SCREENING RACE

ALEXANDRA MCCALLA The “hood” spaces of South Central in Los Angeles and — North Kensington in West London—known as Grove, Boyz n the Hood (1991) short for the area’s main road Ladbroke Grove—both Kidulthood (2006) experienced an influx of black migrant workers in the first half of the 20th century. The films Boyz n the Hood (1991) and Kidulthood (2006) explore the current problems of the South Central and Grove hoods respectively, while presenting the effects of the historical construction of these spaces. Both are written and directed by black men, set and shot in the areas in which they grew up, John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood (Boyz) and Noel Clarke’s Kidulthood intimately reveal the nuances of their hoods. Through analysing the two hood films’ depiction of race and space, the socio-economic effects on race relations in London and LA can be examined. The “Great Migration” in the US, out of the South from 1910-1930, due to obtainable wealth in factory jobs, caused a shift in the African American identity; black people were not simply associated with the South’s con- 4 notations of slavery. Rheid-Pharr explains, “the black American was in some ways losing her ability to name Alexandra is currently in her third year completng herself properly, distinctly. Black identity could no lon- a double major in Economics and Cinema Studies. Within cinema studies, she has a particular ger be associated with a specific region, caste, economic interest in racial representation and identity of status, erotic affinity, or biology” (5). Following the the black diaspora in the UK. She was born in Canada, but grew up mainly in London, UK, in the Depression, the structure of hood spaces—like South area where Kidhulthood (2006) is set. Her essay Central LA, the setting of Boyz—and the flight of the interrogates issues of identity in multicultural cites, some of which she herself has experienced. black middle class convey “the cityscape as a metaphor Currently, she is also taking courses in behavioural for African American experience” (Massood, “Mapping” and experimental economics, with the aim to complete a research study on media’s financial 94). Singleton conveys this experience, “while Boyz reactons to new convergent media consumpton. explores the limits placed on the residents of the hood,

ALEXANDRA MCCALLA 49 its solutions actually replicate the problems that first contributed to the conditions with his food, not intently watching Doughboy. Tre does not look up and acknowledge under investigation—demonization of the black mother and the flight of the black Doughboy walking towards him until after the drug deal. Does this display Tre dis- middle classes from the inner city” (Massood, Black City 161). Migration, therefore, tancing himself from the effects of drugs on the neighbourhood to enable his escape, strongly affected African Americans’ view of their identity. or is it simply ingrained in his environment, and no longer noticeable? Either way the The UK, however, experienced a black Caribbean influx around 1950, often referred editing informs us that it is actually our gaze, not Tre’s, which drives this shot. It is to as the ‘Windrush Generation’, who were invited to work in industries like transport the viewer’s intrigue in the operation of the space as a separate entity, yet within, the to build the British economy. The immigrants settled in areas previously dominated well-known stable environment of LA. by the white working class, because the cheaper rents and space allowed the close- Doughboy’s nihilistic thought process and involvement in drug dealing are knit community to remain together. The Grove area—the setting of Kidhulthood—is purposely revealed side-by-side. Doughboy’s nihilistic chat with Tre about shooting exemplary of this pattern; this area like others has experienced other waves of immi- Ricky’s killers follows the drug deal: “Shit just goes on and on, you know. Next thing gration since, for example Moroccans. Grove’s multicultural construction in Kidhult- you know somebody might try and smoke me… Don’t matter though we all gotta go hood facilitates the examination of how race, and British Blackness, functions within a sometime huh?” Doughboy’s understanding of, and resignation to, his ceaseless nihil- London hood film and space. Understanding the differences between the Black British istic situation hints towards the psyche of the colonial subject. Nadell states, “low-end and African American experience of the socially constructed hood space elucidates retail sector of the narcotics industry, [is] invariably projected to be young African the affect of colonisation and immigration on current