Representation of Black Youth in John Singleton's film, Boyz N the Hood, and Dominique Morisseau's play, Pipeline.

Abstract

Black youth in North America has been plagued with many challenges and disadvantages from birth that range from structural economic factors to social inequities. This demographic group has been badly treated, marginalized, and denied equal opportunities in multicultural democratic systems for so long. Most of them are born and raised in the toughest environments where they have to struggle on their own with little or no support from society and have to prove to the world every second that just because they are black does not make them less human. Black youth are beginning to question their existence and identity which, according to some, is the result of an absent father in their lives to nurture them. This project explores the representation of Black youth in North America through the lenses of the visceral drama, Boyz N in the Hood, by John Singleton, which depicts Black youth in Black communities with evident realism and compares it to the potent and riveting play, Pipeline, by Dominique Morisseau, which delves into the school to prison pipeline which affects students of colour. The study will focus on Black youth in North America as it explores the dominant ideology found in both genres: the absent father in the life of Black youth.