Made in America

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The Dynamics When it comes to gangs people may have the image of just people looking to cause trouble and violence but there is a sense of family and protection for the members, if you take a closer look. In Stacey Peralta’s documentary Bloods and Crips: Made in America released in 2008; Peralta is an American director and is also known for his career as a professional skateboarder and surfer. Peralta examines the conditions that have lead to years and years of devastating violence between young blacks in South Los Angeles. The film raises the question for me, how did these people get to this point?. Peralta argues that the life of the Bloods and Crips is a life a despair running through the family and is all in order to survive; he argues that gangs are a doomed to fail route in life. Peralta draws in an audience of PBS viewers who are curious about how the Bloods and the Crips came about. In this paper I will take a deeper look into the context and sub claims that deal with gang values and ideals as seen through their circumstances and actions. By explaining the motivations for members to join and stay put. I chose to take on this topic because as I watched the movie I felt like there was so much more to learn about the dynamics of gangs. This paper will include sources from journals, articles even a book published in the recent years that give Peralta’s argument an even greater push towards an impact. For some it may be easy to look down upon the youth who join gangs but few take time to look at why they are really there. Peralta has a number of current and former gang members in his film that give you a more personal look at gang life and how things turned out for them. In the documentary Bloods and Crips: Made in America the youth joining gangs, join them for the love and belonging they aren’t shown at home and also for a sense of identity, Stemming a lot of

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