Comments On: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors by Charles Mudede http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/03/spike-lee-calls-django-unchained-disrespectful-to-his-ancestors Comments On: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors by Charles Mudede en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Sun, 19 May 2013 14:45:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> To many of you who might possibly be looking at the movie, crossing the t's and dotting the eye of what consitutes a great film, when it comes to a sensitive issue like this, there's more to it than just that. Let me briefly explain.

When some Black people watch this movie, as other similiarly themed movies, it's more than about just making a well dotted film only.

As Blacks in America, some of us take Hollywood films like this a bit personal. Why?
Because, alot of Blacks, including myself feel our ancestors have been cruely wronged by this American County, feel free to start back to slavery days.... I haven't watched Roots, I haven't seen Lincoln yet, but the other movies that I did see, I'm always watching to see how it makes me feel afterwards....did they use sensitivity and a great thought to deliver the portrayal?? And stuff like that.

You see, not only have our Ancestors been "raped", by damn near every sense of the word, we have also been destroyed and continue to live and be overtly and even directly affected by the horrible devastation, mind fucking, brain washing, division, and outright anilation of a people.. Some commenter referred to it as a Holacost....Well that is what slavery was like.

Our people have suffered tremendous loss, stagnation, limited resouces, black balling, second citizen treatment, lack of quality education, government attacks and experimentations, segregation, civil rights violations, limited health care, job opportunities, and countless other victimizations by this great country called America.

Today, the remnates of slavery, how a large portion of traditional Whites feel and treat Blacks today is the very stinch that slithered through all the years of slavery.

The Black sterio types still are very prevelent to this very day. Blacks are still affected and effected from the brutal days of slavery. I know, I know...many of you are already trying to pick my comments apart with a clever rebutal question or statement. But I challenge you to take of your war helmet off and just listen, listen and try to understand what it really feels like to be Black "today".

Thank God we don't live in the wicked days of slavery. But racism, stimming from what Whites identified Blacks to be, back then, still travels into 2013. While change has come, and today is a world better than back then, Blacks still suffer with every area of life than there White equals. Poor education, low income housing, early mortality rate, high blood pressure, stress, criminal abuse and unfair treatment to blacks, racial profiling, Bank Home loans, Black male employment, Black on Black Crime, Illegal lifestyles, racist Commericals, unporportionate negative images of Blacks in the media.... etc.

Black are not born with a "wild" animalistic behavior apart from other races. Blacks do not lack the ability to achieve in school, college and in the work place as do other ethnicities. Blacks are not wired diffent from any other human being on the face of the earth.

It's the lack of fair and equal opportunities, health care, support, and time to become a strengthened people, is what will balance our people back to a restored place in this society... It's not impossible, but America has to be pro and con.

With that being said, even the movie "Red Tails" was being fought nail and tooth because of the all Black cast. Nobody in Hollywood wanted to loan the famous producer, whose name fails me right now...sorry!!! But he couldn't get the film financed by anybody in Hollywood. Red Tails came out, what...a couple years ago...maybe..and Hollywood would not finance the project.. Finally the Film maker had to finance the entire budget out of his own pocket... That alone serves as a plain and clear reminder of how Hollywood feels about supporting Blacks...

So if the opportunites aren't opened up more, to a balanced and even level, how can Black ever get to there rightful place in America? Or will we ever?

There is still much fear of Blacks, inspite of Spike Lee, Oprah, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson...and the other typical accomplished celebs most White people know and like. The fear and traditional racial feelings of too many Whites that run this country..."the good ole boys"...has kept limitations and support or lack of support of Blacks in this country. And I understand many of you reading this might feel like I'm being a bit extreme.. Obama as President has done little for the average Black man and family in America... I don't blame him for any of it, because it's obvious, political leaders and political respresentation has fought him (verbally and critically) violent during his entire first term. They challenged him about every single thing he tried to do. This might have easily been passed off as "people are tired and ready for improvement for the country" if you will...but I know alot of his extra attacks had to do with giving this Black President hell...and they did. And by the way, I have never in my life seen a standing president be so rudely insulted, attacked, and challenged in all my life. Bush fucked the country up, and he was allowed to toss the ball over to an egar Obama...while Bush ran off and took on Million Dollar speaking engagements and sat rather quiet as Obama took all the blunt and blame for everything that was going wrong... Obama has been criticizied and verbally attacked until I'm suprised somebody has outright called him a Nigga to his face.

