Jessica Sada

Professor Mozzini

Sociology 1

July 16, 2017

Video Analysis

The comedy-drama film Wassup Rockers follows a group of Latino skateboarders from

South Central Los Angeles. The group of teenage boys live in a poor area of Los Angeles where

gangs and violence dominate their neighborhood. The boys stand out in their neighborhood

because they dress differently, listen to punk music, and skateboard. The film follows the group

throughout the city of Los Angeles.

The scene I have chosen from the movie shows the group of seven boys being detained

by a caucasian police officer in Beverly Hills. The boys are sitting down and ask the officer

what they did wrong, the police officer ignores their question and asks where they are from. The

boys tell him they are from South Central, the ghetto. The officer asks what they are doing

there and they tell him they are just skating, it is their first time at that location, and have taken

two buses to get there. While they are still sitting down down cooperatively, the officer calls for

backup and describes them as Mexican. The boys respond saying they are Salvadoran and

Guatemalan and ask if they can just get on the bus to go home. The officer says not yet and asks

for all their names and addresses to write tickets. Two boys say they are brothers with different

last names and the officer says typical. The officer gets annoyed when all the boys give the

same home address and says you don't belong here, one boy responds why because were
from South Central? and the officer says yes. Another boy then gets up distracts the officer

and they all run away.

The father of sociology, Auguste Comte would view the scene between the officer and

the boys through his theory of positivism. Comte argued that social interaction and structure

could be studied in the same way that the natural sciences were. Comte would use the scientific

method to analyze a problem in the scene and draw a factual conclusion. He would try to

identify any social statics and dynamics and also use information from the film to see if it is

consistent with other societies in order to reveal any basic laws of society.

Through conflict perspective, Marx would view the scene as an example of conflict

caused by the inequalities of social position, race, and class. The boys and the officer are in very

different positions. Because of his social status as an officer of law, the officer has power over

the boys and the location they are at. The officer has the power to detain and arrest them because

they are in his area. Marx would see that race and economic status also play important roles.

The officers stereotypical racial remarks about the boys being Latino showed that race

contributed to the tension between them. The officer also says that the boys don't belong in

Beverly Hills, a well known wealthy area, because they are from South Central, a poorer area, or

as one of the boys called it, the ghetto. If the boys were white or if they were residents of

Beverly Hills, then the police officer may have treated them differently.

Durkheim would analyze the film scene through the functionalist perspective. He would

see that the officer is enforcing laws in order to maintain stability and social order. Durkheim

may also view the scene as an example of weak social integration. There is clearly a division

between the boys and the officer and Durkheim may view that the division is a result from a lack

of shared common experiences, ideas, and values. For example, if the officer knew that the boys
were trying to get away from the violence in their neighborhood and were not causing any

trouble then the situation could have ended peacefully.

The scene from Wassup Rockers most represents the conflict paradigm. The scene

exhibits tension and struggle between the police officer and the teenage boys. Government laws

enforce the officers position to control the boys. Although they get away at the end, the rest of

the their actions in the movie were shaped by the police officer. The police officer in this

situation uses race and economic status as inequalities to maintain his superiority not only over

the boys but also to the entire Latino and South Central communities.

Works Cited

Funny Scene from Wassup Rockers, Bien Chisto De Wassup Rockers. YouTube, uploaded by
FullmetalAD, 13 February 2009, https://youtu.be/EHkHKobgaHk.