Character assassination

Monday, 8/11/97 Character assassination EDUCATION: The film
‘187’ projects negative images of minorities and fails to promote
school reform

By John Fernandez and Tara Yosso Although screenwriter Scott
Yagemann hopes that his recent film "187" will lead to safer
schools, "187" unfairly indicts African-American students in New
York and Chicana/o students in Los Angeles for transforming our
schools into contemporary urban battlegrounds. "187" demonizes
African-American and Chicana/o students as sexist, racist, violent,
nihilistic thugs who lack respect for their parents, teachers and
the benefits of an education. Yagemann admits "187" is "a brutal
depiction of a worst-case scenario," but the problem with this
strategy is that it produces narratives and representations of
African-American and Chicana/o youth that undermine his crusade.
More importantly, this film will impact race relations and the
solutions to curbing violence in schools. It will have a negative
and chilling effect on the minds of viewers for years to come. The
film "187" must be critically analyzed by educators, policy makers,
parents and students for its contradictory social and cultural
logic. Teachers, administrators, parents and students from all
racial and cultural groups must collaborate to foster solutions to
school violence and racism, rather than allow themselves to be
pitted against each another as depicted in "187." The Chicano gang
exploitation genre of "187" is not new to Hollywood. Almost 20
years ago, "Boulevard Nights" and "Walk Proud" glorified and
romanticized negative depictions of Chicana/o youth. Furthermore,
African-American and Latina/o students have been portrayed as
needing a savior in films such as "Blackboard Jungle" (1955), "The
Principal" (1987), "Stand and Deliver" (1988), "Lean On Me" (1989),
"Dangerous Minds" (1995), "The Substitute" (1996) and "High School
High" (1996). However, what sets "187" apart from previous films is
that it bootlegs a political message of safer schools on the backs
of Chicana/o students, parents, and Latina/o administrators. "187"
modifies the look of Chicano students to conform to a monolithic
image of the gangbanger/tagger, with a tattooed and pierced body,
shaved head and baggy pants. Students in "187" menace their
teachers, sexually harass women, vandalize school property, smoke
marijuana during school, have sex in the classroom, and vandalize
the homes of teachers; they have no respect for life or themselves.
Rita, the main Chicana character, is portrayed as a sexual object
for the students, and who also offers her body to teachers to
succeed in school. Now, the Chicana/o is a postmodern version of an
apolitical other whose difference is neither political or
emancipatory, but contradictory, nihilistic and anarchistic. In
reality, there have been many instances where teachers, students,
parents and administrators from diverse social, cultural and
economic sectors have united to bring about constructive reform in
combating the problems of school violence and safety. For example,
the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) established
numerous committees, which have brought about meaningful change:
the Anti-Gang Task Force (1989), the School Safety and Security
Task Force (1990), the Violence Prevention and Coordinating
Committee (1992), the Emergency Task Force on School Violence
(1993), and the development of the Essential Safety Standards
Checklist (1997), which mandates a safety plan for all LAUSD
schools. Although these are positive collaborative efforts,
strategies linked to the curriculum and instruction are severely
needed to curb violence and racism. Teacher training and staff
development programs must also be implemented, alongside changes in
the curriculum and delivery of instruction. In 1996, after the
shooting of teacher Alfredo Perez, a very successful march to stop
school violence was organized by the late UTLA president, Helen
Bernstein. Currently, legislation mandates that school officials
must inform teachers of students with a violent history.
Additionally, State Senator Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood) has written
SB 187, which will force school districts to assess annual crime
statistics on each campus and develop plans to maintain a certain
level of safety. Current reforms must go beyond metal detectors,
uniformed police, dress codes and surveillance cameras. They must
include a critical pedagogy that initiates dialogue and reflexivity
among students, parents, administrators and teachers. This must be
done within the context of an examination of popular cultural forms
such as film along with critical media literacy. Numerous student
responses from a landmark report by the ACLU (1996), "From Words to
Weapons: Violence Surrounding Our Schools," suggest the need for
intergroup and multicultural understanding and communication. In
order to combat school violence, racism, sexism and nihilism,
schools need a critical multicultural education, driven by a
curriculum which places race, gender, language, class, culture, and
student experience at the center of analysis. By utilizing such an
approach, students and teachers will have an analytical tool to
deconstruct films and other popular culture media forms which
polarize, alienate, and scapegoat entire racial and ethnic groups.
Lastly, a critical analysis of "187" empowers students, parents,
teachers and administrators to look at the underlying political
messages that purport to make schools safer, but whose actual
agenda legitimizes immigrant bashing, the elimination of
affirmative action and bilingual education and the criminalization
of youth of color. If Warner Brothers and Icon Productions are
really serious about curbing violence in schools, they should
establish a large foundation which would grant money to those who
demonstrate collaborative efforts toward developing innovative
strategies such as critical multicultural education, critical media
literacy and promoting interracial and cultural understanding among
all people. Related Links: 187 Official Movie Links