Gripe : ‘We’re Teaching Our Children How to Kill’

Children are very impressionable. If you show them something, often they will imitate it. That’s why we are so concerned about films like Disney’s “Bound by Honor,” which glorifies gang violence. Kids are great learners and we are teaching them how to kill!

We see a lot of these movies as well-calculated propaganda to dehumanize brown and black Americans. Aside from glorifying gang violence, it harshly reinforces racist stereotypes against Mexican-Americans. Remember, it’s not just one movie. There’s another movie that will be coming out soon, “La Vida Loca,” which is the same kind of movie.

Hitler made propaganda movies and he was quite successful in forming people’s opinions around stereotypes. That’s how I see these movies. If we continue to show movies that are just propaganda about “these terrible people” and the terrible things they do, it’s going to encourage people to take extreme measures to handle them. But the vast majority of people in the community are not like that.

If we are going to show the dirt in our homes, we should emphasize the beauty as well. Instead of giving kids 100% trash, let’s show them the other side as well. As responsible adults, we are morally obligated to show them road maps to success and achievement out of a life of drugs, gangs and crime. We need to show them how to overcome the adversities of their environment. We have to give them skills to do so.

Instead, all “Bound by Honor” does is reinforce violence, vulgarity and all that. We are concerned that Disney would spend millions of dollars to show this. That’s not what Walt Disney stands for. Walt Disney stands for wholesomeness and life-affirming values.

This is not an ethnic issue, it’s an issue that is affecting all of our society. A lot of us are reacting after the fact. As a prevention specialist, I know we have to react at the early indications. Our children are not born criminals, drug addicts, or losers. Rather they are born with the evolving capacity to think, identify choices and consequences and make responsible decisions. “Bound by Honor” reinforces a curiosity in children to imitate gangs and play deadly gang games.