We never covered modern culture in American during history class. I knew little about the NWA, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube. In fact, everything I did know was through my involvement in the hip hop dance community. It’s an interesting coincidence that a BreakFree Hip Hop performance at the Cornell Cinema led me to attend the Rose Scholars event.

Straight Outta Compton incited many feelings about the horrors of stereotyping, bias, and not being able to move up in the world. While I grew up in a well of neighborhood that was not very diverse, the dance community, and my families ties people of all cultural backgrounds, kept me extremely open minded. Knowing that a couple of my close friends are actually straight out of Compton, or a locality alike, it made me very angry that we did not learn about police brutality, the makeup of such neighborhoods, and what life is like, when we learned about black history. This is very real to the black community, and it is really horrible that the only way a major population of the US can become aware of the issues that were and are prevalent is through a Hollywood movie. And many millennial did not even watch the movie, so they have exposure to these ideas. Most of my peers refused to watch it because they were “not into rap.” As a millennial, it really frustrates me when I meet close minded people. However, many things in society and media are not conducive to open mindedness. If American’s are not shown different cultures, traditions, and real images from history, they will not be able to develop an open mind.