The last movie I watched was Hustle & Flow, which is focused on the life of an African-American man in the rough neighborhoods of Memphis. DJay, played by Terrence Howard, is a pimp/drug dealer who starts rapping so he can get away from the painful routine of working the streets. He is portrayed as a flawed, but likable character. He shares a house with three of his girls and one of their infants sons. At one point he kicks one girl and her baby out of the house after she insults his manhood. This can be interpreted a couple of ways. First, one could argue that it was necessary for DJay to get rid of her, even though it meant putting an innocent baby out on the streets as well, because she constantly held him down and provided virtually no positive reinforcement for him or any of the girls with whom she lived. Secondly, the act could be seen as one of insecurity in that DJay is so focused on being "In Charge" that he evicts the first person to challenge him.
DJay also has an interesting relationship with Nola, the girl who serves as his go-to prostitute and also his best friend. When times get tough he tells her that they are in charge and essentially control their own destinies. However, when he begins rapping, he starts to push her aside a bit. In his article, Ed Guerrerro argues that there is a dearth of complex African-American male characters in Hollywood. In my opinion, DJay is a complex character, although he is something of an anti-hero because of his environment, which has developed him into a chauvinistic, drug-dealing hustler.
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