Spike Lee Pride and Prejudice :: essays papers

Spike lee side Pride and Prejudice Anyone who would dismiss Spike Lee as a racist is confusing pride with prejudice. Sure, hes abrasive, blunt, unvarnished and maybe egotistical. But hes too got the self-importance-confidence, fearlessness and knowledge of his personal mission that in past years, and some parts of Idaho today, would conduct gotten him called an uppity N-word, maybe worse. This reaction to him, to him in the States today, and on our campus this week, is an illustration of how far whites (yes, whites) in this nation have not come. Lee makes takes nearly various aspects of the African-American experience in America. His entryway in 1986, Shes Gotta Have It, was intimately the man problems and prevails of a young benighted woman in the big city. Do the Right Thing, his 1989 incitement of racial strife was a warning flag of urban angers a rise three years before the L.A. Riots. Malcolm X was a stirring bio-pic about the slain black leader who preac hed a strident brand of self reliance in an age when roughly said looking to the political sympathies for help was the last best hope of African-Americans. It was also the best film biography since Gandhi. Gandhi may be the best bio-pic ever. Are other film makers, want Martin Scorsese or Oliver S flavor criticized for telling stories about exclusively white protagonists? Does anyone gesticulate the flag of racism when Woody Allen makes his 100th film about mental case Jewish men in New York? No, and they shouldnt. Creators work on what they know. The real fact that Lee is labeled and cerebration of as the black filmmaker is an illustration of just how right Lee is when he talks about the largely lily-white nature of Hollywood, and the nation it entertains. And a lot of what he has said, even the supposedly racist comments, have plucked a tone of truth in areas where, frankly, most whites would prefer the strings go unplucked. His most famous comment, that blacks by d efinition cannot be racist, was right. When he said that, he was talking about institutional racism (a fact adroitly slide from most news accounts of his comments). Blacks, by definition, cant be institutionally racist. They simply dont have the power. Maybe someday they will, but now, you cant point to any institution, and very a couple of(prenominal) corporations, in which African-Americans have enough power to even exercise the thought of implementing institutional racism.