It's not slavery, but in 2012-2013, is more subdued. It's open and closed, being extremely racist is wrong among a large portion of whites.. But it's about, not making sure Black get ahead, making sure Black men stay in jail and have a criminal record, and be subjected to low income housing, poor education where they can stay desperate, low self esteem, hungry for an opportunity, last to be picked, living stressful lives, dying early, eating unhealthy, not being able to proudly provide for their families, living negative lifestyles and feeling so stepped on and passed up until they resort to illegal avenues as a source to achieve a part of the American Dream or the thought of it...

Whether you all realize it or not, there is a systematic game being played on common Black America, post slavery.. Yes we have rights, still, the opportunities are constantly being minimized, picked, selected and orchastrated by higher powers.....I know I just went a bit deep, but somebody who reads this knows exactly what I'm saying....

Back to my original point! I know yall probably thought I loss track...but I didn't. I said all of that to say this, when Films are created with such heavy themed slavery protrayals, it catches our attention, we want to know our people were served right by the film maker. It's more personal to us. Our lives or should I say our heritage has been destroyed over these issues, our people stripped to nothing...and many of us feel, even today feel America doesn't support or recognize us, unless we are the few, hand picked token Blacks that you all know. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the few images of positive Black reflections we do have in the media, thank God for them. But as a whole we are still ambushed by America, even today. So a movie that wakes up such a devastation in our history to present, it should be done with sensitivity, heart, reality, and more than anything...A PURPOSE!!

I saw good things in this movie, I really did. I never seen some of the depictions of the roll, Samuel Jackson beautifully played. I never seen a few of the brutal realities dramatized that this movie sheded what I will say, new light on...

Overall, I thought the movie minimized the touch of slavery and somewhat downplayed it, as brutal as this movie was. I feel like no Black Cowboys ever remotely came close to being able to lawfully kill Whites and track them down...for me it was a bit fantasy....and fictional, fictional and fictional on that part. But I appreciate his effort, theme and direction of the movie. I can tell he meant well by this art of work. And I'm not mad a Q for this movie..I just think it lacked a strong enough purpose for visiting such a harsh time for Blacks in America.


Posted by Tiger1009]]> Fri, 04 Jan 2013 03:45:55 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>
I would really like to hear Charles Mudede's take on this movie. I think this movie did a much better job at showing white people as racist then Lincoln did. Lincoln seemed to whitewash the ugliness of racism, with most of it's racism coming from wordy speeches. It also made white people look like the hero and whitewashed Lincoln's own racism.

Django Unchain showed white racists as the horrifying monstrosity that it was/is.

I saw Lincoln in Seattle in a theater of mostly white people, and there was this self congratulatory vibe in the theater. A feeling of WE DID IT, WE ENDED RACISM! Look at Daniel Day Lewis as wise old Lincoln ending RACISM! Man aren't white people great! Everything's going to be sunshine and roses from here!

I saw Django in a theater in Waterloo Canada, mostly filled with white people, and there was just a feeling of disgust for how the people acted. As a white person, seeing that many white people acting like that just makes you feel sick. But at the same time makes you realize that this is what racism is, this is shit that us white people have done to black people just because of their skin colour. Sure Tarantino doesn't show all the complexities of racism, but at least he shows the ugliness of it and makes his audience confront it head on.

Sorry for the rant, but since Charles thoughts on slog on race relations are always interesting I'd love to hear his take on the movie.
Posted by j2patter]]> Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:25:19 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>
(For the record, however clumsily, Mr. Lee has a point.)
Posted by Andy Niable]]> Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:04:15 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> As a revenge fantasy, the movie is nearly flawless, and as a spaghetti western the movie is nearly flawless.

