Jungle Fever and Reality

Okorie Haughton
Eng103
5-19-11




Social Life Between
Movies and Reality





In 1991 an American drama film Jungle Fever was made. This featured film Directed by Spike Lee takes place in Harlem and other parts in Manhattan as well as digging deep into the interracial dating era within the late-1960‘s to the 1980’s. Harlem was filled with abandoned housing and vacant lots ready for homeless people to trash it and try to take it over as there own. The story of Jungle Fever shows Harlem to be a nice place to live but having plenty drug addicts laying around every vacant lot. It was a century which people struggled to reform politics, yet never made much change. In this research I will show how the film itself portrays Harlem as shown in the 1970's to the late 1980's

Flipper Purify played by Wesley Snipes is an African American working in middle class society at an architectural firm in New York City. Angela “Angie” Tucci an Italian American hired as his temporary secretary at the place developed mixed feelings with Flipper working together catching feelings thats more then jus work. Working at the firm late one night they converse and end up having sex which u would hardly ever see in the 1970’s to the late 1980’s. Basically racism was still being demonstrated in the New York streets especially if dating is a factor. Having a racial setting into the story line showing that interracial dating can an should be expressed however the couple feels but Flipper used it for his own uses.

In reality interracial dating is not accepted in society nor the time period that is shown within the movies time frame. The movie displays similar reality within the mind frame that all races should only mate with their own race. Result to the dating of Flipper and Angie both sides of the family shows dislike with the whole dating between them. Angie’s father violently beats her for dating a black man and throws her out of the house, as Flipper suggests to get an apartment with Angie later suffering social problems with the police thinking he was trying to rape her. Eventually the relationship between the couple got worst which subsequently they broke up and return to their normal lives. Statistics say 25,000 black men married white women in the 1960’s, the numbers jumped by the 80’s making 122,000. Becoming involved in an interracial relationship was a way black men got to test a new sense of freedom.

As we enter the 1970’s known as the worst period in Harlem's history, many people were able to escape from poverty leaving the neighborhoods in search of safer streets. The federal government’s program spent large amounts of money to improve what certain families lacked in such as sanitation, health care, and education in over ten years. In a community with the highest crime rates in New York city, vacant lots contribute to the amount of danger within much of the area. Statistics say that drug addiction and housing quality were similarly gruesome. Losing twenty-seven percent of the neighborhood, no longer having a functioning economy in East Harlem. The city neared bankruptcy during the administration of Mayor Abraham Beame, which avoided the suffering with the aid of a large federal loan.

During this time period cocaine smuggling, causing lower prices, and higher quality. Within low-income minority communities were the first to receive the drug as it grew which was commonly called an epidemic. After the extreme decline of New York in the mid 1970’s, the crack cocaine trade also devastated portions of the city’s population. The wealth generated by such activities is used to buy popular and political support in the local communities. Social scientists provided equivalent perspectives on the rapidly changing crack culture. The city was running a huge budget deficit, due to decades of ambitious spending on public works and social services, combined with an erosion of the city's manufacturing base. The crack cocaine industry increased during the 1978 – 1989. It was not until the 1980s that extensive studies on cocaine users have begun.

The rebellious sixties captured the essence of the act of feminists demanding their rights. Socially women had no respect in the world which made it hard for them to gain the rights they deserved. Feminist theory focused on the issues seeking gender equality. The movement itself grew within the aspects of poverty and voting, promoting the work rights including careers for both genders rather then just one gender. Women have historically been victims of both direct and subtle forms by men. Feminist beliefs are widely as to the most effective way to end this mental block of success.

The role of women in society was deeply changed with growing feminism across the world. In the presence and the rise of women ahead of states outside of government officials, a number of countries across the world during the 1970’s women hold such positions being their first. Drawing inspiration from the civil rights movement, it was made mainly of members of the middle class, taking part of the spirit of rebellion. Hoping to defeat the actions by proposing an amendment to outlaw discrimination on the basis of gender and race as well. Later in the late 1970‘s it failed to broaden its attraction to the middle class divisions between moderate and radical feminists.


The financial crisis, high crime rates, and damage from the blackouts led to a widespread belief that New York City was in irreversible decline. Many white middle class families moved to the city's suburbs and to other economically healthier locales. By the end of the 1970s, nearly a million people had left, a population loss not recovered for another twenty years. The fall of 1973 the crisis has spread to many areas of the U.S. monopoly capitalist economy, which has been racked with severe inflation of the dollar. Energy crisis in the winter of 1973 - 1974 was a severe over-production crisis in the industry.

