Fruitvale Station Conflict Theory

Symbolic Interaction Theory, Conflict Theory, and Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station is an incredibly eye opening, powerful film. I was shocked I had not yet seen it. I watched the film in bed one evening. I got comfortable with my notebook and pen and watched the film uninterrupted from start to finish. After it had finished, I was so engrossed in it, I didn’t write a word during the whole film. It resonated with me so much, I had trouble sleeping after I had finished it. It was a true story and it left me thinking how much such brutal and hateful acts are taking place in our society every day. There are a number of explanations that describe why we cannot move beyond such hateful tendencies in society, theories such as the Conflict Theory

He is at a crossroads in his life, trying to choose which path to take in his life. The film made it sound as though Oscar had been down the road of drug dealing for most of his life. He desperately wanted to take a better bath, but the drug dealing was convenient for him. It was a quick way to provide much needed money for him and his family. Oscar’s girlfriend Katie and also the mother of his daughter Tatiana seemed to truly want to best for him. She seemed to want to keep him out of trouble. Oscar was living in a society where African American’s were highly stereotyped. I’d imagine there were not many opportunities for Oscar to get out of the life of dealing drugs in his area. Oscars conflict throughout the film was an endogenous conflict, it was between himself and society. It was an endogenous conflict in multiple ways, it was between Oscar and his decision on what road to go down, as well as in the end of the film when Oscar was wrongfully shot and killed in Fruitvale Station. Part of the conflict that was experienced in the film was how their social live generated opposition, exclusion and hospitability (Robbins, 2012). The different races seemed to be completely excluded. From the white man with the red bandana from jail, to the fact that all of the police officers in the film were white and everyone they took from the train was a black male, and in reality is

That being said, the conflict theory is directly related to the film. Because of all the assumptions that have been made, big problems arose. Such serious problems that someone in the end, lost their life. It really shows how serious assumptions and conflicts in society can be. On the brighter side of things, in Robbins (2012)’s text, she mentions conflict having the potential to promote social change. In the film, Katie had been on the train and she filmed the whole event with her phone. Then it was shared on social media. As a result of this, some justice was served and much of society was informed about the brutal acts that happened in Fruitvale Station. Katie sharing the footage with the world was a key factor in potentially promoting that social change and educating others on the serious conflicts in