Spike Lee Pride and Prejudice :: essays papers

transfix Lee 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. exactly hes also got the self-confidence, fearlessness and knowledge of his personal mission that in previous(prenominal) years, and some parts of Idaho today, would acquire gotten him called an uppity N-word, maybe worse. This reaction to him, to him in America today, and on our campus this week, is an illustration of how far washc troophs (yes, whites) in this nation have not come. Lee makes films active various aspects of the African-American experience in America. His debut in 1986, Shes Gotta Have It, was about the man problems and prevails of a raw shadowy woman in the big city. Do the Right Thing, his 1989 exhortation of racial strife was a warning flag of urban angers a full three years before the L.A. Riots. Malcolm X was a aspiration bio-pic about the slain black leader who pr eached a strident make of self reliance in an age when most express expression to the government for help was the last opera hat hope of African-Americans. It was also the best film biography since Gandhi. Gandhi may be the best bio-pic ever. Are some other filmmakers, like Martin Scorsese or Oliver Stone criticized for telling stories about exclusively white protagonists? Does anyone wave the flag of racism when Woody Allen makes his 100th film about neurotic Jewish men in New York? No, and they shouldnt. Creators work on what they know. The really fact that Lee is labeled and thought of as the black filmmaker is an illustration of just how right Lee is when he duologue 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 definitio n cannot be racist, was right. When he said that, he was talking about institutional racism (a fact adroitly cut from most news accounts of his comments). Blacks, by definition, cant be institutionally racist. They precisely dont have the power. Maybe someday they will, but now, you cant point to any institution, and very few corporations, in which African-Americans have enough power to even manipulation the thought of implementing institutional racism.