dialectics. Gilroy explains this American Lumpenmen and women. […] American racist capitalism, via the institu- relationship: “The communicative networks produced across the Atlantic triangle are tions of slavery and its offspring internal colonialism, created the psychological/polit- pre-colonial, and understanding their complex effects is only obscured by simplistic ical/economic/cultural oppression suffered by African Americans” (456). As Furious appeals to the unifying potency of an overarching ‘colonial discourse’. […] The his- says, “we are not the people who are flyin’ and floatin’ that shit in here […] Why? They tories of these different ‘racial’ groups, though connected, are markedly different” want us to kill ourselves.” The importance of his message is emphasized by the low (98-99). The fabrication of the cityscape, or hood, and how this is conveyed on film, angle of Furious with the billboard in the background and the shot reverse shot on the is a metaphor for the African American experience, and arguably the Black British separate groups—framing him as a teacher. The shot reverse shot changes to over the experience too. shoulder between Furious and one boy who raises the question, “what am I supposed After the Great Depression factories closed in LA, and the ludicrous concentrated to do? Fool roll up and try to smoke me. Ima shoot the muthafucker before he kill me unem-ployment that followed became accepted by inhabitants of the hood. The per- first.” Stuart Hall identifies this attitude as an overall problem with the US as opposed petual state of un-employment led to the rise of crime and drug use, a cyclical duo. to the UK, “there is a kind of “nothing ever changes, the system always wins” (Hall, Massood explains this rise, “introduced in the early to mid-1980s [crack cocaine] “Black Popular” 24). The quote suggests that internal colonisation embeds a deeper changed the urbanscape. […] Crack became a way to make a profitable living, and this complex within the psyche of the colonised. translated in to the expansion of materialism and nihilism in black youth culture” Conversely, Clarke endeavours to diversify the Black British experience. He (Black City 151). Doughboy, played by rapper Ice Cube, embodies the ramifications of therefore battles with the “issue [that] can be characterized as the critical difference unemployment and the presence of drugs. He personifies the perpetual cycle that between a monologic tendency in black film which tends to homogenize and totalize these impoverishing factors create—in and out of jail, shooting and being shot. After the black experience in Britain, and a dialogic tendency which is responsive to the Ricky dies, Doughboy goes over to talk to Tre and the audience witnesses Doughboy’s diverse and complex qualities of our black Britishness and British blackness” (Mer- illegal activity for the first time. The use of a long shot, capturing the whole casual cer 62). Clarke does this by recruiting a varied ensemble cast—different genders and exchange on the deserted street, and the quiet diegetic sound suggests the interplay races—and combines this with the use of montage, especially leading up to the suicide between the normality and perversity of the action. Initially the audience assumes that discovery. A dialogic black experience is then conveyed in this multifaceted story of this represents Tre’s gaze from his porch, but the cut back to Tre reveals him concerned one-day. For example, Jay’s identity as the only white, feasibly Moroccan, key male

50 CAMÉRA STYLO ALEXANDRA MCCALLA 51 character, is overtly called into question. In a distinctive London back street the trio provided relevance to UK films. However, unlike in American hip-hop neo-colonialist find themselves in a fight with two black males also of their social class. As Jay acci- relations influence British slang less. The influence of music in general can be related dentally bumps into one male it cuts to a closer shot, emphasising this collision. These to its vernacular, “nicknames and jargon are often healthy expressions of humour, shots signify Jay’s identity construction issues, the “labour […] of making identity [is] affection, and creativity, enabling a group or subculture to carve out a small domain a process that takes place at the point of collision of perspectives” (Munoz 6). The cam- of linguistic autonomy in defiance of authority. […] At a deeper level of analysis, the era tightly circles around the action as the man retorts, “I’m gonna buss you in your frequent use of the word nigger in the discourse of Boyz speaks to an internalization of head you fucking white pussyhole.” Gilroy’s postulations apply to the dynamics within the colonizers’ label on the part of the colonized” (Nadell 458). Comparatively, grime this scene: “the complex pluralism of Britain’s inner-urban streets demonstrates that, and Kidulthood excessively use the word “blud”, meaning brother—part of ones blood- among the poor, elaborate syncretic processes are under way. This is not simple inte- line—in Jamaican patois. This word does not possess the same strength of relationship gration, but a complex, non-linear phenomenon. […] The myth of cultural homogene- to the colonizer. British slang and music, therefore, present a different affiliation with ity is alive not just among Brit-nationalists and racists but among the anti-racists who the colonizer on the part of the colonized. strive to answer them” (101). Continually cutting between shots circling the action in Influential music actively affects the style of hood films due to its association different directions and perspectives accents Jay’s retaliation, “blud you think cause with the cityscape. After Furious’s generational song “Ooh Child (Things are Gonna I’m white I won’t knock you out, is that right blud. You know what let me take my hat Get Easier)” the pumping diegetic hip-hop throws the viewer into the present “Seven off, how about white boy skin head now mate.” This union of editing and camera move- Years Later.” Doughboy’s reveal captures the essence of hip-hop; the one take initially ment conveys the sudden rise of vexation. Along with Jay’s inner conflict, as he per- tracks along a woman’s “booty”, walking to the beat of the music. The shot then moves forms disidentification, which “is about recycling and rethinking encoded meaning” seamlessly on to the table—dipping past an alcohol bottle with the style and flow of (Munoz 31). British hoods hold similar US social problems, such as teen pregnancy, music videos—as Doughboy slams his domino down on the table. The camera sweeps drugs, and a surrounding nihilistic attitude—for example Becky’s response to the sui- up to reveal a threatening low angle close up of Doughboy as he calls out, “domino cide, “well she’s dead now nothing we can do about it.” It is the UK’s nuance issues, muthafuckers, what you say about that.” This displays how “many films use hip-hop however, that are indicative of the political differences. For example, the struggle to culture to add to their realism: ‘the characters look real because they dress in the style establish turf power, due to the proximity of classes and races, and the mindless close of hip hop, talk the lingo. Practice its world view towards police and women, and are contact violence. This violence is an uneducated response to the system that surrounds played by rap stars such as Ice Cube’” (Massood, Black City 159). Kidulthood utilizes them, rather than excludes them, like in LA. grime similarly, but couples the aggression of the music genre with the timed bellicose Unique connections can be drawn between urban music and the rise of hood films of the characters. For example, as the trio Trife, Jay, and Moony decide to infiltrate in both the UK and US. Hip-hop was influential in the construction and success of the Sam’s house to get Jay’s Gameboy back, a grime beat is non-diegetically “dropped”, American hood film, the “films were coming-of-age tales of young African American a classic drum and bass technique. A tracking shot then follows them as they walk men living in the inner city, what through rap lyrics had begun to be known as the with a bop to the beat and excitedly plot their revenge. Vernacular like “roll deep”, the hood. This […] particular “rap aesthetic,” which “draws its text directly from the lyrics name of a well-known grime crew, emphasizes the grime nature of the sequence. The of hip hoppers,” is what makes the films so relevant to […] the filmic representation of editing style is also used to mobilise grime music, shown when Sam, after he is beaten black urban space” (Massood, Black City 153). The genre of the hood film, commercially up in his home, talks on the phone about how he will “bang them up.” This sequence successful and realistically violent, however, did not develop in Britain until the mid- is edited together in a jumpy interruptive fashion, reflecting the non-diegetic grime 2000s with Bullet Boy (2004) and Kidulthood (2006). The inception of grime music—the music. Repeated phrases interjected through cuts with differing distances of framing. UK’s answer to hip-hop—in the early 2000s, conceivably gave rise to the British hood This turbulent editing follows the beat of the music, accentuating the music’s fast film as hip-hop did in America. Primarily developed from UK garage, drum and bass, pace, along with creating jerky speech patterns that are typically used by grime MC’s, hip-hop, and dancehall, and including area specific British slang, grime, like hip-hop, originating in UK Garage. The way these films employ music—projecting symbols,

