What Is The Historical Context Of Boyz N The Hood

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Boyz N the Hood (1991) is an American film that presents the coming of age of three African American boys in South Central Los Angeles during the 1980s through the 1990s that provides important messages on community problems, racial tensions, and societal issues. In a historical context, this film took place during the peak of gang violence, racial tensions, and drug abuse in Los Angeles. The Rodney King incident had just been presented to the public displaying the reality of racial inequality and police brutality. Real events like this would spark a fire in the Hip-Hop culture creating many media outlets that would reflect what was going on in America. The target audience was initially African Americans so they could have a film to relate …show more content…

He explained that all of the movies he watched growing up was surreal to his childhood. Therefore, he started writing the script for Boyz N the Hood (1991), which was loosely based on his childhood and his friends: Tre Style (Cuba Gooding Jr.), Darin Doughboy Baker (Baha Jackson/Ice Cube), and his brother Ricky Baker (DonovanMcCrary/Chestnut). Singleton wanted to release the movie in hopes to bring a new fresh perspective of growing in America that had not been put out to the public. He wanted to educate the public about the inner problems in the battlefield for the African American community in Los …show more content…

There were scenes ranging from home invasion, drug addiction, or gang warfare. The theme of black on black crime is reiterated in most of these scenes and provides the message of the detrimental effects it can have on a community. For example there is a scene in particular that highlighted this theme of black on black crime due to poverty. The first scene takes place on the first night Tre is sent to live with his father. During that night a burglar breaks into their house and Tre’s father, Furious, chases him out by shooting at him. They await the police to report the crime and an African American officer suggested to Furious that he should have just killed him to rid the streets of another African American thug. This upsets Furious because someone in a position of power is corrupted with the thoughts of black on black crime being the solution to the violence in South Central. The message behind this is to show how some people perceive the situation of what is causing the problems in their own community. In this African American officer’s perspective, he believes that the stereotypical young black man is almost always a thug and is the reason for all the crime in their

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