Set in 1970 Colorado Springs, Spike Lee’s award-winning film, Blackklansman, published in 2018 during the peak of the BLM movement, delves deep into the concerns of discrimination and racial oppression. Blackklansman takes historically accurate experiences from African Americans, and cultivates a film with not only comedy but also challenges racial beliefs some groups to this day may still have. Cross-burnings were a practice fabricated by KluKluxKlan to cleanse and threaten the Jewish and African American communities. But why not? Why would the KKK incinerate their faith’s symbol? This is because the KKK instead of seeing it as incinerating their faith’s symbol, they see it as a “lighting” of the cross to show a member’s faith in Christ. In Spike Lee’s film Blackkklansman, a large burning cross is featured towards the end of the film, which is presented with a worm’s eyes shot, with this shot Lee shows the burning cross as an extremely tall and …show more content…
The music Lee utilises within the scene causes viewers to think and feel that the fight has only just begun and there’s still so much left to do, which in essence is what the scene is trying to convey to the audience, the music in itself emits a dangerous and ominous aura which, integrated with the scene, creates an uneasy and disturbing ambience. The lighting portrayed within this scene is extremely expressive, with a dark background and the burning cross being the only light source within the scene it creates a very centred effect around the burning cross, as if the KKK is trying to say, this is what their purpose is and they are committed to fulfilling it. Furthermore, as the only light source within the scene, the cross symbolises that there’s nowhere to hide, therefore adding to the ominous nature Lee constructs into the
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) is a 1 hour and 40 minute documentary that observes the black power movement in American history. This film is directed by Swedish director Goran Hugo Olson and has detailed footage that was shot during the 1960s and 1970s by Swedish journalists. The footage largely focuses on the black power movements. The film allows viewers to not only grasp a better understanding of this movement but allows us to understand why this movement appealed to Swedish journalists. The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 includes vintage interviews with Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, and other prominent leaders during the Black Power Movement. The documentary also contains contemporary audio interviews and commentaries from various entertainers, artists, activists, and scholars, including but not limited to: Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli, Melvin Van Peebles, Erykah Badu, Abiodun Oyewele, and Questlove from The Roots.
The racial project in this is, of course, a lynching. The racial spectacles are how lynchings are surfaced throughout the people. A lynching may be televised on television for people to watch. In addition, a lynching may be written in a local town’s newspaper for the people to read. Due to the fact that the lynching is carried out by so many people for this becomes a spectacle. The racial project of a lynching works towards the side of white supremacists because white people use it as a tactic to inflict their power over black people. MAny Klu Klux Klan members that lynched black people use religion as manner of justifying their actions. Former President Barack Obama reminded the nation back in February of 2015 when he was asked about Muslim intervention and the terrors that were used to justify religion. The president had this to say “Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of
This week’s readings of the reviews of Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’ and Marilyn Fabe’s “Political Cinema: Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’, raised a number of questions regarding not only the moral issues the film addresses but also the intention of the artist. This dialectical opposition, which Pamela Reynolds suggests “challenges the audience to choose” (Reynolds, p.138) between the narrativized hostility shown between that of the hero and villain. More specifically Lee’s portrayal of violence vs passive opposition. This can be perceived through Lee’s technical employment of contradictory quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcom X at the conclusion of the film, which not only highlights this concern but also deluges further into themes of political opposition. Marylin Fabe discusses this where she states that Spike Lee’s film carries a “disturbing political message” (Fabe, p.191). Arguably, ‘Do the Right Thing’ acmes themes of racism (Black vs White); with underlining motifs of imperialism (colonisers’ vs colonised), psychoanalytic (power vs powerlessness) and even Marxist theory (ownership vs public space/consumption), with Clarence Page stating that Lee provides a “public service… (not trying) to provide all the answers, but raising the questions.” (Reid, P.144). In saying this we explore this concept of the role of the artist, with Georgopulos stating that the role of the artist is to create a consciousness within the audience by revealing a fraught set of truths about the human condition. Thusly, the reactions and responses to the films reveal Lee to be successful in conveying his intentions, which back in its zenith, explored this issue of racism in a way that had rarely been seen, and presented the ways in which t...
The racially targeted lynchings were rare before the civil war since killing the black slaves would have resulted in a loss of property and profit. From 1880 to 1940 more than five thousand African Americans were killed by the US white vigilante mobs that also included Christians (page, 3). Christians were on the forefront in participation in lynching where black persons were killed without any cause or chance to face a justified death. The Christians that did not participate directly in any lynchings were silent on the issue. The act of lynching was identified as the symbolic re-enactment of the fructification in the twentieth century . This exposes the Christian hypocrisy and wilful blindness of white Americans Christians who had a reconciliation
The first social issue portrayed through the film is racial inequality. The audience witnesses the inequality in the film when justice is not properly served to the police officer who executed Oscar Grant. As shown through the film, the ind...
Being one of the few black students to attend Tisch School of the Arts, the aspiring filmmaker’s first year at New York University was a particularly difficult one. Lee’s experiences, race, and upbringing have all led him to create controversial films to provide audiences with an insight into racial issues. Spike Lee’s first student production, The Answer, was a short ten minute film which told of a young black screenwriter who rewrote D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. The film was not well accepted among the faculty at New York University, stating Lee had not yet mastered “film grammar.” Lee went on to believe the faculty took offense to his criticisms towards the respected director’s stereotypical portrayals of black characters (1).
