Black Diaspora Cinema
Section B
The film “Young Soul Rebels,” written by Derek Saldaan, Paul Hallam, and Isaac Julien, was a 1991 British narrative feature film directed by Isaac Julien. The coming-of-age movie examines youth cultural movements in the UK during the late 1970s, and how they interacted with each other. Focusing on the soulboys, skinheads, and punks culturalmovements, the film takes a closer look at the social, cultural, and political tensions between these movements, while at the same time placing greater emphasis on the connections each of these movements shared. Given the diversity of the storyline the film portrays, it revolvesaround various plots. However, the central storyline is about a murder investigation involving Chris, one of the central characters, and his girlfriend. However, the interconnection of racial, sexual, and cultural politics is substantially carried by the gay love story of a punk boy with a soulboy. Their love story is an allegory for racial and class solidarity, given all the sexual and cultural norms they defy to fight for their love.
The film primarily brings to light the typical day of a black individual in Britain, giving immense weight to the social and cultural discrimination they face, which is the dominant theme black diaspora cinemas focused on in the 90s and continues to focus on today. The film opens up in a black neighborhood, against the background of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, with two buddies, Chris And Caz, run a pirate radio station. Their inability to afford a legit uptown radio station has everything to do with the social class inequality and the fact that blacks do not have access to the same privileges, such as being employed in legit white radio stations. Chris and Caz are driven by the fact that they want to air as many black stories as they can, carrying a conversation about the rotten judicial system, and the social class inequality.
The film starts with the murder of TJ, one of their friends who got mugged in the local park at night while cruising for sex. His death represents two of the main dimensions of the movie, one of which is racial politics. Although the police investigate to find out more about TJ’s death, the level of reluctance and racial discrimination played by the police makes the case drags itself for far too long, and it is almost safe to say that the police are not keen on solving the murder case and bringing the perpetrator to justice. The second aspect is insecurity and cultural politics. Being a black community, members of this society are forced to trade theircultural values and principles to survive. Sexual promiscuity, such as prostitution, is high in the neighborhood as the primary form of trade for young females.
Although TJ was Chris’s good friends, Chris is more focused on his professional career in commercial radio and does not want to get too involved with the murder case in a way that would ruin his career. On the other hand, Caz is distraught by the death of their friend, so much so that he fights with Chris over their divergent views. The ideological strands for TJ’s case between Chris and Caz may seem a bit conflicting, although the bottom line remains to be that Chris equally cares, and wants to find out on his own what transpired. He has a tape recording of the murder and is reluctant to hand it to the police because, as a black person, he does not trust the system’s broken policies, especially the ones that pertain to racial profiling.
While Chris goes on a solo mission to unearth the mystery surround TJ’s death, Caz meets and falls in love with Billibud. Caz is a member of the soulboy movement while Billibud is a punk who espouses the views of the Socialist Workers Party. Their love story is a taboo, and wrong on so many levels. They are from two warring youth movements and being friends, let alone lovers, is equallydisliked by the soulboys and the punks. Their interaction is considered a sell-out for both sides of the divide. However, Caz and Billibud falling in love challenge the set stereotypical views regarding the differences in the youth movements. The two boys found out that they have a lot in common, such as their views regarding the social and cultural discrimination black people face in society at the hands of the white population. This realization presents the first intersection of historical and ideological politics.
The scene at the club following the Queen’s Silver Jubilee is the epitome of the intricately woven critical sexual, racial, and cultural politics for the entire film. Caz and his new boyfriend attend the rally, where local skinheads attack Billibud out of homophobia. It is the first time the couple has gone out as a couple, and their love is not well received. The homophobic skinheads present the loop in cultural values regarding same-sex couples. The black community is heavily rooted in its cultural values, one of which places greater emphasis on heterosexuality, and aggressively condemns homosexuality as an unnatural act. However, the writers and directors of the movie hold this act of righteousness and upholding of values in comparison to the decaying moral values in other aspects of the society. TJ had been murdered in a local park scouting for sex, yet the community does not condemn such acts as prostitution, which are equally immoral.
At the club, Chris tries to warn Caz of TJ’s murderer, who he has already identified as an individual they thought was their friend, but Caz and Billibud have other issues to deal with, one of which is the homophobic reaction they draw from their audience. An angry individual throws a cocktail at the stage, and Caz and Chris are caught in the frenzy trying to salvage the vinyl records, the reaction by the crowd is a mixture of racial, sexual and cultural politics. While a larger population of the crowd is angered by the gay couple hosting the show together, the club also experiences racial discrimination, with the whites making nasty comments about the black community, given the increasingtension between the three youth movements present at the park. The skinheads are hassling Chris and Caz, while their respective gangs are caught between the fights regarding the relationship of their gay gang members.
Events escalate quickly, and it becomes difficult to pinpoint the exact causes of the growing rift. Given the confusion caused by the gang members regarding Caz and Billibud’s relationship, and TJ’s murderer chasing Chris at the park, the whites make snide remarks about how things have changed since their youth, which promotes the hostile reaction of the black revelers who are torn between hating the whites, the gangs, or the homosexuals more. The showrunners then bring the show to a climax by showing the youths who continue to enjoy themselves, unbothered by the gang wars, racial politics, and the gay men around them, ushering the viewers to a new society, one where individuals are more concerned with equality, paying no regards to the intersection of racial, cultural and sexual politics.