by: Luca Thamattoor
Spike Lee’s newest joint, BlacKKKlansman, is not just a return to form and relevance for the hit-and-miss director, but an important reminder on how racism still exists and must be stopped by all of us, now more than ever. Based on a true story from the 1970s, the film follows recently admitted Colorado Springs African-American cop Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) as he manages to get himself admitted into the city’s chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. With the help of his Jewish colleague and proxy Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), Ron investigates the radical hate group, all the way up to its leader David Duke (Topher Grace), in order to stop an attack on his girlfriend Patrice (Laura Harrier)’s Black Panther rally. Not only is this a surprisingly funny film, with its exaggerating of the idiocy of bigots and just as funny lines from our heroes, but it also teaches us a lesson that the win of one or two battles does not win the war against social ills like racism.
There are two concepts that I feel are relevant to this film. The first one is feminist philosopher Patricia Hill Collins’ concept of the “outsider-within” (11-12). The concept is about getting a look into the minds and lifestyles of the oppressors with a different perspective. The two cops in the investigation (the African-American Ron and the Jewish Flip) are the outsiders who have infiltrated the oppressive Ku Klux Klan organization. Thanks to their undercover work, an attack is prevented and some of the more violent members of the Klan are neutralized. Another main principle of the film is intersectionality. Two examples stand out when it comes to this. Over the course of the investigation, Flip and Ron develop a kinship over their shared heritage of oppression and the former begins to think more comprehensively about what his own religion and the struggles related to it means to him. The other example is Patrice being one of the leaders of the Colorado Springs Black Panther Party. Numerous criticisms have been made by African-American feminists like Ella Baker about how black women are marginalized by even their own race in the struggle for equality. In the movie, Patrice is not only shown to be competent as a black activist, but her efforts are noted and praised by the head of the party itself, Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins). The best part of the movie is its ending that shows how racial hatred has not only lasted in society, but also how it is undergoing a resurgence due to recent political events such as the Charlottesville rally by interspersing them with the Klan burning a cross while Ron and Patrice watch from Ron’s apartment.
Based on great performances from everybody involved, very eclectic writing and atmosphere from the revitalized Spike Lee, and a sense of awareness of both past and present racial tensions, I give this film a glowing recommendation as both one of the best movies of 2018 and one of the most politically relevant films of our time.
Bamboozled: What Measure of Satire is Too Silly to be Serious?
Spike Lee’s commentary on black stereotypes in our media, Bamboozled, is a case of great concept, middling execution. The film centers around mistreated television writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), who proposes a “New Millennium Minstrel Show” in an attempt to escape his contract. The New Millennium Minstrel Show contains offensive humor, black people doing blackface, racist CGI cartoons, and it is a MASSIVE success.
As the show’s success builds, Delacroix faces numerous problems like the increasing egos of both himself and the main star Manray (Savion Glover), his wildly racist boss Tom Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport), his assistant Sloane Hopkins (Jada Pinkett)’s attempts to show her boss how shameful the whole thing is, and a militant hip-hop group trying to stop the show with violent means. I am not making that last one up. All these problems culminate in a violent climax that ends badly for most of the main characters. As said before, the concept of black people contributing to racial stereotypes in their own media is an amazing one and has proven relevant in recent years (specifically with Dave Chappelle’s crisis of conscience over his satire devolving into minstrelsy and BET’s accusations of promoting racial stereotypes). This reminds me of a radical point made by feminist author Angela Carter in her short story The Bloody Chamber, in which she implies that women contribute to their own objectification through the teen protagonist dealing with both disgust and lust towards her older husband’s deviant proclivities.
The problem with Lee’s execution of the concept is that its initially realistic portrayal becomes too unrealistic and over-the-top to be taken seriously due to the show basically causing the violent deaths of both Man Ray and Delacroix. But, despite all the lunacy and ridiculousness, Lee does manage to ask very important questions about why racial stereotypes are still popular and how much someone can contribute to very negative stereotypes of their own race no matter the intention. Unfortunately, despite the great performances and sometimes intelligent writing, I can only give a minor recommendation for this film due to it sometimes becoming heavy-handed and making its point hard to take seriously at a few instances.
References:
Carter, Angela. The Bloody Chamber. Oberon Books, 2008.
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.
Ransby, Barbara, and Ella Baker. Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: a Radical Democratic Vision. The University of North Carolina Press, 2003.