White Boy Rick emphasizes America’s broken justice system
September 21, 2018
By Allie Boulier
When I think of the 1980’s, scrunchies, big hair, cool music, and love stories starring Molly Ringwald come to mind; however, White Boy Rick (2018) shows a darker counterpart to the decade we so often associate with neon clothes and Madonna.
Based on a true story, White Boy Rick opens in Detroit and spans across the mid-to-late ’80s, focusing on the Wershe family. Richard Wershe Jr., aka “White Boy Rick,” starts out the film as a 14 year old surrounded by the threats of Detroit: gangs, guns, and drugs.
Rick is quickly pulled into the life of crime when the FBI blackmails him at 15. Claiming they would expose and arrest his father, Richard Wershe Sr., (Matthew McConaughey) for selling illegal guns and silencers, Rick is forced to become the youngest federal informant in American history.
Rick buys and sells cocaine for the FBI until he refuses to continue to assist the government and begins selling for profit. This goes on until he is arrested at 17 for the possession of more than eight kilos of cocaine with intent to distribute.
Throughout White Boy Rick, the theme of family loyalty bleeds through as Richard Wershe Sr., despite all of his faults and crimes, struggles to protect his son from the dangers of selling drugs and his daughter from the dangers of using them. The alliances and bonds we see built so strongly, provide a light-hearted contrast to the shady interactions seen on the streets of Detroit.
I also appreciated the costume choices for the characters: large, fur jackets and gigantic gold necklaces paired with sneakers from the ’80s. And the song “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer, although not what I would anticipate for a movie about gangsters and hustlers, paired perfectly with the film, especially in the roller rink scene.
However, of course, while I do appreciate Rick’s story, it’s impossible for me to rave about it. The simple fact is, the same story has been repeated a million times with people of color all over America, and yet nothing is said or done about it. But when a white boy is arrested on drug charges and faces serious consequences, it becomes a national story. What exactly makes White Boy Rick an interesting movie for people to see? Yes, his young age is alluring, but I feel confident the movie would not exist if his skin was a different color.
Rähn Sækerr • Oct 21, 2018 at 1:01 am
I won’t condemn this article for the messages that it’s trying to spread, but the article lost focus of the main idea very quickly of what the entire article was supposed to be about: America having a purportedly broken justice system. I must say this to preface, that the introduction was mighty fine to me. After that, you gave a synopsis on what the entire story is about. The last two paragraphs were mostly your opinion, and while I don’t have a problem with that, I do have a problem with the conclusion. The final concluding sentence states, and I quote, “Yes, his young age is alluring, but I feel confident the movie would not exist if his skin was a different color.” Now you may want to think about that. Does that really reflect your main idea you only vaguely hinted to in your introduction? You may have demonstrated this main idea throughout the synopsis and a little bit in your concluding paragraph of which it wasn’t the focus of, but that was it. You never directly stated that the drug trafficking in Detroit was what was breaking the justice system, or that the justice system was even broken at all. That’s why I think the title is misleading, and much more. Not only did you vaguely cover the topic, but even if the title was meant to piggyback off what you were trying to convey, it still failed; if White Boy Rick emphasized anything, it’s that the justice system in Detroit was broken, not America as a whole: Also, it told the stories of the drug problems that happened in the 80’s, not any happening right now, like your title would suggest. On another note, you seem to make claims in the conclusion that, personally, made me scratch my head; if people of color (which I’m assuming just means non-white people) are telling this same story all over America, there’s no one even talking about it in the first place, but when a ‘white boy’ tells it, it’s national? What’s the difference between a story being spread across America and a story being national? What are people saying and doing after seeing White Boy Rick that they haven’t with the ‘unheard’ stories of the POCs? I tried to look up those ‘million-time repeating stories’ from POCs all over America, and all I’m not finding much that looked at race for a factor at all. All in that paragraph, you forget what made White Boy Rick interesting and asked a question that you already answered in all the paragraphs above it: what makes White Boy Rick interesting? You tie this all in as, in your eyes, a con of sorts: a con that the protagonist is white? Judging someone based on their race and their race alone; I’m pretty sure there’s a word for that. Anyways, I digress. I truly believe the message that this article was trying to send was one that was genuine and that this article was written out of desire to point out the flaws of a legal system. This was only my honest thoughts and criticism, so take my words with a grain of salt; please don’t take it too harshly. My goal in writing this comment was to genuinely see you improve. Consider, if you want, Allie, relating your titles to your articles, keeping your main idea the same as you write your articles top to bottom, and trying to not let your biases get in the way of genuine statistics, but only if you want to.
Sincerely,
Rähn Sækerr
Ella Mangels • Oct 22, 2018 at 7:37 am
Editor’s Note: The Page staff appreciates comments on all our stories. Please note that this is a review and justifiably reflects the opinions of the author. The structure of the story is a stylistic choice, and while we are constantly striving to improve our writing and the quality of our posts, we stand by our original story.
Hope Berns • Sep 26, 2018 at 2:14 pm
Hey Allie. I really enjoyed your article here. I agree with you- this movie speaks volumes about the social injustices in the current system. I really glad it took the screen in the first place for sure. Great work on this commentary!