The film, Straight Outta Compton
The film, Straight Outta Compton tracks the journey of a gangster rap group throughout the group's musical journey. The group, N.W.A (Niggas with Attitude) comprises of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, DJ Yella, and MC Ren. The group is widely renowned for its immense impact on the history of Hip-Hop and in particular gangster rap. The group is also known for bringing lights to the plights of the African-Americans at the time (Haupt 208). The film portrays the harsh and challenging conditions that African-Americans faced at the time. Correctly, the film shows the dominant racism and police brutality that was rampant at the time. This paper explores how the film integrates sociological concepts such as race, gender, and sexuality.
Race
Racism
The film Straight Outta Compton illustrates the story of five prominent individuals in the Hip-Hop scene who were victims of institutional racism and stereotypes. Institutional racism refers to societal patterns and norms that subject members of a particular race or ethnicity to adverse and hostile conditions (Fredrickson 18). Usually, with institutional racism, the blanket condemnation emanates from government institutions such as schools, court and other government agencies. Stereotyping, which in the context of this film can be regarded as inferential racism, entails the reduction of a group of individuals into a single dimension. As Fredrickson (30) posits in his work, inferential racism involves factual and fictional naturalized representations of events and people based on racists' premises and propositions, which are further underlined by certain assumptions.
In the Film Straight Outta Compton
In the Film Straight Outta Compton, we gain the first-hand experience on how members of N.W.A (Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, DJ Yella, and MC Ren) get subjected to both institutional and inferential racism. In one scene of the film, the members of the N.W.A are out of their studio recording before the police show up. The cops show up for they think that N.W.A are either drug dealers or gang members. However, a detailed look of the scene shows that the primary reason why the police showed up is that the N.W.A were black, and they looked suspicious (Haupt 211). It is apparent this is a form of institutional and inferential racism earlier defined. After showing up, the police proceeded on to order the members of the N.W.A group to lay down so that they could frisk them. Additionally, the police forcefully threw some of the members to the ground and made it known to them that they were armed. Herein it is clear that the police used their power (institutional) to discriminate against the N.W.A members. The police reduced the N.W.A to the stereotype that they are drug dealers and gang members for the mere reason that they are black. This is even though the police lacked sufficient evidence to suggest that the N.W.A were doing anything illicit. They only found them outside the sidewalks eating their food and recording.
Moreover, it is also particularly interesting to note that one of the chief officers who ordered the N.W.A to lie down was also Black. It is discouraging to observe that it is blacks, who were perpetuating the negative stereotypes against members of their ilk. Later on even after being proved wrong by N.W.A White manager Jerry, the police, nevertheless continued being aggressive and harsh on the N.W.A. It is also equally exciting to note that N.W.A were only freed when their White manager intervened. The scene peddles the narrative that the police did not trust individuals of African- American descent. The N.W.A had earlier informed the police that they were musicians, but the police could not believe them, not until Jerry intervened.
White Supremacy
In addition, the fact that N.W.A group manager, Jerry is a White has some significance regarding the theme of race in the film. Jerry has some form of authority and superiority over the group, albeit different from the one the police possess. He uses his vast knowledge and experience in the industry to inform the members on what he intends to do with the group's finances, labels and music production among others. N.W.A group members accept all Jerry says exemplifying the sub-theme of white superiority that the directors aimed at depicting (Haupt 210). Throughout history, Whites have regulated African-Americans in the USA (Haupt 209). The film directors achieve this by allowing Jerry (White) control all the activities of the N.W.A (Blacks). Later on in the film, we observe how Eazy E (who is the lead rapper) falls out with Jerry for the purported embezzlement of the group funds and taking significant amounts of their record deals without the group members' knowledge. Through this scene, we understand the aura of white supremacy that pervaded through the 80'S. Besides, we also get to see how Whites continually exploited African-Americans.
Gender
In the sociological context, gender refers to the social classification of individuals based on their identities, presentation, interactions with other individuals and behavior (Fredrickson 24). In Straight Outta Compton, Blacks males are projected as uncultured individuals with both undesirable and uncouth traits (Craig 110). The film portrays male characters in the movie as hegemonic. They are the social dominant class in the society and are often in control of the situation. Additionally, the film projects classical portrayals of masculinity such as aggression, toughness, and emotional disconnect. However, it is important to note that the film depicts Black and White Masculinity differently. For instance, in the preamble part of the firm, the lead character is seen entering a house used for drug dealing. In the House, there are only African Americans and a Latino woman. Arguably, this exemplifies the concept of black masculinity that is dominant in our society today. Black masculinity gets depicted through violence (in this case drug dealing), oppression of women, most often done sexually (in this case one Latino women in a house full of blacks) and a pervading aura of superiority.
Conversely, white Masculinity gets depicted differently. Throughout the film, White's masculinity gets represented as an advanced form of black masculinity. The whites through the main white character, Jerry are depicted as having some elevated form of intelligence. Jerry exerts his intellectual dominance over all the black casts in the film. He controls all the legal and financial aspects of the N.W.A group. The concept of white masculinity relies minimally on violence as we observe from how Jerry handles his conflicts. Jerry manages his disputes with the police differently, in a civilized manner that entails suing the police. On the other hand, the N.W.A members handle their conflicts with the police violently.
The film also depicts the male gaze, feminist theory in the way through which the members of N.W.A treat female characters (Craig 109). This is a core tenet of the black masculinity earlier mentioned. Throughout the plethora of party scenes in the film, there are always naked women who have sexual contacts with most of the male characters. The male characters get depicted as being apathetic to the presence of naked women in their parties and the women having sex with all the male characters. The N.W.A inadvertently treat sex perhaps exemplifying how the film objectifies women in the movie. Besides the fact that women characters in the film are not given screenplay names save for one scene, where one woman is referred to as the mother. Moreover, in scenes where the male characters are in the clubs, they only introduce themselves to the club owners, despite having female casts in their company.
Sexuality
Sexism refers to the beliefs of the hegemony of one sex over another, and hence the rights of that sex to exert dominion/authority over the other sex (Fredrickson 16). Sexism often gets depicted through sexual harassment, rape and other forms of sexual violence cast on the members of the 'inferior' sex. In the Film, Straight Outta Compton, members of the N.W.A degrade females in the film by referring to them through vile and sexist names in their music lyrics. In various scenes of the film, black women get depicted as overbearing mothers or semi-naked sexual props.
To sum it up we have shown that various sociological concepts are embedded in the film of Straight Outta Compton. In particular, we have shown how the film incorporates relevant sociological concepts such as gender, sexuality, and race. The subject of race gets depicted in the movie through the blatant racism and white superiority that pervades throughout the film. The film illustrates the concept of gender through its detailed description of black and white forms of masculinity. Lastly, we have seen that the film depicts sexuality through the derogatory remarks, which the members of the N.W.A refer to the women.
Works Cited
Craig, Todd. "Straight Outta English." (2017): 119-122.
Fredrickson, George M. Racism: A short history. Princeton University Press, 2015.
Haupt, Adam. "“True to the Game”: Straight Outta Compton's Affirmation of White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy." Black Camera 8.2 (2017): 208-225.
