White Flight and Adventures in Babysitting; Protecting the Children from the Scary Black Man

“You kids must be from the suburbs.”

Although spoken by the white John Pruitt, this line of dialogue perfectly captures why Adventures in Babysitting is the perfect 80s movie for an urban historian. By the movie’s release in 1987, racial tensions had led to a re-segregation of America, and those self-drawn lines coincided with the urban/suburban divide. Adventures in Babysitting is about four white kids from the suburbs of Chicago, an urban center whose inner and outer ring suburbs represent the racial history of America much as a tree’s rings demonstrate its age, venturing into the city to rescue a friend from the scary forces threatening her. In this movie, and in the public mind, the city is a dark place with evils lurking around every corner. It exists as a contrast to the white shell both its suburbs and protagonists possess. This movie is all about white versus black and thus, good versus evil.

A brief overview of the post World War II phenomenon of “White Flight” will lay the groundwork for the many ways this movie demonstrates the American cultural consciousness of the 1980s. The GI Bill provided low-interest mortgages for the predominantly white war veterans. The commercialization of the American dream combined with financial assistance from the government created the modern suburb. Covenants guaranteed a homogenous neighborhood and many white families took this opportunity to leave the overcrowded urban centers. As the racial dynamic of the city became darker in color, property values plummeted and white homeowners sold their homes and fled to a new life in the suburbs. This cycle continued until the color contrast between urban and suburban was so stark many considered the city to be a black enclave, with all the socio-economic and racial connotations inherent in that assumption.

Combining an ostensibly lightweight comedy with this particular facet of the cultural consciousness of the late 80s is a feat the movie successfully pulls off. One of the tricks Adventures in Babysitting uses is music. The movie starts with a musical cue so perfect it cannot be coincidental. Elizabeth Shue’s Chris Cooper dances around her bedroom preparing for her perfect date to the tune of The Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me.” The Crystals were a girl group in the early 60s and, as was the norm for girl groups, they combined white and black musical sensibilities. Their lead singer, Dolores “LaLa” Brooks, was a half Native American, half African American convert to Islam-all qualities likely to send the average white upper-middle class American running in fear. Yet this song transcends race in the way it epitomizes every girl’s dream of that perfect man falling in love with her and sweeping her away with an innocent, yet still sexual in nature, kiss. This song has the unmistakable qualities of Motown, as well as a cross-racial appeal, and works to ease the viewer into a movie that brings the separate lives of white and black Chicagoland residents into conflict. However, this song is only the beginning to an immersive listening experience. The entire soundtrack relies heavily on the blues, a musical style practically synonymous with city of Chicago. The only white musical acts in the movie are indebted to black musicians for their sound. (Namely the house band of the University of Chicago party sound like they went to the Jim Belushi School of Music, even though it didn’t open until the late 1990s, and The Rolling Stones, an act notorious for their lust after the African-American sound.) This choice helps set a tone for not only the movie but also the city backdrop, helping to make it as charged as it is dark and foreboding. I would also argue that the movie’s most famous scene, the live rendition of “The Babysitting Blues” set in a south side blues club, only adds to the racial tension. This scene has a group of white kids held hostage by a stage full of black musicians until they agree to completely co-opt their musical style. They acquiesce, with the complete support of the house musicians and the cheering crowd. This seems to be setting the movie up for a white take-over of black culture, but in many ways, the movie is actually making the case for a black threat to the white way of life.

The perception of African Americans as criminals is an important one for the narrative thrust of the film. The main black protagonist, Joe Gipp, is introduced emerging from the shadows as he steals a car. The initial impression the viewer has of him is that of a black criminal. Joe Gipp is a product of Chicago. He lives makes a living stealing the nice cars of white people and is introduced stealing a Cadillac from the white lover of John Pruitt’s wife. His character is the physical embodiment of the black threat to whites inherent in the city. However, Adventures in Babysitting makes Joe Gipp more than just a black criminal. His dialogue with Chris Cooper and Keith Coogan’s Brad Anderson shows him as both a pessimist and pragmatist, but also a man sympathetic to the plight of some children clearly in over their heads.

Chris Cooper: Can you just let us out on the next corner?

Joe Gipp: In this neighborhood? Eh, even I wouldn’t get out of the car in this neighborhood.

Brad Anderson: Could you drop us off at the nearest mall?

Joe Gipp: A mall?! Where do you think we’re at, Boise, Idaho?

He is simultaneously scary and their only hope. His transformation from terrifying presence, stealing them away to an illegal chop shop, to unlikely advocate and savior manages to unwittingly foreshadow the gentrification of the coming decade. However, these murky racial waters are best demonstrated by the relationship dynamic of the two main bad guys; the heads of the illegal chop shop enterprise. The black man who confronts Gipp upon his arrival with the kids seems like the tough leader of the operation. His physical and psychological dominance of the situation is threatening and lets our protagonists know they are in terrifying waters. However, despite his blustering, he is an obvious underling to the physically unthreatening older white man. Even in the inner city criminal arena, an area culturally assumed at this era to have been dominated by a black presence, a white man still reigns supreme.

Prior to running away in the beginning of the film, and setting off the chain of events that brings our protagonists into the heart of downtown Chicago, Penelope Ann Miller’s Brenda complains to Chris about the homogenous nature of their suburban life. “We gotta get out of this place. It’s like Dairy Queen-you only get one flavor.” These are children who are both yearning to leave behind their vanilla life, yet terrified at the possibilities out there. The unclear racial divides painted by the movie are a sharp contrast to the popular consensus at the time and were likely confusing to children raised in a world divided along black/white and good/evil lines. Considering both their attitudes toward the city and the tumultuous events of the night, it is then unsurprising our protagonists feel safest in a University of Chicago party. U of C is an upper-class Ivy League caliber school in the south side, a literal white enclave in a largely black corner of the city. It is here that the youngest daughter finally gets to relieve herself, Daryl has an opportunity to lose his virginity, and Chris meets her knight in shining armor. This brief respite from danger and reminder of their roots recharges the group and allows them to find their car and missing friend. After a harrowing night, our protagonists can breathe a sigh of relief at being around the type of people to whom they are accustomed, no matter how much they might have wished for a little change and diversity. They met the “real world” head on, and then they headed back to the suburbs.