The movie was set in a very racist time in American history. While African Americans had equal rights, they were not yet completely socially integrated and accepted. On a smaller scale, C lived in a very segregated neighborhood. In fact, I would have a hard time coming up with a set of neighborhoods more segregated than the 1960's Bronx.
The Italians live in the Italian neighborhood. The Latin Americans live in the Latin American neighborhood. The Irish live in the Irish neighborhood. And the African Americans live in the African American neighborhood. Of course, these rules are not written; people simply just know.
Naturally, we humans have a "pack mentality." This means that we are drawn close to the people we consider "our own" and naturally assume that anybody else is an intruder and an enemy. Because of this, the Italians in the Italian neighborhood are prejudiced against the African American boys when they come hrough their neighborhood. The "pack mentality" in addition to the high level of racism in the U.S. in the 1960's creates a violent and unnecessary situation.
When C tells his father about the possibility of him dating a black girl, his father is not blatantly racist about it, but states that it would be proper of C to "keep it in the family." C comes from a family of pure-bred Italians and his father is a very traditional man. I don't believe that C's father's disapproval comes from racism, but rather from a desire to keep his Italian genes purely Italian.
I'm glad that society is moving away from such a close-minded way of thinking. It would be bad if my family disapproved of any girl that wasn't Ukrainian that I dated. But, we do live in a very open-minded region.
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I agree that we're becoming more open minded, but its still a huge problem in the city. There are still huge ethnic divisions between a lot of groups. There are still fights that break out about ethnic nationalism to this day.
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