heard,
and accounted for!

I don't care about Hollywood.

Race is different, I do care about that.

And it's not about Spike vs Clint = black vs white.

Where was Spike when Clint made Round Midnight? Or his film biography-documentary about Thelonious Monk? Or his multiple-part series on Blues musicians? I guess maybe those movies passed Spike's black-people quota test? Hello?

There are racists in America, no doubt. But puhleeze, folks, Clint Eastwood isn't one of them, for crying out loud.

Nevertheless, the point Spike makes has some validity, and it gets press precisely because it is exaggerated and involves mega-rich Hollywood personalities.

If you and I were having the same discussion, I have a feeling the press wouldn't show up. But that's classism, which is a different discussion.

So forget about Clint vs Spike. That's not the issue. The issue is institutionalized racism, and yes, it exists in the US military even to this day.

I have read accounts of American Indians fighting in Iraq. They are expected, for example, to go along with the jargon that enemy territory, even in 2008, is still called "Indian country" by their fellow soldiers. Then they get to go out and terrorize and kill brown skinned people who live in small poor communities much like the ones they came from.

So, have we come a long way, or not?

We abolished slavery. Black people can vote, even though, to this day, they are cheated out of their votes by shifty voting rules and politicians who wish, even though they dont say it out loud anymore, that blacks could not vote.

We have made some milestones, sure, we have major black Hollywood directors like Spike himself, and a black running for President, who narrowly beat a woman for the nomination. Those are good breakthroughs, no doubt.

But Spike is right. There's still an underbelly of ugliness, and we shouldn't rest until it too has been transformed by a philosophy of compassion and equality of all the races and religions.

But don't be fooled. Spike's issue is not Clint Eastwood, it's a far bigger and pernicious problem he's attacking. But first he had to get everyone's attention. And he's good at doing that.

Spike vs. Lee Round 3

Here's a nice report:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2284542,00.html
Monday June 9, 2008
The Guardian

Spike vs. Clint Round 3

Here's a nice report:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2284542,00.html
Monday June 9, 2008
The Guardian

The namecalling and war of words over black soldiers escalated with Eastwood's Guardian interview.

Nice conclusion to the feud (from the Guardian story above:)

"....Lee however promised to draw a line under the bitter war of words, alluding to the tone of the bid for the White House of Barack Obama, who went to see Lee's Do The Right Thing on his first date with his wife Michelle. Lee said of Eastwood: "Even though he's trying to have a Dirty Harry flashback, I'm going to take the Obama high road and end it right here. Peace and love."

Soumds like a publicity stunt to me. But I have not read the Guardian article yet either. I will always side with Clint Eastwood ever since Play Misty For Me.

Hi Arizonasunset,

I'm not sure I understand you correctly. Did you mean it was a publicity stunt for Clint Eastwood's movie? If that were so (provided he needed it after the sweeping oscar buzz the two movies created) don't you think he would have handled it a bit more eloquently than asking his detractor to "shut his face". On the other hand did you mean it was publicity for Spike Lee's forthcoming movie? That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?

Hi Yogi-one

I get that you don't care about Hollywood. Not enough even to go to the movies? What about your neighbors? friends? family? Do you think Hollywood cares about you? Your friends? your neighbors/ your extended family? If all these people stopped going to the movies (let's say hypothetically - stage a boycott) do you think then Hollywood would care? The reason for the boycott could be anything - you were offended by something - and influenced your friends & family to stop going to the movies. If it affected their box-office would they then care? So - hypothetically speaking - it is possible to make your opinion heard - one man / or woman at a time - caring might just bring about a change. That was my point ...

If you think Hollywood is just about some nameless faceless suit sitting in a studio somewhere with his goal simply to entertain you for an hour /two hours (in the case of Bollywood - which incidentally takes it's cue from Hollywood), and that movies do not pre-condition us to think and act a certain way, nor are they a reflection of the times we live in - you may want to think again.....

Thank you one and all for reading and making your voices heard. Appreciate...

Tori

I think it is a publicity.

Dear Tori, love your posts, it's good to bring those painful issues to the fore and you do it passionately. Shall we approach the topics from other angles as well ? For it is good to see how things are down the valley when you take a somewhat elevated perspective.

From the blessed perspective of the original design, there is no contradiction what so ever, for there is no evidence which can support the superiority of the one race over the other. Moreover the whole notion of the race is a fiction on which the painful pages of our history have been strung.

The reality of man is not the variety of the tone of his skin or hair, but the nervous system which reflects Cosmos in all its entirety. Man is Cosmic. Knowing that should bring the end of the era of misconception and hallucination. We ought to wake up from the Darwinian ideas of the evolution of the species and awake to our true identity - that of the Universe.

No attempts to solve the problem on a less elevated level will prove effective. For up until one knows to be himself and not the other, one will always find an excuse to accuse the circumstances for being less than what he/she is.

If you want to free man from his condition of being this or that, black or white, blue or green, let him know his true status. That will be sufficient to make him who he is and has always been. Providing of course you equip him with the tools to know himself directly. Pretty soon he will stand to his only essence and measure up to his own Self.

With Love and Joy,

igor