess up their main goal because of that I am able to take those lesson for my