What I've Watched: Crips and Bloods: Made in America

Growing up, I listened to a lot of west coast rap. NWA, Ice Cube, Ice T and others. I'll be honest, I thought the lyrics were cool and the beats even better. It was just great music to play football and basketball to in my neighborhood. My friends and I once watched Colors and we thought the movie was crazy and no way could it be true. But let's be honest also, I was a white middle-class kid from Kentucky, so it's not like I really knew what the hell they were talking about.

Obviously as I have grown older and read more and watched more to educate myself on this world of ours, I get to experience some mediums that better open my eyes to how certain cultures are created. And the story of the Bloods and the Crips, the most violent gang rivalry in American history, is one that cannot be overlooked when discussing eras in our nation's history where we have failed a large number of our citizens.

It's not a perfect documentary, by any means. Too many times the film seems to give a free pass to the gangs simply because of America's racist history. I completely see how the poverty-stricken culture and psychologies prevalent throughout South Central were fomented by the uber-racist housing policies, a lack of job creation and an equally racist police department. Where the film fails is properly challenging the gang members and others interviewed about how all of this pervades and continues when so many of them seem to want to change but are not asked why they do not.

It's definitely a documentary worth seeing, if nothing else for besides the interesting lesson in how these gangs were created, it briefly but importantly touches upon the 1965 and 1992 riots in Los Angeles. These riots were not random events by a bunch of miscreants. Here were large communities pushed to a brink and having a flash point ignite their rage. Plus, I think for a bunch of us midwesterners and others who thought the rap we listened to back then was just for show or money or whatever, it's worth seeing that there is real pain and anger behind it.

Stacy Peralta made a great doc his first time out with Dogtown and Z Boys. This time he tackles a more precarious subject, which is not one to avoid but to dig deeper into to truly understand the problems and potential solution. Sadly we only skim the surface here.