ABSTRACT
After the commercial and critical success of Boyz N the Hood in 1991, Hollywood embraced the Black underclass. Films such as Straight out of Brooklyn (1991), Juice (1992), Menace II Society (1993), Poetic Justice (1993) Jus t Another Girl on the IRT (1993), Clockers (1995), and Set It Off (1996) soon followed. Unlike Dennis Hopper's Colors (1988) which examined gang life in South Central Los Angeles from a cop's point of view, ghettocentric Hood films painted a portrait of the marginalized individuals who comprise underclass African-American communities.