52 CAMÉRA STYLO ALEXANDRA MCCALLA 53 attitudes, behaviour, and vernacular—signifies their cultural articulation of the space, hood deals with establishing a place in it. with relation to colonisation and ownership. This way that minorities relate to the hood follows Lowe’s theory of pluralist Favourable hood films typically tell a coming of age story due to the filmmakers’ multiculturalism—grouping together minority cultures in relation to the hegemonic environments growing up. Filmmakers feel obliged to tell their hood’s story, because culture—that portrays “the cityscape as a metaphor for African American experience” every hood is different. This causes realism to prevail in hood films, for example (Massood, Mapping 94). This pluralism exists because it “allow[s] us to ignore the pro- Ricky’s graphic and emotive death, which adds to the spectacle and success of the found and urgent gaps, the inequalities and conflicts, among racial, ethnic, and immi- genre. Massood connects this to Blaxploitation, “both Blaxploitation and hood films grant groups” (Lowe 421). Stripped of a strong relationship to Africa through slavery, were relatively low-risk, low-cost genres and each appeared during periods of financial the African American tends to reference a hood—a specific location—for cultural cit- crises within the industry.” (Massood, Black City 146). Spike Lee created an avenue for izenship. This is exhibited in the schoolroom scene at the beginning of Boyz, “I’m not African American filmmakers like Singleton to flourish. This avenue, combined with from Africa I’m from Crenshaw mafia.” Parents therefore are crucial to informing chil- their childhood experiences, watching Blaxploitation movies and trying to compre- dren of migration patterns so one can understand their origins, even if it differs from hend their generation’s identity in Hollywood and America, explains the success of one’s present physical and mental state. The capacity of the parent in Boyz decides coming of age stories that reflect the filmmakers’ identity and struggles. the survival and flight of the child, “the film stresses the importance of strong father The British Caribbean populace, on the other hand, reacted to the police oppres- figures as enabling factors in the survival of young African American men in the hood” sion and white working class hostility, which led to the race riots of 1958 and 1985, (Massood, Mapping 8). By contrast Black Britons are well aware of their Caribbean roots with combined doc-umentary and art cinema. Unlike Blaxploitation, the British film- but find themselves between the racial memory of their parents and the inherent sense makers, for example the Black Audio Film Collective, were not concerned with campy of Britishness that comes from being born and raised there. entertainment in “sticking it to the man”, but rather Black British identity. Mercer Clarke visually presents his generation in their mentally interstitial state. The identifies the reasons for this British development: stylisation of the montage set to the didactic song “Blinded by the Lights” calls atten- tion to Trife, and especially Alisa, in an interstitial space. They are alone and sepa- New modes of black British flmmaking are instances of “imperfect cinema”, […] rate from each other, in distress over their current entrapping situation. Handheld con-ducting research and experiments, adopting an improvisational approach close ups of the characters stumbling through space sets up their socio-psychological and hopefully learning from active mistakes through trial and error. In this sense, exclusion from their surroundings. The reduced frames per second, especially when Stuart Hall’s comment that the originality of the new work is “precisely that it Alisa moves through a crowd rushing by her in fast-forward, emphasises her isolation retells the black experience as an English experience,” must be amplifed. (65) within the mass. As the blurry swaying view of the city displays, Alisa and Trife are They were searching for their “realness” in a way that was not restricted by the power both out of the hood—they cannot claim ownership over this space—which creates a of Hollywood and American capitalism, facilitated by Thatcher government funding dialectical association with the city. This is typified as Alisa enters an alleyway, a space in response to racial tension. West London contributed to this considerably, there is a that exists betwixt, surrounded and enclosed by the city. The long shot