The film Somebody Up There Likes Me echoes the hardened path many minority youths face today. Rocky's struggle with crime and authority can be seen in minority children today with similar, lower, social economic status. The result of their upbringing and perhaps family life, leads youths of today to go through comparable situations of Rocky Graziano in the movie. We see Rocky go through periods of good and bad, never really learning his bad lessons, which perhaps is due to his lack of education. This also mirrors the children of today living in inner cities with no real understanding of education. For many minority children the only way out is to play a sport. Through counseling many under privileged youths myself, I can see first hand how many of them share the same sentiment. Society now, and in the movie, celebrate athletes more and more, paying them millions and trading criminal records for corporate profits.
Minority children today face on ongoing struggle with themselves and there surrounding, as did Rocky in the movie Somebody up There Likes Me. Inner city children face drugs, crime, and death in a way that many cant even believe. For many of the families it is due to their lack of money. In Rocky's case his father was an alcoholic that was mentally and somewhat physically abusive to him. Kids today face just as harsh condition with many of them growing up in single-family situation. Both situations can be classified as neglect, which can be attributed to the path of crime Rocky took. Rocky started out young when he threw the stone through the store front and was being chased by cops. His parents never punished him for that. Being a former boxer his dad never told him not to fight, and that might have helped Rocky out in his future of physical assaults. The kids of today have very similar circumstances. They have parents that don't care where they are, they don't respect authority, especially the police, and they use violence as an answer.