Red Hook Summer And Why Spike Lee Isn't A Racist.

Guest Post by Renee, the talented and thoughtful editor of Womanist Musings.


At the Sundance film festival, Spike recently premiered his independent movie, Red Hook Summer.  Spike has had several problems over the years getting funding for his films, and I firmly believe that at least part of the issue, is Spike's commitment to telling our stories without the coonery that is featured in the typical Tyler Perry film.  To be clear, Spike's male privilege has at times made some of his work problematic and in fact, other than She's Gotta Have It, strong female roles have been few and far between. Even She's Gotta Have It, includes a rape as punishment for failing to agree to a monogamous relationship.

The reviews for Red Hook Summer have been decidedly bad. I have not seen the movie, so I cannot argue any faults or biases the reviews may contain.  In the question and answer period, Spike Lee and Chris Rock had a verbal scuffle.

Rock, who appeared to be joking around, said, "You spent your own money ... What would you have done differently if you'd actually gotten studio money? What else would have happened? Would you have blown up some (bleep)?"

Lee, apparently unamused, responded, "We never went to the studios with this film. I bought a camera and said we're gonna do this mother(bleeping) film ourselves. I didn't need a mother(bleeping) studio telling me something about Red Hook! They know nothing about black people! Nothing!" Lee then added, "And they're gonna give me notes about what a 13-year-old black boy and girl do in Red Hook? (Bleep) no!" [Source]

I have to agree with Spike when he points out that no White studio head has the slightest clue of what it to be a 13-year-old Black boy and girl.  This is especially true if we consider the class aspect that the movie seeks to interrogate.  These White men of class privilege are only interested in the bottom line, and not about depicting the true experiences of kids of colour, or even why such movies are desperately needed.

A negative reaction has become common place to much of what Spike says or does. The following are some comments on the discussion between Spike and Chris Rock.

Bluelife4: I like Chris Rock. He pokes fun at any race. But Spike Lee? He's a racist.

Wallace:  Spike Lee is one of the biggest racist I have ever seen. Man I'm tired of his low budget films. Enough already. Yes I am a black man. Racism from any person is wrong. I think this guy sucks. I'm a middle class worker who live one of the most racist states in the US (S.C.) and to hear this guy speak is crazy. Man grow up. Please. I think his anger comes from his height. Blame ur parents not the world.

Nicolas:  Spike Lee is an angry, racist little bigot. Always has been. No such thing as "reverse racism". The whole idea that you can say racist things about your own race is laughable. Racism is racism, black, white, yellow, brown, red, blue, etc....

The Love Doctor: I've been wondering for more than 20 years, when are we going to start saying that being racist towards white people is wrong too????

I was always taught that racism is wrong period. But it seems in our modern culture, discriminating against and being racist towards white people seems to be accepted in our culture...

Duntov: Seems like an Angry African-American that continues to prey on racism for his own gain and agenda. Go away until you can talk like an intelligent human. Stop the hate and move on.

Jack Plummer: Why is it okay for a black person to be a racist?

Hustonman:  On the Yahoo homepage it said Spike Lee went on a surprising tirade. Who is surprised? This agitator has had one tirade after another for twenty plus years. No class, no truth, just a little disgruntled man. A racist with a Napoleon complex.

These comments all appeared on the first page of the article, and as you might imagine, they continue in the same vein no matter how deeply into the article you go. Spike speaks without apology about race and racism in the U.S., and this makes people uncomfortable.  Many either have bought into the bullshit idea that the world is now colourblind, or they very firmly believe that their thoughts, or actions, are not part of the problem -- and this includes the sell out negro -- who made sure to announce that he is Black.

Whiteness may not like to admit it, but Blacks of the African diaspora are entitled to our continued rage, and the very suggestion that we should moderate our speech to suit their comfort level is only an indicator of how far we still have to go, rather than the unreasonableness of our position.  Spike Lee is not a perfect man, but he is most certainly not a racist.  No Black person speaking out against White supremacy will ever be a racist.

