Spike Lee takes Jackson to task - We have to "move away from this so-called image of what black is"

[jefferson_dem]

Spike Lee takes Jackson to task for Obama comments
By LYNN ELBER – 1 hour ago

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Spike Lee says the Rev. Jesse Jackson's crudely phrased criticism of Barack Obama won't affect the Democrat's campaign, which the filmmaker expects to succeed at bringing "seismic" change to the world.

"I don't think his (Jackson's) comments help anybody. It's just unfortunate," Lee said after taking part in a Television Critics Association panel.

Lee predicted Obama would be elected in November.

"When that happens, it will change everything. ... You'll have to measure time by `Before Obama' and `After Obama,'" Lee said during the panel. "It's an exciting time to be alive now."

The presidency of the first African-American will ripple throughout arts, sports and more, said Lee, whose films include "Malclom X" and "Do the Right Thing."

"Everything's going to be affected by this seismic change in the universe," he said.

<SNIP>

Asked if there was any validity to the criticism of Obama, Lee replied: "No. Here's the thing: I don't know why people are questioning whether Barack Obama is black enough. For me, that's an ignorant statement."

"There are middle-class, educated black people who speak the way he does. ... We have to try to move away from this so-called image of what black is, which is largely influenced by rap and that type of stuff," Lee said.

"I'm for Mr. Obama," Lee said. "I think he's gonna win. And it's going to be a better day not only for the United States but for the world."

<SNIP>

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jWabcu6kZ9ykE80H7bgxHDIcfWWAD91R9P480

[babylonsister]

1. Spike would be right. The m$m wants this to be a story, but

it's waning as I type.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. It's another non-story, but I do like to hear what's on Spike Lee's mind.

[JoFerret]

2. Big effing deal

Don't care what any of the ones mentioned think.
I especially do not want to hear from JJ junior. What has he ever accomplished?
Spike has made some good films and has views on basketball and wind farms on Nantucket.

[jefferson_dem]

3. That's cool.

Thanks. :hi:

[roguevalley]

13. Barack lived his life without a father. He is therefore more than

qualified to speak about fatherless families. he is speaking for all fatherless families in my mind. All the people who make commitments have to man (and woman) up and keep them. Children are helpless and they deserve all they can have. His grandpa must have been quite a man to have such a great grandson, he and his wife, Barack's grandma. His mother is lovely but he was given a lot of time by his grandparents and especially his grandpa. Barack can comment in my mind. Go, Obama!

[JoFerret]

24. I would say it qualifies him to talk

about his own family.Yes.
Generalizations about other families not so much. Although that is what politicians do. I do not see him as uniquely qualified in this respect and in fact some of his assumptions about family are more than a little outrageous. And yes - of course adults should behave responsibly.

[jasmine621]

32. Unless he had a black mom, grandparents, it's a huge difference.

Sorry folks, but these are the facts. Obama has never experienced what most blacks, born to black parents, raised in black neighborhoods, reared by black grandparents. No matter how you try to spin it, he cannot possible identify. I give him all the props for his selection of Michelle. But his life experiences cannot compare to those of Jesse Jackson...or Spike for that matter.

Jesse Jackson had a dream of a "rainbow coalition" that was scoffed at by blacks and whites alike. Yet Obama with his "unity" call is put on a pedestal and no one dare to question him on anything. I want Obama to win but I don't want Obama to become the blinders for a nation steeped in racism and a salve for its conscience.

[ellacott]

38. I doubt you want him to win

It's funny even reading this under your name. You are also not qualified to speak on the black experience. You don't have a clue, it doesn't matter that you claim to be black.

All my skinfolk ain't my kinfolk

[roguevalley]

39. I have always loved Jesse and I feel for him now. What a triumph

for everyone that a black man is wiping up the floor on his way to the White House. I just feel in the area of no father around that it transcends race. A child without a father 'who wants them' is a sad thing no matter their color and it gives Obama the right to speak. Agree to disagree here I guess.