Posted by Pol Pot]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 19:27:55 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>
I haven't seen Django yet. Does it have sex scenes with muscular young men, ice and big breasted co-eds? I know Lee likes the hot bods in his topical movies challenging the vestiges of the Black Holocaust.
Posted by cracked]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:33:22 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> Posted by blip]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:08:01 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> Posted by Ross]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:30:38 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> Posted by GermanSausage]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:08:36 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>
I would say that any 5th generation American that has a sizable family inheritence has something to do with slavery in America, still.
Posted by wisepunk]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:57:23 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> Posted by cliche]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:44:04 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>
The idiot claimed that Slavs were among the first peoples enslaved in Europe when they didn't emigrate to Europe until halfway through the first millennium AD. Haha, yur stoopid.
Posted by keshmeshi]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:39:36 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>
[Someone makes a fun movie]

Spike Lee: GRUMP GRUMP GRUMPA-GRUMP!
Posted by MacCrocodile]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:27:17 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>
And you can actually read the piece if you want to see your own point being confirmed about Romans and Greeks owning slaves.
Posted by cliche]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:23:51 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>
A publication based in Lubbock? Who the fuck do you think you're fooling? I have neither the patience nor the inclination to pick apart all the idiotic pronouncements of the asshole who wrote that op-ed, so I'll just cite this:

Even the word slave is derived from the fact Slavic people were among the early European slaves.


Slavs didn't emigrate to Europe until well after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. So, either that fucking ignoramus doesn't know that fact or he's stupid enough to think that ancient Romans (and Greeks and Germanic peoples and Celts) didn't own slaves.

You're welcome.
Posted by keshmeshi]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:17:52 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> Posted by Max Solomon]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:08:04 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> Posted by Sargon Bighorn]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:02:37 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>
Django does all this in a visceral, unflinching way, and for that it should be lauded by the Spike Lees of the world, not lambasted. Instead everybody wrings their hands over how many times the script uses the word "nigger" (or rather, "the n-word"...a term, btw, that exists ostensibly to be polite and respectful, but has the potential effect of whitewashing (so to speak) the past).

Sure, it's entertaining. Can we only make movies about slavery that are not entertaining? Why does Lee get to decide what's OK and what isn't in terms of the limits of art? He needs to pull his head out of his ass, see the damn movie, and make criticisms regarding the actual merits of the thing.

Judgements based on pre-established, ordained opinion are exactly what true art sets out to destroy.
Posted by schmacky]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:51:40 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>
"My yet-to-be-learned lesson — and perhaps that of Rep. Hubbard — is there are certain topics or arguments one should not bring up in the presence of children or those with little understanding.

Both might see explaining a phenomenon is the same as giving it moral sanction or justification."

http://lubbockonline.com/editorial-colum…
Posted by cliche]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:49:37 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> Posted by sirkowski]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:46:09 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> Posted by blip]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:46:02 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>
The mythical healing power of the "racial dialog" strikes again. This is always annoying in the general sense but just absurd in the American slavery sense. The discussion has been had. David Walker and John Brown have been documented. Slavery was abolished and no living person was involved with it. It surely caused some lasting scars but what good does it do to constantly reopen them? We already teach every school kid that blacks were brought from Africa and used as unpaid labor and routinely tied up and whipped. One could argue that "dialog" only serves to hurt race relations from the moment it is taught in elementary school.
Posted by cliche]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:29:31 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> Posted by Post_Mortem]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:17:33 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> Django is one of the most uncompromising mainstream movies about slavery I've ever seen, and it's definitely the only one *other* people will see. Beloved was also uncompromising, but I was one of the only people who watched that heap of trash.
Posted by keshmeshi]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:15:18 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]>

Posted by tainte]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:06:52 -0800 The Stranger <![CDATA[Re: Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors]]> Posted by gloomy gus]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:04:15 -0800 The Stranger