Last Tuesday, the Student Peace Alliance and Students Organized Against Racism held a screening in the Golding Auditorium of Crips and Bloods: Made in America, a documentary by Stacy Peralta about the two rivaling Los Angeles gangs. It is a film that brings to light the gang violence and consequential structural problems that citizens of southern L.A. face every day, which, though very interesting, is not without its problems. Afterward, SPA and SOAR held a discussion with attendees about their thoughts on the documentary.The film begins by explaining how the gangs in L.A. actually started. Born out of the civil rights movement, the gangs we know today as the Crips and the Bloods had predecessors in the '50s and '60s. Excluded from other groups like the Boy Scouts of America, black youth were forced to cabal within their own communities to provide a sense of inclusion in an otherwise hostile, anti-black environment. The groups fought among themselves, creating tension that would foreshadow the all-out war between the Bloods and Crips today.

Though the film chronologically follows the evolution of the modern gangs of today, it is by no means an extensive look at all the structures of the gang movement. It does not mention the presence of women and their impact on gang society, though Peralta does show that there is some female presence in the gangs. She also neglects to develop the gun culture that is so integral to the gang's terrorization of L.A. Despite its faults, Crips and Bloods is an in-depth look at the evolution of the modern gangs as well as at the cyclical internal issues that arise because of the pervasiveness of guns, drugs and broken homes in the gangs' communities.

After the film, SPA and SOAR members hosted a large group activity, asking members to stand if they agreed with various statements. One such statement was "I was affected or I know someone who was affected by gang violence." Nearly everyone stood up. After splitting into discussion groups, it became apparent that these issues aren't just contained within the sphere of Los Angeles; they are the concerns of people across the nation and within the Brandeis community as well. The discussions proved this, as attendees passionately debated and commented on the issues brought up in the documentary.

One of the final statements in the large group activity was "After seeing this film, I would like to do something to help end this crisis." Again, nearly everyone stood up. After the event, SPA member Matt Zunitch '13 commented on why this might have been the case.

"The discussion afterward helped people identify what's wrong, and now they can go searching for ways to fix it," he explained. "This is a revelation of, 'Here is the problem.' Having the discussion and breaking it apart like that, makes it so much easier to fix."

The crux of this event was to bring about awareness of gang issues. SPA member Cecelia Watkins '11 said, "This is our problem, these are our stories. It's so key to make that connection. Students at even a privileged university [like Brandeis] also feel these problems. These are human things.