By 1980, the City of New York owned 60 percent of all residential property in Harlem, and began auctioning these properties to the public in 1985. Only a small fraction would be sold at this time, and later scandals would temporarily halt the sales altogether. City's sale of confiscated houses was intended to improve the community by placing property in the hands of people who would live in them and maintain them. In many cases, the city would even pay to completely renovate a property before selling it (by lottery) below market value. About a third of the properties sold by the city were tenements which still had tenants, who were left in particularly miserable conditions. These properties, and new restrictions on Harlem mortgages, bedeviled the area's residential real estate market for years.

Spike Lee's film Jungle Fever displays a still photograph of Yusuf K. Hawkins, a young black teenager killed by a white mob in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn many summers ago. The boy was not shot because he crossed the line into a white neighborhood, he was shot because he was mistaken for dating a local girl who was rejected from society for dating blacks and Hispanics. Exploring the connection between race, sex and place that costs a 16-year-old his life. After touching this issue, the effects in his earlier work developed this film which driven to the concerns of the time period of interracial dating.

Blog 19: Reflecting

Working with the archives I learned that living in any neighborhood can b very complicated. Also I have learned that parts of New York were noticed to some individuals as the slums which is described as rundown. The New York’s programs that tried to help out the concentrated areas were actually making things worse for people that really needed their homes. The archives gave me reasonable information on the topic planned shrinkage but I didn’t feel like it was enough to do the actual paper itself.
The archives introduction was pretty informative. The instructor talked a lot about Roger Starr whose name was known for the planned shrinkage. Closing schools and subway stations were part of the South Bronx shrinkage. Having no knowledge of the planned shrinkage all of the information was new to me. Saving money from the financial crisis the city has gone through Roger Starr’s actions which resulted into protests in communities where his policies effected.
I say the major research paper was more difficult than the archives essay. The archive’s had a lot of useful documents that helped a lot with finishing and applying information. The major research paper process was very difficult, just trying to find specific information on the social, economic, and political aspects between the movie and reality. Adding certain historical events that happened during the time frame of what the movie tired to portray like the 1970’s for example. Then we had to discuss how the movie portrayed New York in that specific time era to see if it was good at representing or bad or in between.

Blog 18: Research Paper Process

The process of my paper was pretty stressful. My mind was to worried about getting the paper in on time rather than getting it done. If I had a better mindset to get my paper done then I think I wouldn’t have stressed it as much as I did. Finding my information was definitly not dat easy even when I tried using google. Google can find anything but the information I needed for my paper. I felt like google was getting tired of me using it almost everyday jus to find information on the social, political and economics of the 1960’s to the 1980’s. I pieced a couple things together which got kind of annoying that I had to do so but hey its for a grade right. I wasn’t really thinking on the lessons we did in class I jus tried my best on the paper honestly, but I remembered acouple things from some of the lessons tho.

Blog 17: Minority Report, Oedipus & Free Will

Free will is a self confident way of how individuals come to define their lives. Having the will power to do as they please at any given time. “Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report” for example defines how if interrupted of performing free will would be unjust. Explaining how a movie directed by Steven Spielberg “Minority Report” takes away free will of criminals yet to perform violent acts. Using precogs’ to work for the police to determine crimes before they happen. “With the precogs’ insight, the police are able to prevent these crimes and imprison the would-be perpetrators. Naturally, the accused protest their innocence: they have not actually committed any crime at the time they are arrested.” If you ask me the free will to think violent acts would be a crime committed to that kind of system.
In the play Oedipus the King free will was very questionable. Many individuals believed in everything and anything the oracle says. The oracle is a priest and their job is to give people what they want to hear and tell them what can happen if they let it. Yet in the play the oracle tells Oedipus’s father that his first son will kill his father and marry his mother, which no one would have ever known or thought to have noticed til the end. Understanding the consequence if keeping the 1st born son the king sent Oedipus off for adoption so that he can avoid the problem. Having the free will to keep his son and try and change the future to come was definitely an option in which was not used. The free will to even have a baby was an option as well. With the free will to do as you please you have many options to change your thought process or what actions you choose you want to perform.

Blog 16

1) the movie's basic plot
The movie Jungle Fever directed by Spike Lee is about a middle class African American named Flipper working as well as looking for a secretary to handle office work for him. The company Flipper works for hires an Italian American named Angela which wasn’t the kind of race he was looking for to handle his filing and office work. As the movie goes on Flipper gets along with Angela finding a specific bond he hasn’t had in a while at work.
2) how it relates or is situated in NYC
The time period saw great social, economic, and general change as wealth and production. Increasing multiple corporations with manufacturing industry into the Eastern markets
3) how do we see NYC (outside shots, characters living in it etc) visually in the movie4) what does NYC look like in the movie
Outside shots of NYC in this movie are totally different from how we see it now. NYC looks very realistic in the movie which gave it a look that people outside of NYC can see an get a better understanding of the outside view.

