Soc 325 7-1 Final Projection Submission

The film "Boys in the Hood" explores themes of racial inequality, family, capitalism, poverty, and trauma, showcasing the experiences of black boys growing up in America. It emphasizes the importance of a father figure in a young man's life and addresses social issues such as crime, violence, and police brutality. The film analyzes these issues from a sociology perspective, using theories such as functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. It highlights the challenges faced by black communities and raises questions about bias, discrimination, and trust in the police. The film's storyline follows three friends who navigate different paths and confront various social problems in their neighborhood. It depicts the complexity of their lives and the impact of their surroundings on their choices and behaviors. Overall, the film sheds light on the realities of urban America and the need for social change to achieve justice and equality. Hello, everyone, and welcome to my final part for Sociology 325. My film for our sociology analysis is going to be Boys in the Hood. I chose this film because I remember an article a few years ago from Essence. The article was in July 2021, and it stated it's been nearly 30 years since Boys in the Hood hit the big screen. Yet the film portrays a racial inequality in American remains culturally impact today. By exploring themes of family capitalism, poverty, and trauma, the movie changed perceptions about the black experience in America. This is still true today, and as a mother of boys, this movie hit home for me. The movie, the boys in the movie represent three distinctions, yet familiar outcomes seen among black boys raised in America. I am thankful that my husband raised my son at six months, and my son was blessed to have a father figure to raise him. One of the social issues in the film is that African American men must take more responsibility for raising their children, especially their boys. They need fathers to show them how to be a black man in America. There is other social structure perspectives in Boys in the Hood, exhibiting urban justice for children growing up in urban America with crime and violence. Summary about Boys in the Hood movie is taking place in Los Angeles, California, that paints or draw a picture of the social problems and issues that arrived in the early 90s. It shows the plot line of three guys who were our best friends that grew up in the hood on the same street, and the problems they faced daily. One friend lives with his father, and the other two friends live in a single mother household. After Trey got into a fight in school, Reva, his mother, sent him to live in Crenshaw neighborhood of South Central with his father, Jason Ferris, spouse Junior, from whom she hoped her son would learn how to be a black man. This is when Trey reunited with his childhood friends, Darren, Doughboy, Baker, Doughboy half-brother, Ricky, and their friend, Chris. The film shows the three friends dealing with several social issues, and how they are all separate. They all have separate paths. Doughboy, he's involved in crime and gang. Ricky, teen sex and teen parent, and utilizing his talent in football to obtain a scholarship. Trey, police brutality, fighting to stay out of violence and drug. The film, Boys in the Hood, highlights the importance of a father in a young man's life. The film displays the consequences of this enforced, systematic structure and its aftermath. Lastly, it exhibits police brutality. It's more known for white officers and black people. However, it's all police officers, black and white. From a sociology view, I start thinking and asking the following questions. Why is a father figure important in a boy's life? Why does bias and discrimination show up in the black community? Why do the police respond faster to white communities? And do minority communities trust the police to protect and serve them as a white American? Film analysis methods help you to break down a film into various components. You can play them and understand how they work together to create art. Today, we're going to discuss analyzing boys in the hood, utilizing sociology theories. From a sociology view, I think in looking at critical reviews, critics' reviews, we may find answers to my questions. Remember, my questions were, why is a father figure important in a boy's life? Why does bias and discrimination show up in a black community? And why do the police respond faster to the white communities? And do minority communities trust the police to protect and serve them while white Americans, black and white Americans? In my search for three reviews, articles, or blog posts for my boys in the hood movie, I looked at rottentomatoes.com, and I selected an evaluation due to the fact he was a black male, but he wasn't American. His name was Lloyd Bradley with Empire, and as he described the film with these comments, boys in the hood portray a residence as exactly what you will find in any other part of town, just less wealthy, affords a dignity and an enormity of black life. But more importantly, their self-containedness, characters, and lives are not seen merely as related to white people, allowing the underlying message of their need to take responsibility for themselves to be perceived as able to offer a solution. This article supports the fundamentalist theory. My next person was Kenneth Turner. I selected his evaluation because I wanted to see through the eyes of a white male their perspective of father or male role in a boy's life. Kenneth states the story boys tell focused on Trey's style, his relationship with his father, Ferris, and his two friends, the brothers, Ricky and Doughboy. The picture first half focused on the boys as preteens. Trey's divorced mother reluctantly agreed with Ferris' contentions that only a new father can teach him how to be a man. Besides, her son would be better off living with his father. Ferris is soon developed as a role model with a vengeance. A low-key African-American nationalist teaches Trey not only personal responsibilities but also cultural pride. As the film wears on, Trey's only characteristic in his infringement, pessimism, and commitment to the path his parents had laid out for him leaving South Central and pursuing a college degree. Indeed, from