Failed Dreams

Hoop Dreams to me is frame as a story about to young men coming up from nothing in the Chicago area using basketball as a means of bettering themselves and leaving their community. This feeling is intensified because when I saw the film it was when the popular Lebron James was coming out of high school with huge fame and success. Seeing what I knew was hugely popular movie about African American basketball players out of high school I assumed they would have similar success. I was dissapointed by the ending that only one of the boys had success and even then it wasn't the success that I had built up for him. I think Hooks may of had the same feeling about the film. While it is a good film, I don't think it accomplished a lot in the area of advancement of the African American community. Hooks spend some time on the topic but doesn't (I feel) dive too deep into the topic, because on the surface the film is framed as a success story, but if do dive into it it can be seen as a failure for the boys and the African American community.

As I have eluded to several times through out this class I think any exposure to the urban African communities is positive as the majority of the population needs to be educated to hopefully enhance the betterment of people like the boys from hoop dreams so they don't have to struggle to make it with basketball.