In the film Set It Off directed by F. Gary Gray takes place in Los Angeles and follows four female bank robbers and their criminal uprising, and poetic downfall. The film stars Queen Latifa, Jada Pinket Smith, and Vivica A. Fox.
The fact that the film had four female African American actresses really inspired me. During the time of white male dominated action roles, it was a sigh of relief to see a film with a prevalent black female cast. The fact that the movie was projected to tank because of the cast, but actually did superb in the box office and was well received by audiences was quite interesting to me. To say the least, the film delivers action in copious amounts, and makes good use of the actresses acting abilities. These ladies proved that a predominantly female cast can overtake, and do just as well as a male cast.
Also, I found it truly upsetting that the women all came from an impoverished background and we're all profiled by police as, either deliberately involved or connected because of their skin color and who they knew. The police investigators and the bank owners just assumed that Vivica A. Fox’s character was involved in the first bank robbery because she was black and knew the assalent. The profiling of African Americans is a problem in the past and in today's society. It is a problem that needs to be addressed. Just because someone is black, it doesn’t mean they are a criminal or a bad person.