...von Martin. It's what provoked four white police officers to fire 41 bullets at Amado Diallo, another unarmed black man, in 1999”(Fruitvale Station). Oscar Cruz was racially profiled, shot and killed due to the color of his skin. This movie truly shows how racism is still real, even in modern day America. It also helps open the eyes of Americans to see for themselves, literally, the struggles African American males face in comparison to other races and ethnicities.
Two plays, twenty years apart helped to depict two very important periods in African American history. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, premiered in 1984, and Dutchman premiered in 1964 help to show the development of the black mind set in certain periods of history. Dutchman, written during the black arts period (1960-1975); helped to show how African Americans constantly fought to escape the classic stereotypes that they were associated with. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, written for the Contemporary Period, told the story of how first generation black people after the signing of the emancipation proclamation, fought to find their identity, not only as black people but also religiously.
Spike Lee is a filmmaker who has generated numerous controversial films that unapologetically bring delicate social issuest o the media forefront. He honestly portrays life's societal obstacles. He challenges the public to cogitate on the world's glitches and disunion. Spike Lee created a name for himself with films such as Do the Right Thing (1989) and Malcolm X (1992), and with documentaries such as 4 Little Girls (1997) and When the Levees Broke (2006). Lee’s goal was to portray African Americans in a more accurate light.
Mississippi Burning is a gruesome reminder of some of the pain and hardship that African Americans in the South dealt with because of their skin color. If your skin color was anything other than white, then you were classified as dirty, impure, ugly, and all the degrading names you can find. Having colored skin subjected you to racism and hate crimes as portrayed by the sheriffs and the Ku Klux Klan’s in the movie.
The Birth of a Nation (1915) is one of the most controversial movies ever made in Hollywood, some people even consider it the most controversial movie in the long history of Hollywood. Birth of a Nation focuses on the Stoneman family and their friendship with the Cameron’s, which is put into question due to the Civil War, and both families being on different sides. The whole dysfunction between the families is carried out through important political events such as: Lincoln’s assassination, and the birth of the Ku Klux Kan. D.W. Griffith is the director of the movie, and him being born into a confederate family in the South, the movie portrays the South as noble and righteous men, who are fighting against the evil Yankees from the North, who have black union soldiers among them, whom overtake the town of Piedmont, which leads the KKK to take action and according to the movie become the savior of white During this essay, I will focus on the themes of racial inequality, racism, and the archetypical portrayal of black people in the movie, which are significant, especially during the era when the film was released. Black face in Hollywood was very common, especially during the time the film Birth of a Nation was released.
...g place for a long time now; blacks have went from not being banned from certain stages to dominating theater with actors and actresses such as Halle Berry and Denzel Washington. In modern day film, African-Americans have prevailed over all of the negative setbacks, and as the old Negro spiritual says, "We shall continue to overcome."
The health behavior that I wished to improve on during this semester is to stop smoking. I picked up my first cigarette when I was eighteen and unfortunately I haven’t been able to put one down until I took this class. In my country a lot of people smoked cigarettes and I didn’t think that there was anything wrong with smoking or that smoking caused any harm to your body. In my country they don’t advertise cigarettes as being harmful like they do in America. When I moved here I noticed a lot of advertising against smoking cigarettes. In the advertisements on billboards and TV commercials there were women and men who had been affected by cigarette smoking. One advertisement had a woman who didn’t have toes because of smoking and a man didn’t have legs because of smoking. One person had died but had never smoked a day in his life he died from second hand smoke. After watching that it scared me and it made me think about my smoking and it made me want to attempt to quit smoking. When I saw my friends smoking and while I was smoking I thought of those people in the commercials and how easily me my friends could become just like those people in the commercials.
Often racial injustice goes unnoticed. Television tries to influence the mind of their viewers that blacks and whites get along by putting them on the screen to act as if interracial relationships has been accepted or existent. “At the movies these days, questions about racial injustice have been amicably resolved (Harper,1995). Demott stresses that the entertainment industry put forth much effort to persuade their audience that African Americans and Caucasians are interacting and forming friendships with one another that is ideal enough for them to die for one another. In the text, Demott states “A moment later he charges the black with being a racist--with not liking whites as much as the white man likes blacks--and the two talk frankly about their racial prejudices. Near the end of the film, the men have grown so close that each volunteer to die for the other” (Harper,1995). Film after film exposes a deeper connection amongst different races. In the text, Demott states “Day after day the nation 's corporate ministries of culture churn out images of racial harmony” (Harper, 1995). Time and time again movies and television shows bring forth characters to prove to the world that racial injustice has passed on and justice is now received. Though on-screen moments are noticed by many people in the world it does not mean that a writer/ director has done their
In this narrative essay, Brent Staples provides a personal account of his experiences as a black man in modern society. “Black Men and Public Space” acts as a journey for the readers to follow as Staples discovers the many societal biases against him, simply because of his skin color. The essay begins when Staples was twenty-two years old, walking the streets of Chicago late in the evening, and a woman responds to his presence with fear. Being a larger black man, he learned that he would be stereotyped by others around him as a “mugger, rapist, or worse” (135).