Straight Outta Compton was released in 2015 which was a true story of a group of 5 African American men who initiated of famous hip-hop and drop group named NWA in 1985. The famous rap members formed many musical compositions regarding their life experiences in Compton which is recognized as one of the most dangerous places in America. In the movie, the boys discuss their experiences in dealing with institutionalized racism even when they were known to be a famous Rap group. Universal Pictures for recognized their attempts to fight against this racist ideologies by saying, “their voice ignited a social revolution that is still reverberating today”.
The story reveals the history of all of the group members and how stereotypically held annotations affected their musical career by reducing them to a single dimension where everyone judged them for the color of the skin and not for their skills. The racist premises and propositions by other led the members to be mistreated many times all over the movie for instance in the scene when they were standing outside their recording studio and policemen try to rest them thinking that they were drug dealers or gang members of some sort all due to the colored of their skin and by thinking that their physical appearance was suspicious and dangerous. as the singing group tried to defend themselves by telling the policeman they work at the recording studio, the policeman continued to yell at them and told them to put their hands up and lay still to search them or any drugs or weapons of some sort.
The Black men continually kept asking the policemen (all the while following their commands) why they were being detained or searched but each of them was gathered by multiple police officers who motion there weapons on their hands making it known that day could use that any time. The scene particularly showed that the police officers didn’t even bother to wait for them to lay down but instead pushed them to the ground to make them obey. The sheer exercise of Power by the policemen is a true picture of our society today. The discrimination against the gang members all due to the fact that they were people of color and were stereo typically reduced to being members of a single community was entirely unethical and a pure example of institutional racism where police arrested black men thinking of them as typical gang members without any evidence.
The gang members were seen to be arrested particularly by a black police officer, which profoundly showed the significance of the role of perpetuating thinking by the Black officers by regarding their own community members as gangsters or drug dealers without any evidence. This talks a lot about the present condition of the society which continues to be worsened as the people of color who are in position of power continue to exploit their own kind and remain ignorant of their suffering.
The police chose not to believe the singers all because they looked like thugs and continued to mistreat them even when the white manager vouched for their roles. The police force is a social institution whose role is to provide justice and security to everyone without any discrimination, however, they exercised their power in a negative way which is seen all over the world today. The movie is an attempt to highlight the atrocities faced by people of color in every institution like governmental organizations, schools, banks, and courts of law where they are effectively beleaguered by law enforcement agencies and unjustly imprisoned or killed by adhering them as threats.
References
Smith-Shomade, Beretta E. “” Rock-a-bye, baby!”: black women disrupting gangs and constructing hip-hop gangsta films.” Cinema Journal 42.2 (2003): 25-40.
