I would say, “Happy Martin Luther King Day,” except we’re not there yet. Instead let’s just acknowledge that it’s Martin Luther King Day and admit that we have not yet overcome and that today’s a day to keep on pushing forward on liberty and justice for ALL.
When I left Selma the other night I was so choked up that I could hardly speak for fear of breaking down in tears.
I encourage you to go and see it. Now. In a theater. With other human beings.
As Andy and I filed out of the movie last Saturday night in North Hollywood, the crowd funneled into a little corridor and I fell behind Andy and into line next to a beautiful couple. Maybe it was because they were African American and I couldn’t help but fantasize that we were, if not exactly “marching,” at least walking out of the movie together in a spirit of truth and love. I turned to the man next to me and a few words tumbled out: “When is American going to actually get it?” I asked.
The man looked at me and said, “I keep asking myself the same thing.” His date turned back to me, as we slowed for a moment together in the theater lobby. She smiled and said, “I think a lot of us feel the same way. I think we all have to just speak up.”
I went to film school with Spike Lee, but I don’t think I really and truly got what he was talking about until maybe fifteen or twenty minutes ago. Maybe it took the LA riots, multicultural training, psychology training, working in the trenches of mental health, working in Beverly Hills, parenting or who knows what to get my white Jewish suburban head out of my clueless butt and start to wake up (and maybe I’m still asleep but at least hoping the dream of ignorant and wrong might turn sweet and right).
It was 1988 when Spike made School Daze, and his message was indeed, “Wake up.” It’s still time to wake up. We are not awake.
When it comes to injustice, anger is a proper response, it is how we know something is unfair. Racism rests on ignorance. No one who is truly awake is unjust. It’s safe to say that most of us, or at least myself, are not enlightened, not fully awake. Knowing this is a start. Not knowing things, together, and non-violently, is freedom of speech.
Dr. King was remarkable. He stood for Truth, and his use of non-violence is in perfect alignment with Truth because while lies require liars to tell them, the Truth just is. Justice in any absolute sense, like Truth, is beyond human opinion. The conversation is our right, even our responsibility, but when we get it right all will be free and all will agree that they are free.
When Dr. King kneels on the bridge leading from Selma to Montgomery, a rising tide of Truth behind him, a wretched wall of racism, privilege and hate in front of him, he is like Moses continuing to lead the long march from slavery to true liberty.
Like Moses who himself never gets to the Promised Land, Dr. King helped make something possible, but it’s on us to take it all the way home to our shared world, our collective consciousness.
We may or may not be “Charlie” this week. Freedom of speech, not to mention freedom from slavery, poverty, tyranny, sexism, discrimination, homophobia, brutality, exploitation and hate may remain a dream for far too many, but it’s a dream we can all share (or else perpetuate the nightmare of lying idiot humanity from which we cannot seem to awaken).
I’m hoping that the vast majority of human beings want a peaceful earth. I’m hoping that the vast majority of human beings, if allowed to be educated, safe and free would come to the self-evident conclusion upon which our American Constitution is founded: the equality of ALL.
Love and Truth and Justice are like the water under every bridge. Truth, like Water, is humble, powerful, life-giving and clear to everyone.
Dr. King said, “Wake up” (to his dream of equality) in the 1960s. Spike said, “Wake up” in the 1980s. Ava DuVerny’s, Selma says, “Wake up, dignified and non-violent” right now, although Oscar (which might be made of white gold) didn’t much notice.
The woman in the lobby said, “Speak up.”
And so I am speaking up as an infrequent blogger inspired to voice, but mostly just to say, “Go see Selma.” Vote this Martin Luther King Day with your time, your money, your heart for justice and love—the ingredients that make this movie and that make the world I want to live in.
Selma says it straight. I say, “Amen to Selma.”
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello, you have an interesting site and articles, I surfed on in here via a search about dream interpretations as I woke at 2:00am after a strange dream… so – funny that when I checked out the homepage the first article is about MLK and Spike Lee.
What really resonated with me was the “When is America going to get it?” line.
Many non Americans often pose this question also. From personal experience, living in a British Colony where there has not been the overt segregation is along these lines.
I live in a multicultural society, which is rampant with racism in a subtle yet insidious form – each group of ethnicities has within it subsets who distrust, or even despise other groups. The “Natives” here claim maltreatment by the colonial forces, which has some truth – I was born and raised in an area that was the heart of some of the more brutal and infamous battles (read genocide). The “Natives” here are immigrants – fact. They’ve been here six or eight hundrend years or so, they also have eradicated the people who inhabited these lands prior to them. With an alleged history of colonisation over the last two or three hundred years here, it is worth noting that there are claims that “Spanish or Portugese” had been here much earlier. The point here is that growing up in a “White” society with a parent who was an immigrant I had a sense of being from this place, but also not. As time went on, I developed the theory that this is true for all of us here, and that what is key; is not who you were, or where you had come from, but how you got on with life.
I’m not saying there arent injustices outside of America, in fact Im saying there are.
Heres the thing, theres not much that can be done to help someone who doesnt want help – that is to say, there is ignorance, and then there’s willfull ignorance.
America is going to get it when you get it. Why bother to refer to people as African American, or White Jewish at all? Be the change. Sure talk about issues like MLK Day, and how good Spike Lees movies are, but be cautious how you frame it. In this response you will note when ethnicity is refered to in the section pertaining to my experience it is in quotes, as a label that others may recognise, but I do not accept as true; and in as much is why I add this disclaimer. Im not saying your going about it the wrong way, but raising the point that this article still has embedded racial stereotyping. I understand its part of communicating the idea to the audience, however there are other means by which this can be achieved.
Bamboozled was a great movie by the way. I think here Spike Lee made a film for all people to question their own sense of identity.
Extra foe experts – I live deep in the Pacific, my handle is Pacifican/Asian language sounding and inspired, but also a place name of an ethnic cleansing massacre in Africa. I am an earthling… scratch that – I am your nieghbour. Say hi to me sometime and maybe we can have a cup of tea and watch the world go by.
I appreciate your thoughtful comment and take it to heart. Here’s to a virtual cup of tea, watching the world go by and at least my own hopes for rising consciousness and better understanding.