with low key “thread of post-war British and Caribbean artwork […] which explores Notting Hill a lighting displays the confines of the alley way as Alisa blends into the darkness and the particular London site for the negotiation of post-imperial British culture” (Brunsdon bright busy city goes on as normal in the background. Alisa is also evidently of dual 68). British hood films consequently focus on second or third generation immigrants— heritage, “cultural identities are the points of identification, the unstable points of like Trinidadian Clarke—who are structuring their place in society. When Trife’s mum identification or suture, which are made within the discourses of history and culture. is shown, her Caribbean cultural roots are apparent. This history conveys why Black Not an essence but a positioning” (Hall, “Culture” 224). As a mixed-race girl her posi- Britons operate on “an understanding of ‘racial’ memory” (Gilroy 105), whilst being tioning comes from differing points of identification, metaphorical of the position she engaged in “the act of imaginative re-discovery” (Hall, “Culture” 222) of identity. While resides in at this point in the film. Boyz deals with the issue of getting out of the hood—Tre, Ricky and Brandi—Kidhult- The duality of the city space presents distinct issues in the US and the UK due to

54 CAMÉRA STYLO ALEXANDRA MCCALLA 55 geographical and architectural differences. Massood explains the duality of the Amer- emphasises the characters in the mass population of London, while not belonging to ican hood: it. This transition into central London is possible for the youth of Kidulthood because of the extensive public transport and the smaller space that London occupies, as opposed The cityscape of the hood film is largely determined by and firmly entrenched to the large state of California and LA’s entrenched car culture. Kidhulthood’s narrative in this multi-layered historical and cultural legacy. It is a legacy in which the consequently features the characters moving through a lot of space. city has been mythologized as both a utopia—as a space promising freedom and The flat uncrowded nature of South Central, with spaced out single storey houses economic mobility—and a dystopia—the ghetto’s economic impoverishment and segregation. In this manner, the city as a signifying space has performed a dual bleached by the sun, contrasts greatly to Grove’s overpopulated council housing high function, both real and imaginary. (Massood “Mapping” 88) rises under layers of clouds. Architecture contributes to the concentration and iso- lation of South Central, and the sudden change in class and real estate between the The binary nature of the hood, as both utopia and dystopia, reflects the binary makeup streets of Grove. The infrastructure of Grove denotes this internal divide, “further west, of African American racist segregation, strengthening “the cityscape as a metaphor the [A40] motorway bifurcates Dixon’s old manor, cutting off the northern stretches for African American experience” (Massood, “Mapping” 94). The scene where the USC of Ladbroke Grove and Portobello road from the historically more affluent higher, representative visits Ricky translates the real/fake, fate/hope duality that Massood dis- southern, Notting Hill, and blocking the sky with stark concrete archways” (Brunsdon cusses by visually coding space. The scene cross cuts between inside Ricky’s house, 68). This urban planning also presents a greater encroachment on personal space and a warmly lit insular space coloured with bright pastels, and the porch outside, sur- is emphasised in Kidulthood by the constant use of CCTV shots, for example, when rounded by the darkness of the hood with low key lighting and monochrome colours. the pair of girls leave Becky’s house. Due to the geography of the space, Boyz uses the The inside represents the utopian opportunity for Ricky, the hope for escape which sounds of helicopters to convey the same feeling of surveillance and objectification. ends being stymied by fate, while the conventional dystopian image of the boys on the In conclusion, although both films convey similar core issues, the two directors porch is the reality of their social plight. The space of LA is widely understood through translate them through the vérité style and cityscape differently. The directors’ style visual codes—Beverly Hills, the Hollywood sign, and so forth. Singleton therefore puts is also affected by the formation of identity in the respective cities; in Boyz the boys South Cen-tral through a “process of rearticulation, a making visible—from invisible in LA seem to establish their own discrete identity, away from Africa and America, city to