A Look at Mainstream Views of Street Gangs Through Hollywood Films

The common stereotype of gangs is that their members are young, violent, amoral, and involved in illegal activity. Too often, these stereotypes are also applied to anyone who lives in the inner city. Even in Albany, students are warned not to make eye contact with anyone who looks tough or "gang-like" (the unstated meaning is don't mess with young black males). Wearing blue and red, the gang colors of the Bloods and the Crypts, could even get you in trouble. No one I know has ever had any kind of interaction with real gang members or even inner-city youths, yet they are fearful of them just the same. The only firsthand experience I have had was with a "fake" gang in high school. This was simply a group of suburban friends who hung out together and thought they were tough. Other students referred to them as a "fake" gang because group members didn't have any of the features we normally associate with gangs. They were not violent, they had no organized rivals, and they only occasionally engaged in illegal activity. In short, their behavior was not that much different from most other students. Real gang members are different from the rest of us. 

Many stereotypes exist about gangs, yet most people really don't know that much about gangs. The films Colors, Boyz n the Hood, The Art of War, and American Me portray both inner-city youths and gang life including gang members relationship with mainstream society. Do these recent films about gangs try to get behind the stereotypes that most of us have about gangs? Do they portray gang members as dramatically different people from the rest of us or do they reveal similarities? 

This paper tries to answer these questions. It also uses some of the sociological findings on gangs and life in the inner city to discuss how realistic these newer film portrayals of gangs are. 

Literature Review