Spike Lee . . . Always Doing the Right Thing?
You may not like every word that comes out of his mouth, but Spike Lee speaks his own mind damn straight. You got to respect a man who calls them as he sees them … unless he’s a member of the KKK, of course.
We don’t endorse haters of any kind here at AOC.
I recall watching “Do the Right Thing” … back in the day. These guys do have a way with words. There’s more to my story, but let’s keep it light. (Read Angelina Jolie & Alicia Keys Help Me Say ‘Flip It: I’m A Lipstick-Wearing Ativist’.)
“Do the Right Thing” Racial Epithets Extravaganza
Seriously now, I would write a J’Adore about Spike Lee, but that would probably be politically incorrect somehow. I’ve unintentionally stumbled into trouble with the Sisterhood on previous occasions, so I’m parking Spike safely in Les Artistes.
Lee’s persona can seem intimidating. “People think I’m this angry black man walking around in a constant state of rage,” he complains. Photograph by Platon.In an abbreviated New Yorker interview “Outside Man”, printed in this week’s Guardian UK as “Barack Changes Everything” Spike speaks up front and personal about the evolution of race relations in America.
“Changes the whole dynamic,” he said. “If we have a black president, maybe it will change people’s psyche.” Specifically, he meant African-Americans. He went on, “They don’t have to be shuckin’ and jivin’ - doing the tap dance - to make a living. And I mean that ‘tap dancing’ figuratively, not literally, because no disrespect to the world’s greatest tap dancer, Savion Glover.” I asked Lee about the debate in the mainstream press over Obama’s blackness. (Time had run a story in February 2007 titled “Is Obama Black Enough?” and the question had since been taken up by CNN, CBS News, the Washington Post, and other news organisations.) He snorted.
“It’s ignorance,” he said. “Here’s the thing. I’m not one of these people who’re going to be defined by the ghetto mentality, that you have to have been shot, have numerous babies from many women, be ignorant, getting high all the time, walking around with pants hanging from your ass - and that’s a black man? I’m not buying that. That’s not my definition. Are there some black people like that? Yes. But if one speaks proper English, wears a shirt and a tie…”
We also have a promotion for Air Jordans … After all, with Spike Lee, business is business and leveraging his celebrity and respect in the Black community with his business interests presents few conflicts. Better him than some white guy, and there’s truth to the argument.
Jordan Spi’zike (Set)
Let me wrap up this little Spike adulation on a proper note. No discussion of Spike Lee is complete with a reference to his beloved Knicks. Hope springs eternal in more ways than one. Something tells me that I will never get hired as a sports writer.
Spikes Knicks-colors shoes got a hands down on this blogEnjoy! Anne
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