the hood” (Massood, “Mapping” 88). The most obvious indications of this are due to the pluralist multiculturalism generated by the overbearing hegemony of the the diegetic off screen sounds of helicopters and the proliferation of street signs, pres- white American. In Kidulthood the characters in London, however, seem to have a more ent in the first shot of Boyz for example. The stop sign signifies an edge to the space, complex structure of identity attributable to the different patterns of migration. This a border within America that the subjects of the hood cannot cross, “the films expose complexity is arguably because of their association to other areas like the Caribbean, African American identification as being at once inside the ‘American’ experience and, which successively formed a more challenging responsive community, producing fig- at the same time, outside that experience” (Massood, “Mapping” 89). ures like Stuart Hall. Therefore the proposition that the anti-racist keeps the racist in This geographical and symbolic isolation of South Central contrasts to Grove in its place, and oppositional identity keeps the dominant identity in its place, is present Kidulthood, which is immersed in the city. Boyz rarely leaves South Central, apart from in both hood films to varying degrees. Although both directors accept the realism of to visit Compton, another worse hood, for a quick didactic lesson. Kidhulthood, on the this dialectic Kidulthood’s setting allows Clarke to challenge the idea more. Moreover, other hand, travels through various parts of central London. When in central London the cities’ architecture interplays with the fabrication of the films’ realism. The hor- the trio are constantly at a disadvantage, hinting towards their lack of citizenship in izontal assembly of LA, conscientiously and deftly shown in Boyz, allows a pecking this space. The cab driver drops them at Marble Arch not Oxford Street, Trife is accused order to take place across a plane and the separation of the hood to occur effortlessly. of stealing, they are turned down by an upper-class woman, enter a fight by accident, London’s vertical tightness shown in Kidulthood, however, is metaphorical of the social and eventually argue and separate from each other. Clarke’s use of the telephoto lens class hierarchy, one person being above another, which is entrenched in English soci- throughout the film, for example as the security guard drags Trife down the street, ety. This also reflects the overpopulation, causing people to live on top of each other

56 CAMÉRA STYLO ALEXANDRA MCCALLA 57 and invade each other’s space. Although this discussion only reveals how two cities function, in two countries where the large black diaspora is present, the similarities and differences between the films indicate why black identity, especially in a hood space, cannot be understood monologically.

Works Cited

Brunsdon, Charlote. London in cinema: the Massood, Paula J. “Mapping the Hood: The cinematc city since 1945, 68-116. London: Genealogy of City Space in “Boyz N the Hood” BFI, 2007. and “Menace II Society.”” Cinema Journal 35.2 (Winter, 1996): 85-97. Gilroy, Paul. “Cruciality and the Frog’s Perspectve.” Small Acts: Thoughts on the Mercer, Kobena. “Diaspora Culture and the Politcs of Black Cultures, 97-114. New York: Dialogic Imaginaton: The Aesthetcs of Black Serpent’s Tail, 1993. Independent Film in Britain,” Welcome to the Jungle: New Positons in Black Cultural Hall, Stuart. “Cultural Identty & Cinematc Studies, 53-68, NY: Routledge, 1993. Representaton.” EX-ILES: Essays in Caribbean Cinema, ed. Mbye Cham, 220-236. Trenton, Munoz, José Esteban. “Performing Disidentf NJ: Africa World Press, 1992. catons.” Disidentfcatons: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politcs, 1-36. Minne- Hall, Stuart, “What is this Black in Black Popular apolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. Culture?” Black Popular Culture, ed. Gina Dent, 21-36. New York: New Press, 1998. Nadell, James. “Boyz N The Hood: A Colonial Analysis.” Journal of Black Studies 25.4 Lowe, Lisa. “Imagining Los Angeles in the (March, 1995): 447-464. Producton of Multculturalism.” Mapping Multculturalism, eds. Avery Gordon, Rheid-Pharr, Robert. “Makes me Feel Mighty Real: Christopher Newfeld, 413-423. Minneapolis: The Watermelon Woman and the Critque of University of Minnesota, 1996. Black Visuality.” F is For Fake: Fake Documen tary and Truth’s Undoing, ed. Alexandra Juhasz Massood, Paula J. Black city cinema: African & Jesse Lerner, 130-140. Minneapolis & American urban experiences in flm. London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003.

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