These commenters are not the first to refer to Spike Lee as racist for his approach to race and film, and they most certainly will not be the last. Whiteness would very much love the definition of racism to be prejudicial thoughts, acts, or language against another race.  It's a nice and simple definition, which allows Whiteness to be able to claim to be oppressed by people of colour.   It allows Whiteness to be able to circumvent our rage, and once again center themselves in the conversation.  Most importantly, it allows Whiteness to deny and alternately censure our speech on the alleged grounds that we are all equal. This is why the co-option of the term racist, is an absolute disservice to people of colour.  It's ahistorical, in that it ignores the ongoing inequality in power relations between Black and White.  When a White person acts, ze does so with the full institutional weight of Whiteness at their behest. An analysis of race without an acknowledgement of power is an incomplete and faulty analysis.  This is specifically why it is necessary to understand and accept that racism equals privilege plus power.  No matter how angry, or hate filled a person of colour may be, they do not exist with the institutional power to act on their feelings. For all of the class privilege that Spike Lee has managed to amass over the years, the fact remains that he still a Black man in America and that makes him an oppressed person.

Spike's status as a racially oppressed Black man means that his speech is not welcome, and that is particularly so when he is confronting racism.  While I may not agree with everything that he says and does, there can no be denial that he continues to be relevant.  He has forged ahead to make movies that White run studios have not seen as important, and it is because of this struggle that he is so derided.  When he spoke of being tired of yet another White WWII war movie, Clint Eastwood's response was to tell Spike to "shut his face".  If you cannot acknowledge that Black blood was shed in the battle fields of WWII, only to come home to Jim Crow, then you fail to see the truth. When he spoke about the coonery and buffonery engaged in by Tyler Perry, Mr. Perry was affronted.  He was happy to ignore the tradition in which his movies were made and the negative effect that they have had on Blacks.

There are certainly many criticism that can and should be levied at Spike Lee, but being a racist is not now or ever will be a legitimate charge.  The truth of the matter is that Whiteness loves to engage in revisionist history, and at times it is supported by Blacks, but finding even hundreds or thousands of Blacks to agree to their own continued colonization and oppression does not make the truth less true, or any less relevant.  Truth tellers are never embraced in their lifetimes and as Dr. King has shown us through his life and death, in the end, until their speech can be used to bolster the oppressor they are relegated to being understood as angry, disgruntled and hateful.  By this statement I am not saying that Spike Lee is the equivalent of Dr. King, only that truth when told without embellishment, to favor the ruling class will always be unwelcome.

Tona Talks About Racism

In her latest Vlog, Tona talks about racism.

Teenager Gets Suspended, After Reacting Violently to Ongoing Racist Attacks

Another guest post from my fave north of the border Timmy's Icecap chugging blogger

I have written many times about the struggles my oldest has had negotiating the racism in our small town.  I know that despite the mantra about childhood being a protected class, this definition only applies to White, able bodied, class privileged, cis gendered children.  If you are a child from a historically marginalized group, by the time you get out of diapers, you will have negotiate a discourse which 'others' and erases your humanity.

A Buffalo girls basketball team was suspended after the players allegedly used a racial slur as part of their pregame cheer.

Tyra Batts, the sole African-American on the Kenmore East High School’s squad, told the Buffalo News that her teammates would hold hands before the game, say a prayer and then shout "One, two, three (n------)."

The practice came to light when Tyra was suspended for getting into a fight about the use of racial slurs during practice, according to the newspaper.

She said that she was alarmed by the cheer, but had been outnumbered and told that the use of the slur was just a team tradition.

"I said, 'You're not allowed to say that word because I don't like that word,'" she told the newspaper. "They said, 'You know we're not racist, Tyra. It's just a word, not a label.' I was outnumbered."

The 15-year-old eventually exploded after a practice when a teammate called her a 'black piece of (expletive).’ She says she got into a fight with the girl later in school.

"It was a buildup of anger and frustration at being singled out of the whole team," she told the newspaper.

Tyra’s suspension was shortened after the principal learned of the racial allegations. At least a dozen girls were suspended. (source)

Gee, wasn't it nice of school officials to shorten her suspension.  Certainly, such magnanimous behaviour must be noted and celebrated.  They even went as far as to suspend the girls who were taunting Tyra Batts, and so I suppose all's well that ends well right?  What I want to know is where were the adults while the girls where screaming, "one, two, three nigger"?  I find it hard to believe that each and every single one of these chants happened in isolation. If these girls felt comfortable saying what they did, it can only be because there is a culture of racism alive and well in that school.  The girls who were suspended will serve their time, and life will go on for them, but it is Batts who will have to have to live with lasting effects of their racist assault. Unfortunately, Batts will join the ranks of Black children who have learned at the hands of Whitness that the colour of their skin determines their worth in a White supremacist world.


