I Hate it When Ghetto Youths Get Inspired...
Okay, look, I recognize the fact that this has nothing to do with wrestling, but then, I'm a pretty lousy wrestler, so I suppose it's a good thing that I have other interests. Seeing as this is my website, at least until Tripod.com deems it too fucking stupid to host anymore, I am opting to post whatever the hell I feel like on here, from this day forth
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Today I am going to be sharing with you my opinion on what I feel is a very obnoxious cliche in hollywood, over the last few years. The cliche of which I speak is this; ghetto teens which society has deemed "lost causes" being inspired by take-no-crap teachers/God/music/dance/cheerleading/fake nuns (take your pick). I swear to God, if I see one more preview for a movie where a group of young "gangbangers" and/or "hoodlums" have their lives turned around and are given meaning, focus, drive, and morality by someone who "believes in them, when no one else would," I'm going to fucking shoot my dog.
Admittedly, I may be speaking a bit biasedly here, as I've never been to the ghetto, but it's my opinion that people who live in the ghetto really ought to stay there and succumb to the moral decay and crime that a life of poverty lends itself to...I'm sick and tired of teachers or dance coordinators who take it upon themselves to try to save these kids, by inspiring them to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others. I love a good musical as much as the next guy, but I'll be goddamned if the power of song, dance, or basketball makes me want to stop smoking crack and committing "drive-bys." It's unrealistic, it's sappy, and it pisses me the fuck off.
This trend has been going on for a very long time now, in Hollywood. The recent release of the film "Take the Lead," a movie in which Zorro prevents crime in an impoverished, inner-city neighborhood by teaching promising young drug kingpins how to dance, ballroom-style, was the inspiration for today's rant, but it certainly was not the first such film to aggravate me. It's only the latest in a long line of cinematic fecal matter with (essentially) the same storyline. Let's take a moment to look back over the history of this one film, which has been made and re-made time and again, with different actors. Just off-hand, I recall:
Dangerous Minds (Damn, that makes me remember how much I miss Coolio), Sister Act II ("You down with G-O-D?"), Coach Carter (Has Samuel L. Jackson ever been in a good movie?), and "Hardball" ("My Name...IS NEO!" Oh...wrong film...). There're a million more, many of which (sadly) I've seen, but to try to think back over them all now might depress me to the point of suicide.
Similar films include "Remember the Titans" (not exactly the same, but I do hate it when kids learn lessons through sports), "Save the Last Dance" (another movie in which young people who might've had promising careers as murderers or rapists are corrupted by the power of dance), and "You Got Served" (Okay, I've never actually seen this movie, but the preview told me all that I needed to know...After initially falling in love with the art of breakdancing in 1984's Mr. T film, "Be Somebody...Or Be Somebody's Fool", I didn't think that anything could ever make me hate it...I was wrong).
Anyway...what I guess I'm saying is, I really wish that Hollywood would stop bothering inner-city youths, and just let them grow up in the fashion that God intended; shooting, mugging, and raping one another. I refuse to believe that anybody apart from pre-teen suburban white girls are inspired by any of this insipid stupidity, and it's really irresponsible (in my opinion) to give these children the idea that it's safe to wander into the ghetto alone, armed with nothing but a boombox, a "Club mix" CD, an arsenal of dance moves, and a heart full of "Caring and Understanding" for their fellow human beings...they're going to get gang-raped and killed. I'm just saying...