Blog 15: Minority Report response

Stalker or Security you decide

Society should care for security yes but above all no. Being safe is one thing but having the government watch your every move is another. It’s like an upgraded version of stalking individuals digitally. I support the safety but not if I have to sacrifice my privacy to keep living, I think that’s just pushing it. I’m sorry but I don’t see how great stalking people can be like its not amusing to find out what they’re doing or where they’re going to be. If that’s the case be their friends, marry them, something that’s normal at least. The whole point of free will is self-control and self-confidence. And privacy is your personal stories to share with yourself it deals with a lot of self it was self-made so therefor there should be no one looking to get to know myself by searching me on the web to see what I like or what I do its creepy. You might as well just hire a personal stalker to follow u around and not make a sound behind you and see how that works out for you.

Archives Essay

The Ideology Of Planned Shrinkage



A new game of monopoly during the days of our lives. Planned Shrinkage something that turns heads like “What is it?” A way to kick families out of their own homes and transfer them to other places so that the government makes more money off of them. Is that the way we go about getting things that we want now a days? Roger Starr feels that its ok why not you?
Roger Starr, an outspoken thinker on urban affairs who mixed an integrated a lifetime of rational research with public service and of his New York City public policy for decades. Proposing that the city should consider the limits and the movement of people from these slum neighborhoods to more concentrated areas. Responding to the decrease that troubled many areas in NYC such as The South Bronx and Harlem proposing a policy now known as "planned shrinkage." In the early 1970s, RAND performed a study that displayed how city services relate to population in a large city. They concluded that when services such as police and fire protection were withdrawn, the population in that area would decrease and lower its finances.

 In response to the Rand study addressing the shrinking population in New York City, Starr's policy of planned shrinkage to reduce the wiped out population and better preserve the tax base. Starr gave a speech at the real estate industry lodge suggesting that the city should "accelerate the drainage" calling it the worst parts of the South Bronx through a policy of "planned shrinkage." Closing subway stations, firehouses and schools were part of the proposition on the shrinkage of The South Bronx, the city was in a deep financial crisis and Starr felt these actions were the best way to save money. Starr's arguments soon became frequent in urban planning. The people who lived in the communities where his policies were applied protested, without adequate fire service and police protection they faced waves of crime and fires that left much of the South Bronx and Harlem devastated.
A public policy was made taking away necessary services of the city to keep the community balanced. Police patrols, street repairs, and garbage removal was taken from areas suffering from urban decay so that outside interests offer to start a new development in neighborhoods that have a loss population of white citizens. Causing problems with the health of the public in the communities the AIDS predicament affected african americans directly. President Nixon's Advisor sent a memo to the Administration saying “Benign Neglect” taking the stance of moving money from the inner city to the suburbs using block grants. After the neglect many houses burned down Starr chose those lands vacant until a new use could be made. New York's massive urban renewal programs were set aside as in was made vacant and gave way for highways, and other developments happening on its own the ideas that cities can shrink. Civic leaders felt that urban decline was a natural process in which the population loss would be greatest.
After World War II working for his father which was a barge business transporting an building materials on a large scale. Working with his father someone suggested Starr join the Board of Citizen Housing and Planned Council, starting his career becoming an executive director of council. Although Mr. Starr's beliefs were strong and dedicated to slum clearance, public housing and urban renewal in The South Bronx and Brownsville area Robert Moses has molded. The Bronx had up to 120,000 fires per year, percent up to 40 of the housing in the area was destroyed, a dramatic rise from 60,000 reported fires in 1960 to rates of over 120,000 per year throughout the 1970s. Residents felt the city was doing nothing to stop the fires. With the population decreasing only after two decades the city started to invest in these areas. New developments were built and each of these neighborhoods has come a long way. Bringing the people from the Brooklyn slums to the housing built in Rockaway on vacant land and then when the housing in the brooklyn slum is empty turn it to a vacant land an build better housing to make more money.
“I was one of the few outspoken people other than owners of property who was bitterly opposed to rent control, because rent control was destroying New York City's private housing stock from the middle ranges down to the lowest ranges,...” I think that rent control has a greater quality than planned shrinkage, reason being is that the shrinkage throws people out of homes rather than change up the money process. Starr completely disagrees with the ideology of the controlling of rent which doesn't bring enough trust between the money and the tenants. Seeing this as a solution to the issues, moving people from place to place. Believing those actions were saving the city's budget which was suffering at the time. In the housing business there was so much mythology that problems established on a large scale which the government programs found themselves having to take extreme measures specifically with public housing.
In Conclusion you can see we're losing our lifestyle while the housing comity begs to differ. Roger Starr proposed that limits should be considered within the slums of NYC. As RAND studied how city services relate to population in the large city that services would decrease and lower in finances. Where as the 1970's concentrated areas such as the South Bronx and Harlem were the first areas to discover the means of planned shrinkage. Practiced mostly in New York City withdrawing city services from neighborhoods suffering from poverty so that they may claim an interest for change.