[Hekate]

44. Someone here recently said they were "disgusted" that the first black pres. nom. had a white mother

It really stuck in my mind as a statement so racist that had a white person dared to say it a flame war to end all flame wars would have ensued here.

I wrote a long reply about growing up hapa-haole in Hawaii and choosing identity, then deleted it because of being too tired just then to follow it up.

I'm still tired. Racism makes me tired. I'm a 60 year old white woman and I've been fighting the good fight all my life, and goddammit there is more to life than sexism and racism. There is more to race than black and white.

Instead of getting stuck in narrow categories, try to open your mind Jasmine to what it means to this country, this nation, to have a Hapa-Haole African-American man come out of Hawaii and run for president and get THIS CLOSE.

Hawaii is a real place and it is a state of mind and state of being. I've been gone a long time but several DUers live there -- Opihimoimoi and Mahina come to mind. Ask them what they think the influence of growing up in Hawaii has been on Barack Obama, with his haole mother and Kenyan father. Just ask. I think it is profound.

Barack Obama is the bridge.

Hekate

[scheming daemons]

14. What has JJ Junior accomplished? Unlike his father, he was actually elected to office....

Frankly.... Jesse Jackson reached his apex in 1984 and has been going down hill ever since.


His son has become a fine public servant, in spite of his dad being a prick.

[awoke_in_2003]

26. "What has he ever accomplished?"

JJ jr has served as a representative since 1995 (with a liberal voting record) and serves as co-chair on Obama's election campaign.

[blogslut]

28. Jesse Jackson Jr. has been a US Congressman since 1995

He has been a strong proponent of liberal causes and a long-time member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

You insult this man to make what point, exactly?

[Name removed]

31. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Drunken Irishman]

40. Then why should anyone care what you think?

What have you accomplished? Oh, nothing? Well damn, should we all just ignore you then?

[Hannah Bell]

4. upper-middle-class folk, white or black, are very good at giving moral lectures

to their "inferiors."

no war but the class war.

[babylonsister]

10. Would that be Jackson or Lee? nt

[JoFerret]

25. Very good point

It's a constant through the last few centuries.
Other people's family values as maintainer/ destroyer of the status quo and etc.
These families should look to their own values.

[Median Democrat]

35. Malcolm X Was Hardly Middle Class - He Gave The Same Message

Malcolm X repeatedly argued in favor of personal responsibility and self-empowerment, rather than relying on the government that he recognized as biased against the interests of people of color. Obama's message is a little less militant, but still emphasizes personal responsibility. Indeed, given Obama's personal background growing up without a father, and his personal experience as a soccer dad (yes, Obama fanatics, he's a goofy soccer dad), he has more credibility than most to give this message.

[Hannah Bell]

46. not quite.

[izquierdista]

5. I agree

I saw some old Amos 'n Andy records at the used bookstore today. Maybe I'll send one to Rev. Jackson so he can hear something that is "black enough". :sarcasm:

[Bullet1987]

6. Spike is right...and I don't even see how this hurts Obama anyway

Regardless of whether or not the MSM wants it to be a story.

[JoFerret]

33. Obama will benefit

with certain benighted voters.
Being "attacked" by "black "leaders' will raise his status with some people.
Speculation about Jackson's meaning, intentions and motives are a different matter.

[mamalone]

8. Thank you Mr. Lee.

I can't imagine a better response than this.

[Bjorn Against]

9. I think this whole thing is ridiculous...

Why the hell does an off color comment get this much attention when everyday Bush and his cronies make comments a thousand times worse, and unlike Jackson they are being completely serious. Jackson apologized, Obama accepted his apology, it is time to move on from what we should have never been concerned about in the first place.

[babylonsister]

11. And how about Faux's O'Reilly releasing it, and the m$m swilling it? nt

[Tarheel_Dem]

23. My question is why do Jackson & CBC members constantly show up

on Fox? I mean there are certainly more respectable news outlets, and surely they know that FNC has an agenda? If they don't know, I don't think they should be allowed to serve in government.

