Author: Kate Bustamante
Politics professor Thalia Gonzales presented the documentary “Crips and Bloods: Made in America” on Wednesday, Oct. 26 as part of the Fall social justice film series, “Justice, Community Action, and Social Change,” that she organized this year. The film highlights the origins and the current state of the most famous gangs in America: the Crips and the Bloods.
While Occidental College prides itself on being an “urban liberal arts school,” giving its students the opportunity to explore the city of Los Angeles, students likely know little about the dangerous gang war, “one of the longest wars in American history,” going on in their backyard.
Shown in context with two other films shown in previous weeks, “When Kids Get Life” and “Juvies,” “Crips and Bloods” has won official selection at the Sundance, Los Angeles and Torino film festivals, among many others. Critically-acclaimed director Stacy Peralta’s other documentary, “Dogtown and Z-Boys,” has also won several awards including “Best Documentary” at the Independent Spirit Awards. Born and raised in West Los Angeles, Peralta witnessed firsthand the 1992 riots, which were spurred by gang tensions and wreaked havoc on the city.
As a result, he began questioning the reasons why such violence broke out a second time since the infamous 1965 Watts Riots. He also questioned why two of the most notorious African-American gangs were formed in L.A.
Thus began a 15-year long project in which Peralta explored the lives of the people involved in the Bloods and the Crips. He has said this film was his most personal and his most difficult to make.
With music from Snoop Dog and the Game setting the mood for the story, Peralta documents how the Crips and the Bloods emerged from the extreme racial tensions affecting the nation.
The story starts with three South L.A. boys who created “street-front fraternities” in response to the exclusion of African-Americans from the Boy Scouts of America. From these social groups emerged a negative connotation of black youth in society.
Relations between these young men and the white population grew tenuous, particularly with the white police. Blatant racist treatment from society’s officials left these boys “culturally distorted,” self-hate bubbling up inside them.
When the Watts Riots broke out and black culture was in total disarray, they formed two gangs in response. First, the Crips and shortly after, the Bloods, who would become, as Kumasi, one of the original gang members, said, “instruments of their own oppression.”
“The film asks viewers to consider the following questions: if affluent, middle-class white American teenagers were forming gangs, arming themselves with automatic weapons and killing one another, how would our country respond?” asks Gonzales.
“Would our government step in to investigate the crisis, counsel the victims, heal the community and direct funds towards a lasting solution? Or would our government allow this violence to continue unabated, decade after decade after decade?” he asked.
By following the stories of several former gang members, “Crips and Bloods” gives its viewers an insider perspective on the two gangs, providing a first-hand look at what it is like to be members and why they got involved.
Most members say that drugs, poverty and flaws in the justice system tore their families apart and forced them to find family in a gang. Once in the gang, as one former member explained, “It is kill or be killed.” These stories carefully address the harsh reality of what gang violence has done to these young people.
The film addresses how society has negligently dealt with the problem of gang violence. Individual members of society do not view themselves as having any relation to gang violence while the government seems to actively avoid confronting it. Violence between the Bloods and the Crips consequently continues to perpetuates itself.
More young people get involved in gangs because they lack economic stability or a proper education. Because they have already been stratified as the “problem children” of society, they do not get the help they need.
Professor Gonzales hopes the film series will create an open dialogue and encourage engagement in the Occidental community about issues like homelessness, gang culture, juvenile justice, civil rights and economic justice, to name a few.
“I believe that a liberal arts education should be committed to fostering dialogue both inside and outside the classrooms about the complexity and diversity of the world,” she said. “The films I select each semester reflect a continuous dialogue with students and showcase the power of narrative storytelling.”
The social justice film series continues with the 1992 documentary “Incident At Ogala,” which details the murder of two FBI agents on an Indian reservation, next Wednesday, Nov. 2.
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