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Spike Lee; Liberals; Oscars; & White Supremacy Winning Again

2/25/2019

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Last night, Spike Lee won the Best Screen Play (I believe that's the title of his award) academy award for his 2018 film "Blackkklansman."  Some people are taking issue with Lee's demonstrative display of emotion at winning the award, jumping into Samuel L. Jackson's arms like a child at a playground.  What I resent is the overall celebration about a movie that uplifts a police agent who infiltrates African organizations fighting for justice for our people.  Yes, I've heard the perspectives that the agent - Ron Stallworth - the person who's life the film is based on, was allegedly so moved by the speech Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) gives that he is motivated to stop infiltrating African organizations (again, allegedly) and turns his focus to the ku klux klan.  

This film depicts Stallworth attending a speech by Kwame Ture in the early 70s.  By definition, this would mean Stallworth's assignment would have been to infiltrate and spy upon the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) because as of 1968 forward, that was Kwame Ture's organizational home.  As a member of the A-APRP, I'm sure any rational reader can understand my apprehension at hailing this movie and the agent portrayed within it.  I cannot be expected to not take this position against the film.  Even if the forces defending this film are correct in their analysis, we cannot speak today to the damage Stallworth's work against the A-APRP did to our efforts during that period.  We cannot say he was the only agent attempting infiltration. In fact, we know objectively that he was not then, nor would he be today.  We don't know what damage his espionage work on behalf of the police did against our movement as a whole.  All of this cannot be discounted even if he did experience a complete transformation after hearing Kwame speak.  Evidence says otherwise.  The fact he remained a police officer, meaning he chose the organization repressing African people, not the organization fighting for us, is telling.  In other words, its not like Stallworth responded to Kwame's speech by leaving the police department and joining the A-APRP or some other African liberation organization.  So, from a practical perspective, its difficult for me to decipher this "transformation" he supposedly experienced after that speech.  Also, despite whatever work he carried out to "bring down" the klan, we all know the klan and all types of white supremacist organizations are flourishing today.  

Over and beyond all of these clear as day contradictions is the dysfunctional focus by people like Lee to gain acceptance and recognition from the Hollywood industrial complex when its quite clear that Hollywood is simply the propaganda arm of the capitalist system.  And, since Hollywood has always been presumably dominated by liberals, this problem is compounded.  In truth, there really is no such thing as "liberals" and "conservatives."  This is an illusion created by the capitalist ruling classes to fool the masses of people into believing they have a voice.  The reality is the only agenda is the capitalist agenda.  The entire "liberal" and "conservative" labels are simply different degrees of support for the capitalist system, period.  To say its any different is the same as arguing that the soup you made can have different degrees of salt to be considered an entirely different dish beyond soup?  Obviously, that's absurd and working people within the U.S. should wake up and stop playing this ridiculous game because the dominance of this bourgeoisie illusion has led too many people to believe that it is possible to support oppressed people and the capitalist system all at the same time.  

Films out of Hollywood like "Blackkklansman, Malcolm X, Selma, Mississippi Burning" and even "Black Panther" all serve the purpose of advancing a bourgeoisie liberal perspective that oppression can be overcome while leaving capitalism in tact.  These films take enemies of African people like police, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and portray them as heroes ("Blackkklansman", "Black Panther" , and "Mississippi Burning" respectively) while true champions of African liberation like Malcolm X are portrayed in these movies as problematic ("Selma") or as having made  far less of an impact than they actually made ("Malcolm X").  None of this is by accident.  Its all a part of the bourgeoisie liberal establishment's program (of which Hollywood is a propaganda arm for) to suggest social change is an individualistic attitude question.  Not a question of this system needing to be completely and uncompromisingly overturned.

Spike Lee has made numerous movies.  And, as marginal as his "Malcolm X" movie was, the fact he had to coax numerous African celebrities to underwrite that movie (no Hollywood production company would offer a reasonable amount to finance that film) demonstrates Hollywood's unwillingness to even produce anything that represents our struggle for justice with integrity.  And, the "Malcolm X" movie was nothing short of an entertainment film.  That's why Lee chose to have almost two thirds of the movie centered around Malcolm's pre-Nation of Islam conversion.  That film said practically nothing about Malcolm's critical meetings with African revolutionaries like Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, etc.  Based on the shallowness of that movie, the casual observer would have to wonder what the connection was between the government agents spying on Malcolm and Malcolm's eventual assassination.  Lee hasn't had the heart to attempt to make a movie about - say the phenomenal, and movie worthy, work of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (of which "Mississippi Burning" brutally mutilated).  And, based on the control of the liberal Hollywood industry, I'm not complaining about that. 

The point here is Hollywood, and the entire liberal element within this country, are no friends to true African liberation.  And, we count Spike Lee among that liberal elite.  Any true movie promoting the exact nature of capitalism to the masses of African people and humanity has a better chance of a camel going through the eye of a needle than being fully supported, financed, and awarded by Hollywood.  Capitalist police and intelligence agencies cannot be heroes in any depiction of our situation.  Only the masses of people make history and anyone, including African film makers like Lee, who don't and/or can't depict that, are only feeding into the dysfunctional and oppressive concept that we can somehow gain freedom without truly disrupting this racist, backward, decadent capitalist system.  Another fantasy.  Like everything else coming out of Hollywood.

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    I don't see disagreement as a negative because I understand that Frederick Douglass was correct when he said "there is no progress without struggle."  Our brains are muscles.  Just like any other muscle in our body if we don't stress it and push it, the brain will not improve.  Or, as a bumper sticker I saw once put it, "If you can't change your mind, how do you know it's there?"

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