Whiteboyz: Khalid and Flip on Blackness

I found it interesting how in the film Whiteboyz (1999) the “whiteboyz” (Flip, J, Trevor) and Khalid perceived blackness completely differently. To the boys, blackness is about living a certain kind of lifestyle; in particular, a desirable lifestyle. Flip, for instance, associates it with a “ghetto hustler” lifestyle, complete with girls in bikinis, shooting rivals, rapping, eating great food, etc. Indeed, this belief is so strong that Flip regards Khalid as a gangster and a drug dealer and assumes he must have connections to crack dealers in Chicago simply because of his race and hometown (about 39 minutes in). This is in spite of all indications to the contrary: Khalid is going to college (and already planning to apply to law school!) and his family is fairly wealthy. The dichotomy between expectation and reality is especially awkward when the boys are sitting in Khalid’s house: Khalid’s mom speaks to them with a fairly accentless voice while Flip uses his exaggerated “black gangster” accent and slang (about 54:30 in).

By contrast, Khalid sees blackness as associated with a social condition that is, largely, negative. When he is arrested at the party, he is immediately targeted by the police—and he is not surprised (about 45 minutes in). I also suspect that much of his desire to enter law school is to escape the constraints of race (though it’s possible that here I’m projecting my own views on race onto Khalid and his family). Khalid’s aversion to the word nigga/nigger further supports this view of his attitude toward race (by contrast, the “whiteboyz” cannot understand the prejudice in the word’s history and thus cannot understand Khalid’s feelings).

So why the difference between their views? The obvious answer is, of course, that Flip is plain ignorant. When he enters Chicago he finds a much more dangerous and much less glamorous place than he expected, a place where even hanging one’s arm out the window while riding in a car can be fatal (1:09:10). The presumably well-respected crack dealer who helps them (I don’t know his name) is living with his grandmother in a small apartment, and dresses very simply (around an hour in). (It is also worth noting that he, like Khalid, sees blackness as a struggle.) And, of course, the final shootout between the gangsters and the police contrasts bitterly with Flip’s vision of prison life with Snoop Dogg, where Flip strikes down a prison officer for bringing him poor champagne (1:14:40 vs. 48:00). By the end, Flip realizes that there is much more to blackness than being a gangster, which is what leads him to throw away his gun (1:17:10), confront his past (1:20:00 on), and finally regret that he represents white oppression of blacks (1:23:30).

I get the feeling the movie can’t possibly be that “black and white,” but no deeper insight has occurred to me yet. Could anyone help me out? As it is I’m not terribly impressed with the movie since I think it’s too predictable (boy wants to be X, boy’s attempts to be X endanger him and estrange him from his loved ones, boy realizes X isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, boy abandons X and finds a greater purpose in Y). I realize that X and Y are somewhat more complex in this movie than in some others (X is blackness, Y is working to stop discrimination rather than perpetuating stereotyping/discrimination by desiring to perform a twisted stereotype), but unless I’m missing something, the movie seems to me overly moralizing and straightforward.