Top Boy is acclaimed for its authentic portrayal of street life in London. While the setting is different than similar urban street films the storyline remains the same. Rival street gangs competing for turf.
If you’re born in America, you’ve seen this in countless films portraying inner city life. Top Boy has several elements that foretell the future of American inner city hood films.
The trailers and talk of Top Boy is centered around the gritty action, and urban survival in the streets. However, it’s the political influence that caused these events that deserve the real recognition,.
Race, the housing crisis, and immigration are all new storylines that have yet to be explored in urban films.
The majority of black inner city films feature all black casts on both sides of the rival gangs. General you see black people killing other black people. Due to London’s diversity ethnic wise, we see, biracial, white, and other foreign ethnicities.
While the overwhelming majority of “gang” members were black in the series American audiences aren’t used to seeing such diverse members from inner city gangs.
In The 90’s and early 2000’s America was a lot more segregated. There were a lot less immigrants during this time. Coupled with the rise of American Hood gangster movies. For example, boys in the hood, menace to society, to name a few.
As America becomes more diverse and integrated expect future hood movies to become diverse as well. But what does this all mean and why is it relevant?
As Americans we have a bad habit of not being informed of other cultures outside of our country. The news is the only time we really are informed of what goes on in the world.
Netflix’s Top Boy should be a reminder to all that this is what happens when a community is gentrified. Gentrification is subtly mention during a “housing crisis” meeting within the last minute of the very last episode.
The gap between the poor and the rich getting wider. As a result, you can expect within the next decade the hood will become more diverse. Displacement via gentrification is sending lower and lower middle class residents scattered everywhere within the city.
The problem with gentrification is that to the masses its boring. Which is probably why it had less than 30 seconds of screen time. Gentrification is not as discussed in the media because it lacks action, it doesn’t bleed therefore it doesn’t lead.
In conclusion, we’ve relied on government assistance from a a government that has never loved the black community. This one sided co-dependence relationship is broken up via gentrification. For pity and P.R. sake mixed income housing is used to ease the wound, publicly.
Co-dependency on the government equals an abusive relationship
Independent thinker Sam Grays created Resonance News to Empower rather than entertain viewers with true objective media. No more news that insults your intelligence with just Right or left wing division.