word association

On the first day of class we were asked for words we associated with LA. If I remember correctly most of the words given had a negative connotation. I don’t remember mine specifically but I think it may have been plastic surgery…a topic we never got around to.  You see I came into this class with the preconceived notion that LA was a, superficial, cultureless, and racially divided city. In fact, I did not see LA as a city per se but rather suburbs connected by highway (I must mention that I hate driving).  How did I come to these negative feelings towards LA, you may ask. Did I spend any significant time in LA? No. But my view of LA, formulated from popular culture, was valid from my perspective.

            What I’ve realized with this course, however, is that labeling anything one-dimensionally (like LA as strictly materialistic) only prevents one from realizing the truth. It is an excuse not to go further, to make fact out of stereotype somewhat like racism.

             Perhaps the Sides article “Straight into Compton” best personifies my point.  The word association with Compton has become synonymous with crime, poverty, drugs, gang-violence, Black’s, and urban crisis. In looking at Compton’s history we see that it “originated” as a working-class white neighborhood that resisted black integration (as Black’s fled to LA during WWII through post-WWII) exemplified in Compton City Council’s prevention of pubic housing. Despite Compton’s resistance towards Black families seeking the “suburban dream” Compton became an intergraded suburb (although white’s still welded the political power. )

            It was not until the decreased industrial jobs and the Watt’s Riots that whites began to flee Compton. With decreased manufacturing jobs, white flight, economic decline and increased gang violence Compton changed. This change was exploited by popular culture/media exposure such as NWA’s song  “Straight-out of Compton” which personified Compton as a violent, drug-infested, and bleak social landscape. This one-dimensional concept of Compton was profitable and therefore furthered through films like “Boy’s in the Hood.”

            The negative connotation that came along with Compton made many communities dissociate with Compton including East Compton who voted to be called East Rancho Dominguez instead. Ironically, East Compton was the neighborhood that was most notorious for drugs in Compton.  So who are the people of Compton then? Are they working-middle class people searching for the “suburban dream”? Are they what we see in the NWA video?  Is it either or? I mean, NWA who capitalized on Compton’s “dangerous image” didn’t even fit the stereotype. Ice Cube, for example, was taking advanced architecture courses in Arizona before the group assembled! Also, there is a large Mexican population in Compton that is completely ignored from the image of Compton.

            Basically, Sides and this course made me realize how powerful and incorrect word-associations are. Word- associations are one-dimensional and ignore the complex and history of a place or thing. Side’s shows, through Compton’s history, that Compton in not simply a bleak, violent, gang and drug infested suburb it is composed of a diverse group of people, people who are not encompassed under Compton’s definition.  Side’s challenge of Compton’s definition parallels my changing definition if LA. Yes, I do believe parts of LA are materialistic but I also believe that LA has so much to offer: culture, diversity, social movements and history that we can all gain/learn from. From now on I will defend LA rather than define it.