Commentary on Racial Injustice in "West Side Story"

“West Side Story” is a 1961 modern rendition of Romeo and Juliet. The modern spin allows for the movie to explore many social problems that were not present when Shakespeare wrote his famous play. “West Side Story” is set up as a battle between races instead of a battle against related members of a family. The Sharks are representative of 1^st generation Puerto Rican Americans and the Jets are representative of the 2^nd generation American who are native born. The Jets see the Sharks as invaders of their territory. They are unwilling to allow shared space between the two groups.

In the song “When You’re a Jet” the Jets say, “every Puerto Rican is a lousy chicken.” This shows and emphasizes that the opinion of the “white” jets when it comes to people of color. The song is making social commentary on the racial injustice of the time. The Jets represent white America and its oppressive nature towards those of color. The Puerto Rican’s (Sharks) are representative of the struggle of all colored Americans to assimilate into the country’s culture. The jets don’t want the sharks to have any part of their territory and the certainly to not want to share any of their wealth with them. This is making a statement about how 2^nd generation Americans treated people of color in the 1960’s.

Although slavery has been abolished for some time before the filming of this movie, white America is still unwilling to allow Puerto Rican’s and many other races to assimilate in the country and obtain their own wealth. This is highlighted in the song “America” where the Puerto Rican men describe their struggle to become equal citizens. They say, “Twelve in a room in America” and “One look at us and they charge us twice”. This is the Puerto Rican men describing to the women that although they think it is better in America they are really being treated like second class citizens in comparison to the whites in America.

In these ways “West Side Story” is able to commentate in a different way than Shakespeare does in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare is commentating on the injustice of love and “West Side Story” commentates on love as well as racial injustice in American culture.