the camera's eyes, it's not what he does but what he refuses to do. Drink, steal drugs, and the film's final act, murder. That makes him who he is. The fact that both of Trey's parents are still in the picture is an admonition as well as the necessity of traditional gender roles. This article supports a Symbiotic Interactional Theory. My last selection was a female. You know I gotta have a girl in here. Alice S. King, a black female writer. She did a commentary titled, Police, Brutality, and Boys in the Hood. Are things better or worse, she states. Boys in the Hood hit me in my gut. I knew it wasn't fiction. And then I finally understood what was happening around the entire country for young black men and women. The police shooting database shows that police shoot and kill roughly 1,000 people a year in the United States. However, only 110 officers since 2005 have been charged with murder or manslaughter and only 420 officers have been convicted. In other words, the use of force became legalized because everyone does it and no one says anything about it. This article supports a Conflict Theory. The three theological perspective guides sociology thinking on social problems, functionalism theory, conflict theory, and Symbolic Interactional Theory all were represented in my film review. These perspectives look at the social problems, but they do in different ways. The film portrays issues of urban justice through stories of children growing up in an urban America. The film has brought visual image of this franchise, violent neighborhoods, and obstacles involving growing up in these neighborhoods. What I have discovered about my own personal assumptions and bias was if I lived in the right neighborhood and obeyed the law, I would be safe. None of that matters because the first thing people see is the color of your skin. And depending on their personal problem, perceptions or mores will determine if there will be an increased likelihood of engagement in excesses, force, or being rude. From a structural fundamentalism emphasized the importance of social institute or social stability and implies that far-reaching social change will be socially harmful. Conflict theory emphasizes social inequality and suggests that far-reaching social change is needed to achieve a just society. The impact of the film Boys in the Hood is neutral based on the sociology context by the way it is viewed. What is sociology? Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social cause of consequences of human behavior. Sociology investigates the structure of group organizations and society and how people interact within their contents. The purpose of phenomenal viewpoint is to make clear the way in which society makes their daily reality significant. I think our learning module 5 quote explains phenomenology. Phenomenology, sociology, not only are attentive in the ways individuals, it also investigates the ways the social reality in turn act upon them. The movie Boys in the Hood is a representative of African American way of life in suburban and urban surroundings. The film issues us with many messages of black on black violence, poverty, gentrification, the importance of a father in a young man's life, and education in young African Americans. The film's storyline shows the complexity in three young men growing up in an environment where gang violence and crime was normal, all which were different internal issues. Trey, an honor roll student, who had a dream of going to college. Trey had both of his families in his life. His father played a vital role in teaching him integrity, responsibility, and character. Then there's Ricky, a good football player, who is trying to earn a scholarship to college and think this is his way to a successful life. Last is Ricky's brother, Doughboy. Doughboy is a gang member that is in violence, crime, drugs, and alcohol. All three young men were raised in a very isolated community. However, there are many pauses as to why they did not all become isolated. In the movie, it shows many opportunities the boys had to engage in isolated behavior. Some did choose to, while others did not. The boys' conduct and personality was determined by social control and the conflict theory. Conflict theory is a social theory that posts that society is in a state of perplexed conflict because of competition for limited resources. The social control is sociology theory that explores the cause of individual engagement in criminal behavior. The living condition in the movie is in South Central, which is known to be a never-ending cycle of events in poverty-stricken neighborhoods. The neighborhood is known to be the center of gang violence and poverty in Los Angeles. The lack of resources results in crime for people to support their family. The above example is applying theoriotic perspective. A classic theory used in this film is structural fundamentalism created by Capra Parsons. The social institutes that make up society, such as economic, education, family, religion, and media, all perform a useful purpose, also influence members of society. In the movie Boys in the Hood, the scene where Treyfather explains how there is a design plan, organization, and run to complete a defined aim. In the scene, Treyfather says it's called justification. It happens when property values of a certain area is brought down that brings the property values down so they can buy the land at a low price. Then they move all the people out, raise the property value, and sell it at a profit. If you want to talk about guns, why is there a gun shop on every corner here? I'll tell you why. Just like there is a liquor store on every corner in the black community. Why? They want us to kill ourselves. You go out to Beverly Hills, you don't see that shit. Then they want us to kill ourselves. The best way to destroy a person is to take away their ability to reproduce. The insight was to educate youth about justification. The other insight was for us to make an accusation about the racism within our structure of our society, racial killing of black African American individuals. Contemporary sociology theories are built upon the basic foundation set by classical social theory. Contemporary theory holds different assumptions about human nature. That is, about the nature of human being and the motivation for human social