Word: ganging
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Billed as the next great gang movie, American Me, the first film directed by Hispanic activist and actor Edward James Olmos, delivers much more. A tale of two worlds, the film presents accounts of life inside and outside the American prison system...
Inside, there is order. Here Santana (Olmos), in California's Folsom State Prison for murder, finds fulfillment as leader of the Mexican Mafia gang. He runs an operation to collect "rent," which can be cigarettes, knives or drugs. The idea, as the protagonist frequently reminds us, is simple: once you control the inside, you control the outside...
Both parents worried about the temptations of the street when young John was growing up. But Singleton, bolstered by the companionship of the two friends who would serve as models for the characters Doughboy and Ricky in the film, steered clear of gangs. Acquaintances of his were hurt in gang fights, and one was killed in an alley near his house, but the closest Singleton ever came to committing a violent act was in seventh grade, when a bully tried to take his money. He took a box cutter to school and threatened to cut the boy's throat...
This risk plus gang wars and the drug trade have led some organizations to say that being a Black male is dangerous to one's health, according to Rivers...
INTERVIEW Author Leon Bing talks about gang life in Los Angeles...