[Colobo]

12. I'm with Spike. Obama's victory will change the course of America.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[anonymous171]

16. What did Obama do? He accepted his apology.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pinto]

22. Nah, I don't think so. While I may differ with him on some points, he's running a fine campaign,

imho. Open, honest, consistent. And tough. We will do well with the guy. *And* we won't all agree with him, all the time. It is the nature of politics.

[kdpeters]

18. The old guard doesn't understand the the younger generation and feels threatened.

Nothing shocking here. They live in the same country but in different eras. It is as one might might expect this sort of passing of the torch could play itself out. Mr. Jackson will come to realize this in time though he may not yet be ready to part with it just yet. It will work itself out. No worries from me.

[skooooo]

20. I agree. nt

[skooooo]

19. You'll have to measure time by `Before Obama' and `After Obama,'"

:bounce:

[reflection]

27. I really don't want to have to regale my kids

with tales of "this happened about 10 years BO." It sounds like I never bought deodorant. :)

[tigereye]

21. good for Spike!

he's got a point.

[AspenRose]

29. Spike gets it

Spike is right.

[NatBurner]

30. bleak! BLEAK!! I WON'T SELL IT!!

i couldn't resist

[old mark]

34. I am a 60 year old white man, pretty diverse ethnic background,

none of it blac. I find myself agreeing with quite a bit of what Spike Lee says over the last few years.

He must be a pretty smart man.

mark

[BklynChick]

36. go Spike!

[BklynChick]

37. go Spike!

[Cali_Democrat]

41. this thread should have more recs

here's another :thumbsup:

[LowerManhattanite]

42. My take? LOTS of “hateration and holleration.” up in Jesse's dance-er-ree...

...since Obama's run.

And while I respect Jesse like nobody's business for all he's done for folks over the years—his being the burr in Reagan's saddle back in the day, and his ultimately super-humanity towards the downtrodden, I also realize he's a somewhat vain man with a bit of a sense of propriety about his place in the firmament in the Civil Rights “sky”.

This kind of self-aggrandizement is nothing new for Black folks of prominence in America—generational tectonic shifts always seem to leave those who came before feeling “dissed”, or “not-properly thanked / acknowledged”. Jesse's mid-eighties runs (One of which I worked on) were landmark events. Turning points. I still remember the issue of Newsweek with a presidential portrait pose of him on the cover, with teh screaming 120 point copy below the pic reading “JESSE?”, with a mixture of shock, fear, and awe.

But, it was the eighties—a time when a nascent campaign like his could still be easily stifled by the old-school skullduggery of the Atwater-era. There was no internet or alternate media sources or him to use to bypass the spin and smears, and paid-for denigration of his chances. And, as proven by his ill-timed, and ill-mindedly infamous “Hymietown” remarks, he also had an amazing propensity for saying too much, too often around those who were too much against him.

He became easy to lampoon, and would even aid in people's eventually dismissing him by lampooning himself with sometimes funny, but ultimately prestige diminishing appearances on SNL and the like.

He became a TV pundit fixture and an entire generation has come to know him as that, and NOT the young, idealistic guy who knelt there as MLK's life bled out into his hands on a Memphis balcony. For the easy, steady money one craves in middle age, Jesse sadly opted for a highly metastatic (I don't think he knew how bad it would be) case of irrelevancy.

And as the years have worn on, and his place in the activist front lines was superceded by the earnest, but even more flawed Rev. Al Sharpton, I think he became comfortable in his “Old lion who can still occasionally let loose a fearsome roar” status as paterfamila to all things Black and political.

But as is always the case—when MLK's generation supplanted the staid Roy Wilkins era of Civil Rights warriors, or when Stokeley Carmichael's more militant folk, stepped up (and sometimes ON the heels and toes of) and walked right by King's now deemed staid generation of activists, or when a young Charlie Rangel snatched a congressional district and a lifetime's worth of power from an older Adam Clayton Powell Jr., THERE IS ALWAYS A BITTERNESS FROM THE PREVIOUS LEADERS WHO ARE SUPERCEDED.

