Hegemony and Gang Violence: Made in America

This week all these discussion of hegemony brought me back to a very influential documentary I watched recently (thank you instant netflix. The Documentary is called Blood and Crips: Made in America, and it traces the evolution of the two largest (and most crime driven) gangs in America. 

Now one would think that this type of gang violence is simply a turf war, without an authoritative oppressor. However, this documentary makes very clear that there is an RSA in action. The documentary explains that gangs formulated by the strict city lines put into place by the LAPD, and these lines both established racial segregation, and eventually became the line that separated the Bloods and the Crips. Certainly this can have a Marxist explanation, seeing that the LAPD was a very wealthy organization and was able to use economic status to oppress African Americans of the 1950’s, but soon, like Althuser explains, what began as a rule by the RSA soon became a work of an ISA.

Schools, neighborhood communities, even churches all came to abide by these rules of geographical separation. The subordinate class here (the LA African Americans)    came to believe that it was a social construction, that it was common sense to no cross over to “that side” of the street. African American boys, after failing to effectively relay their frustrations of the LA government system, began to find protection from each other, and used these geographical lines to essentially form their own gangs. Gangs that competed, lashed out, threatened and killed each other. Hegemony at its peak.

The aspect that I am most interested in is the discursive arena this documentary provides. Former members, current members, founding members of both gangs are interviewed, and it’s surprising to watch the process of realization as each member describes their lives as a Blood or a Crip. Clearly the documentary was meant to be a commentary on the RSA, but it’s interesting to see the paradox of the ISA in action. The notion that we created our own struggle, we locked ourselves into a life, and we forgot to build us a way out. It’s also interesting when I look back at the media during the civil rights era. TV, radio, newspapers all depicted protesters being beaten by the police, police certainly were portrayed as the villians, and it’s a similar situtation with this documentary. Yet, I personally still find comfort in the NYPD (ie: it’s a sigh of relief when I see a cop car when walking alone at night in Astoria, Queens). I guess the D.A.R.E. “Police are you Friend” message proves affective (if anything about D.A.R.E was affective, but that’s a different blog). To see the power of the Media in making me feel conflicting views, Villain, Victim, Accessory to the Villain or Victim, Safe Bystander, Endangered Bystander, Guilty Bystander, the list goes on and on.

I highly recommend that you see this documentary, it’s one of the better ones I’ve seen.