action. In the movie Boys in the Hood, the sound of gunshots around southern central LA and helicopters patrolling at night, many African Americans find it hard to escape the condition. Everyone has a social and economic goal. The goal can be hard for a lower class citizen to obtain, so they choose alternate means of achieving success with illegal activities like theft, violence, and selling of drugs. This is exhibited through the character Doughboy. At the beginning of the movie, there is a cookout to celebrate Doughboy getting out of prison and back home. Doughboy carefully went to prison for stealing. He sold drugs, and in the end, he committed murder. Doughboy's environment and decisions of others have put him in a self-destructive behavior. Some additional research was in Carl Thompson's article about laboring theory of crime. There was some useful information to analyze Boys in the Hood. This article said people do not become criminals because of their social background. Crime emerged because of laboring by authority. Crime is the product of interactions between certain individuals and the police, rather than social background. If we look at Doughboy, who needed love from his mother, and because he did not receive it at home, went out and joined a gang to have a sense of belonging. His mother labored him in the movie. She said, you ain't shit. You are just like your daddy. You do not do shit, and you're never going to amount to shit. These comments show laboring by authority in Doughboy, his mother. In my other article by Carl titled, The Functionalism Perspective on Crime and Devices, he states that the functionalism perspective on crime and devices starts with society. It seeks to explain crime by looking at the nature of society, rather than an individual. Most functionalism thinkers argue that crime contributes to social order, even though it seems to undermine it. One, a limited amount of crime is inevitable, even necessary. Two, crime has positive functions. A certain amount of crime contributes to the well-being of a society. Three, on the other hand, too much crime is bad for society and can help bring about its collapse. The last comment is what Furies was speaking of in the movie. It also makes you think about the Doughboy comment. Either they don't know, they don't show, or they don't care about what's going on in the hood. In reviewing the two articles laboring, it's powerful. Trey Penn laboring him for going to college to obtain an education. Ricky Mother labored him to obtain a football scholarship to go to college to be her ticket out of the hood. Doughboy Mother labored him as a good-for-nothing criminal. The men in the film are living the life their authority figures spoke over them. On the flip side, my second article was about functionalism perspectives on crime. A limited amount of crime is inevitable. However, too much crime will bring down society. Is this the ultimate plan for the African-American community? Boys in the Hood was an accurate representative of how the issue exhibits in the real world. It exhibits a story of the ways in which young African-American men develop their masculinities and what or who becomes a part of making what happens. Another real-world relevance today is being fed up with the hassle treatment for police. Police are to serve the community and protect. We do pay their salary. Black men are still facing police brutality. There is a scene in the movie where Trey Stiles is unable to control his anger and goes in a rage because he cannot do anything about the police brutality. I can only imagine how all our black males feel. In 2024, the following African-American men have been killed by police brutality. Cliff Brooks, age 41. Isaac Goodloe, age 30. Terrell Miller, age 4. Tedosa Smith, age 17. Samuel Sterling, age 25. And Frank Tyson, age 53. That's just a few names. As far as whether I would apply the same previous selected theories in my understanding, that the contemporary and classic theories that can be applied to systematic racism in the film can also be applied to the issues in the real world. Or conflict theory can be applied to understand the effect and frictions that arise due to systematic racism. Simply, symbolic interactalisms can help us understand how racial stereotypes and prejudice and perplexity through social interaction. Considering I'm a sociology major, there are many ways to study sociology has already made beneficial to my choice of field. I'm currently applying these in my current role in the medical field. Studies that focus on the relationship between society, learning that structuralism and functionalism tend to approach the relationship of self and society from the point of the influence of society on the individual has helped me with dealing with all types of people. And to accept them where they are in their current life, which helps me to be a better advocate for the patients and understand that their answers to some of the questions will be different based off their structure in their lives. I aligned with the interactionalist theory, which states that individual learns about society through interacting with others. And that society is created by a multitude of individual interactions. I know I should have focused more on the gang affiliation, the impact of drugs and violence, and the disinvestment in communities. But as I mentioned earlier, the reason this movie was important to me was I'm a mother with two sons. My sons are African American males, ages 28 and 34. Taking this class and looking at this movie from a sociology perspective had given me new insight. This was reflected in the movie, in the film, and is in real life. The film does challenge a lot of social issues. Things like dreams deferred with black males being killed due to crime or gangs, police brutality, fatherhood in a black community, life watching decisions a male, a black male has to deal with daily, the cycle that continues to happen over and over again, and last, gentrification. I believe this film has made a positive impact because it provides a true lens of what is taking place in the African American low income community. To have a social change in these communities, we must promote equality. To promote equality, you must educate yourself. Be aware, raise awareness, and advocate for policy change. Thank you.