Juvenile Delinquency In Boyz N The Hood

“Boyz n the Hood” was written and directed by John Singleton at the age of only 25. He was the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for the Academy award for best director. He is from South Los Angeles, he attended USC School of Cinematic Arts and was enrolled in their filmic writing program.. This film has obtained a classic status and deemed culturally significant. Some of his other films include: Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, Rosewood, Baby Boy, Shaft, and 2 Fast 2 furious. I have heard of John Singleton before through his other films. Just Another Girl on the IRT” was written and directed by Leslie Harris. She grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She pursed a degree in studio art from Denison University. She was the first African American woman director, writer, and producer to win best feature film at the Sundance Film Festival. Some of her other films include, Bessie Colman A Dream to Fly, Never Forget, and the first novel. I

have never heard of Leslie Harris and her work before.
“Boyz in the Hood” takes place in a rough neighborhood in LA. Tre is living with his mother at the beginning of the film. But he gets in trouble and starts acting up at school, his mother realize she can’t raise a young black boy under such conditions and societal pressures. So Tre goes to live with his father, who attempts to instill in him the tools he needs to be a man. Tre’s family is educated, his mother is going back to school to purse a higher degree and his father is also educated. This is an example that goes against the stereotype that black children are fatherless, but here we see Tre’s father playing an active role in his son’s life. But the film also shows a contrast of this family structure through Ricky and Doughboy. They come from a household of a single mother who appears unemployed. Their mother struggles to keep her sons out of trouble in the neighborhood. Chantel on the other hand grew up with a different family structure. She grew up with both of her working parents and two younger brothers in the projects of Brooklyn. Both films contribute a variety of black family structures.
The statement that Singleton makes is problematic because he is saying that black single mothers are not equip to raise their boys on their own. Even though many mothers in society have raised strong black men all by themselves. This statement perpetuates the stereotype that women are weak and not capable of doing what it takes to raise young men. “Those of us who nurture the lives of those children who are not supposed to exist, who are not supposed to grow up, who are revolutionary in their very beings are doing some of the most subversive work in the world” (Gumbs). Therefore Singleton statement is a slap in the face to all those mothers who do their best to raise these young men. They are raising young men who come into this world as a hazard to them just my being simply born black and male. They ‘re doing the impossible by raising these young men all by themselves, young men who society sees little to no value and as a threat. Gumbs links, “the demonization of black single mothers to the demonization of lesbians within and outside the black community and points out that this shared demonization is about the threat of women who live their lives in a way that shows that they do not need patriarchy or subservience to men.” These single women are defining the social norm and reconstructing the meaning of family in their communities.
The coming of age of young black boys in Boyz n the Hood, dives into the gangs and guns culture. You see young black boys exposed to violence at such a young age, seeing their friends and family died then quickly having to recover and continue on with life. You see the boys engage in sexual behavior at young age. You see young black boys forced to grow up to quickly. Society has in preventing young black children from just being kids, “their lives as children only matter because of who others want them to be (or fear they may become) in adulthood. Thus, to assert that Black boyhood is unimagined and unimaginable is to lament that we have created a world in which Black boys cannot be” (Dumas & Nelson, 2016). Singleton’s film examines the black boyhood in an area impacted heavily by gun violence. Society has demonized young black boys. They are socialized to believe that society will see them as criminals that they cannot exist without being seen as a threat. Many of the young boys engaged in criminal behavior because that’s the only way for them to survive. It’s a shame that young black boys don’t have the luxury of simply being a child