It's simple human nature—and Obama's blistering ascent to pinnacles Jesse can only dream of, while not needing him for much of anything publicly, and clearly very little consultation privately has got to rankle him. It's a LONG time since that Newsweek cover. In the last six months I've seen Obama on the cover of GQ, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Time, Newsweek, The Economist and every damn magazine outside of “OK!”. He was a “fringe” candidate up until ONE primary—Iowa—and from then on, he was the tone-setting major player, impossible to relegate to the background or dismiss like Jesse eventually was. Obama was Jesse 2.0. No beta, and a skip over a 1.0 version of the “Black Candidate Software” update. The “bugs” as they were, were worked out between the releases of “JesseWare” and “iObama”. And I seriously doubt Jesse likes being described in that way, but the truth is the truth. The other problem is that Jesse doesn't seem to realize that that IS the truth, and there's a palpable anger there in him over the way people consider his legacy like some ancient version of Windows we all thought was “the shiznit” back in the day, but laugh about in terms of usefulness now.

Add in Jesse's own self-inflicted wounds post-Hymietown that have so damaged him, like his funniness with Operation: PUSH money in later years, (not giving him a pass on this, but when a “movement” is how you pay the bills and live, stuff always has a chance to get financially dicey down the road a piece) and worst of all, his unfortunate out-of-wedlock fathering of a child outside of his marriage. The ironic thing about this is that Jackson himself spent years challenging Black fathers to step up, much the way Obama did. (Bill Cosby's a different story—he's been a known cockhound for decades, and his bitching about poor Black folks' excesses is as much a “bourgie” class issue as it is a dodge for his own creepy behaviors, like offering up un-asked for Ny-Quil-adas to unsuspecting female visitors? Ugh.) But his credibility on those matters has been so tarnished to where it's cost him a considerable amount of his status in “The Black Community”—especially with women...of whom many now perceive him as a “dog”.

Then, here comes Barack Obama. Younger. Without the baggage. Not over-exposed. A high-end orator as well, AND actually elected to public office at least twice—something Jesse, for all his time and gravitas could never do. Playing the media better, faster and stronger. And worst of all for Jesse, Obama has emerged as a pulpit arbiter—in fact, the pulpit arbiter heir apparent to Jesse's position there. Folks saw that when Obama was broaching this self-same parenting issue to thunderous applause before Black churches (and even in some sniffy media circles)—like at his breakthrough Birmingham Sunday speech earlier this year. A torch got passed...and Jesse was the last one to know about it. His ego was probably bruised when he found out about it—the hard way...

"Two decades ago, my father ran for president, calling on South Carolina and the nation to 'keep hope alive.' Today, Barack Obama has taken up the torch," (Jesse) Jackson Jr. says in the ad, which will air on 36 gospel and R&B radio stations across the state.

Ouch. Papa J's clearly not ready to cede a bit of the stage, but the spotlight has already swung past him a ways.

It's a status dance Black America's leaders have done since time immemorial. I don't actually Blame Jesse. I feel bad for him. And I'm certain HE feels bad too—not just about his alleged damage to the nominee, but also the public playing out of his little petty bit of turf-marking via verbal pissing.

Alas and alack. :(

Originally posted here on DU, AND for those who don't know, the “Hateration and Holleration” reference is to the classic line from Mary J. Blige's “Family Affair”. :)

[Hekate]

43. Thank you for the history lesson and analysis, both of which have the ring of truth.

Your comments are very thoughtful.

Jesse Jackson, who I used to admire, came off as an embittered old man whom Time and Opportunity had passed by, and who was determined to strike down a younger man who was about to achieve what the old man had wanted for himself. It was a sad moment.

Hekate

[rapturedbyrobots]

45. bamboozled

great spike lee joint. probably the best thing i've ever seen on the generation of racial identity in this country. all about what is 'black' and who gets to decide that...who makes it, packages, and sells it back to 'black' kids through the media. great great stuff. watch it. spike lee is absolutely right.

[Hannah Bell]

47. kind of like the selling of identity generally, eh?