The Emigrants: Straight Outta Compton, Dope, and Emerging from the Ghetto

Abstract

Many recent movies about African American life have focused on people leaving the ghetto. Earlier movies about groups living in ghettoes have portrayed the ghetto as a permanent reality. Moviemakers explored ghetto life as an interesting subject and a source of cultural innovation. Life was hard, but social and cultural ways to cope with difficulty helped. Now, the ghetto is presented as a dangerous and depressing place. The only effective way to cope with it is to leave and find more nurturing environments. A few talented individuals and hard workers can succeed that way. They are seen as heroic because they refuse to accept defeat or failure. Few ghetto residents can take this route out of the ghetto, and the many who cannot are ignored or blamed. The audience can applaud the few successes and find a happy outcome to ghetto movies.