Most movies are heavily focused on the black inner-city life of young men and the life of young women are often left out of the picture. Some issues expressed in “Just another girl on the IRT include: teenaged pregnancy, pursing higher education, and sex. Chantel engages recklessly in adult activity and was left to deal with the repercussions of her careless decisions. Her dreams and future goals of becoming a doctor were put on hold. She had to grow up faster than she had wanted to, in order to figure out how to handle her pregnancy. The issue of abortion and women’s rights were explored in the movie. She handles the pregnancy issue irresponsibly. Instead of trying to deal with her the pregnancy she ignored the problem. She hid her pregnancy from her parents and spent the money her boyfriend gave her for an abortion on clothes. Director Harris tells in a news article, “its not lack of opportunity that keeps Chantel from ending her pregnancy: it’s her own inability to act, to believe that anything might come between her and her imagined future” (Phillips). It is evident that she is reacting to adult responsibilities as a child would, because she is still a child herself. There is a celebration of hip-hop and rap throughout the entire film. Black girls and women are typically represented in all popular forms of media as hyper-sexualized objects, angry, and many other negative attributes. Harris’s film is focused on shifting the narrative and exploring black girlhood and adolescence, ““Empowerment is integral to the self-schemas of black girls and adolescents. Depictions of African-American girls and adolescent’s that circulate in popular culture can both disempower and empower” (Linds).
The orgin of war on drugs comes from President Nixon. He dramatically increased the presence of federal drug control and pushed mandatory sentencing for drug possession. The “Just Say No” campaign was publicized by the anti-drug campaign. This kind of atmosphere set the stage for zero tolerance policies implemented in the mid to late 80’s carrying over into the 90s. Harsh sentencing laws such as mandatory minimums that keep blacks in prison for long periods was due to crack cocaine-sentencing disparities. “We now know, 45 years later, that the war on drugs is a war on people -- and more specifically, black and brown people, whom it has sought to demonize and silence, criminalizing generations of youth of color and creating severe drug-sentencing laws ultimately to target and incarcerate communities of color” (Williams CNN). You can see the drugs and guns culture illuminated in “Boyz n the Hood.” They left the community them to build themselves back up, “The effects of the war on drugs have been, and continue to be, devastating. The millions of parentless homes, the heartbreaking struggles with addiction, the financial desperation and the overall feeling that systems were built to hurt, not help, are painful consequences of racially motivated policies that continue rippling throughout our communities” (William).
Residential segregation is evident in both the films, from the run down neighborhood of South Central, LA to the projects of Brooklyn, NY. In the scene where Tre’s father is talking to the community about gentrification by the billboard, he explains how companies buys homes in a poor community for little to nothing to displace members of that community in order to rebuild to sell. He also makes a point to urge the community to stop destroying each other and their neighborhood. He wants them to take pride in their communities because clearly the government doesn’t care to fix the problems, problems that they brought onto the black community to begin with.
Rap music/culture war may have enhanced perception of the black criminality. Hip Hop may be influencing a dysfunctional black culture. What’s said in hip hop reflects the black underclass dysfunction. Society is confusing those people expressing the struggles they go there and capitalizing of it in music industry, thus “Calling black culture dysfunctional overshadows a vibrant tradition of revealing the cultural contributions of African-Americans.” Rap music is functioning as an out for those in struggling communities to express themselves. “Criticism of this so-called culture of dysfunction revolves around the notion that poor urban black people have themselves created and perpetuated a culture of violence, sexual deviance/excess, and illiteracy.” But they’re ignoring the social context to which underclass urban black people live.
“Boyz in the Hood,” also addresses another interesting theme of juvenile delinquency.

The film shed some light on some possible reasons as to why juveniles commit crimes. Throughout the film it is seen that “through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behavior,” also known as Edwin Sutherland’s differential association. The boys in the film are influenced by social and peer pressure to get involved in gang activity and juvenile delinquency. It is common throughout the film that the boys in the film are to respect the unspoken rules of the neighborhood and if not the response is dealt with by the use of violence. Another prominent theory to explain the juvenile delinquency in this flim is social disorganization theory, which “delinquency is caused by neighborhood in which a person lives.” This film takes place in what is known as the transitional zone, where most crime occurs and lack of all kinds of opportunity for one to better

themselves.
I enjoyed watching “Boyz n the Hood” and “Just Another Girl on the IRT.” They both explored black boyhood and girlhood growing up in communities that are meant to break young black children down. From analyzing these two films I learned the importance of telling black stories and experiences from a black perspective. I also learned the importance of seeing black people reflected on screen. It seems like the experiences of black people got lost in films but they are starting to slowly reappear and reinvent themselves.