American Politics & Pop Culture

Boyz 'n the hood is a film that shows the hard life and rough area that many African Americans have to grow up and live in throughout their lives. James Nadell in his article,“Boyz N The Hood: A Colonial Analysis”, discusses the isue of racism from the African American aspect and how they are always looked at or treated differently from the White Americans. Nadell also comments on the drug trade and the way that the people looking in on it believe that it is the African Americans who are responsible for it , when they only have a very strong part to play.
The young African Americans that are shown in Boyzz n the hood are always being watched and in some kind of danger. Even they are shown to be up standing citizen's, trying to get into college, they always seem to be in some kind of danger. We see them being pulled over by police, who are mainly shown as white people are an occasional black cop who wants to show everyone that he is greater than they are. They are pulled over for no apparent reason, other than being African American. Also in the area there is always the treat of being shot, as we hear the gunshots throughout the film. Nadell say that this is typical and comes from the days where the African Americans were brought over from Africa and Europe to be slaves for the white people of America. These days are long passed but some people still class the race as being inferior to white people.This is why they find it harder to get away from the stereotypes that they once had. An example of this is shown in American History X when Derek is extremely against minorities and African Americans in particular.
The other point that Nadell talks about is the drug trade.He points out that the people who are really behind the drug trafficing are the White Americans, possibly the government. Even though it has not been discussed in class much or even brought up in the film a lot, apart from one scene where Furious tells his son that African Americans dont have the boats or planes to get the drugs in. as Furious says here, they dont have the funds to get the drugs in to the country. They are merely the tip of the iceberg as they distribute and sell it to the people who want it. This is why they get the name for the drug trade as trhey ar ethe only ones who are seen doing anything with them.
Overall, i think that Nadell touches on and goes in good detail on the race issues that we have seen and discussed in the class. I think that his article and the topic of race and racism that we talked about for three weeks are very well connected.