It enrages me that these girls could use a word like nigger and then claim not to be racist.  Nigger is not now, or ever will be just a word.  There is a long history of dehumanization and oppression that is attached to the word nigger.  The very fact that they felt that they could hold a vote to over rule the feelings of the only African American player speaks volumes.  Today, Whiteness acts as though being called a racist, is worse than living with the hatred of racism.  The word racist has become ugly, even as Whiteness acts in racist ways everyday, without ever acknowledging their behaviour for what it is. The following are but a few of the excuses that I hear on a regular basis:

• I didn't mean to be racist
• you're reading too much into things
• you're being too sensitive
• my best friend was Black in high school
• I don't see race/colour
• You're the one that's racist for interjecting race in the conversation
• I didn't know that was racist
• Why does it always have to be about race?

The bottom line always comes down to the fact that the average White person does not what to confront the ways in which they both live in privilege and support White supremacy. This school did nothing to protect this young girl, and then to have the nerve to punish her for acting in self defense is inexcusable. I have yet to read a call for accountability for the school.   It is inconceivable to me that hearing the chant of nigger and being called a Black piece of shit, could be construed as anything less than verbal violence.  How many times was the young girl assaulted before she finally lost her temper?

Over the years, Whiteness has co-opted much of the  Dr. King's pre 1963 message (note: post 1963 Dr. King was far more radical) because it makes them comfortable, and they love the idea that people of colour will peacefully turn the other cheek.  Not everyone can, or will turn the other cheek.  If we examine the history of violence between Whites and Blacks, Whiteness has by far exceeded us with it barbarity and desire to express power corrosively.  It is this knowledge that causes so many to fear a reckoning and it is this fear that is the basis for Batts continued suspension.  In short, Whiteness fears accountability, and that is why Batts is being punished for her act self defense.

I Don't Hate WWBT's, I Hate Your Vanillacentric Doctrine

Over the weekend I actually tried to have a dialogue with a transsexual separatist on a Facebook trans group to find out for myself why they have their panties in a bunch over the transgender umbrella.  

The person I had the discussion with was one who had been kicked out of her home for being trans, admittedly had a sixth grade education and a hard life.  But that's no excuse for her obviously having a problem with award winning chocolate trans me being in this discussion. 

Despite me picking up on the bigotry in her comments, I tried to let it slide and attempted to focus on the discussion until she accused me of  'playing the race card'.   At that point I had enough of playing nice with her azz and dropped 50 megatons of knowledge on her behind.   She responded in typical WWBT fashion by tossing out the 'Moni is fixated on race' spin line, misgendering me and then when I called the person on her BS flee from the conversation while attempting to cry white women's tears .

As I've said and noted before in numerous posts about the TS separatists or as I call them the White Women Born Transsexual, they have a major problem with any transperson who doesn't think like they do or questions the genitalia=gender 'true transsexual' medical model.  

They especially have a problem if the transsexual who has a contrarian opinion is intelligent, non-white, proud of her heritage and is not going to bow down or stifle what she has to say in deference to them.

The fact that I am a longtime Trinity Award winning Black trans leader making the same arguments many of my white trans counterparts do with an Afrocentric twist in favor of an inclusive and expansive transgender umbrella and definition of transsexual makes it too damn easy for white TSers to revert to their old vanillacentric bag of silencing tricks and attempt to dismiss what I have to say.

They claim I hate then, attempt to use conservafool projection tactics to hide the bigotry and vanillacentric privilege, 'mud slinging' or try to paint me as 'angry'.  Every time I try to reach out individually to some of them it results in transsexual separatists disrespecting me, silencing attempts, outright racist slurs and bigotry aimed at me.  They also like to deploy a new trick they picked up in trying to use the 'white women's tears' gambit.   

As we say in the Lone Star State, that dog won't hunt.

As I said in that long ongoing thread, I'm not 'throwing around a card'. I'm speaking truth about my chocolate trans life and you refuse to hear it.  I get tired as a POC transperson of having that charge leveled at me in mixed racial company discussions because my truth does not and will not always neatly line up with yours because of the reality that my trans experience is filtered through the prism of me growing up Black in America.

And some of y'all can't handle that truth.

Race and class and the inequalities they cause exist in trans world along with white privilege and only a fool would deny that reality.

While having discussions about labels that affect all of us in the trans community, it is illogical to have a discussion that attempts to reimage any term applicable to the overall transgender community without having non-white transpeople and our leaders front and center in that discussion especially in light of the fact it has been POC transpeople's blood that has disproportionately been shed in this march for trans human rights.  

Some of those leaders that we in POC trans communities choose to take part in those discussions will not be palatable to you, but that's your problem, not ours.  

News flash:  In the second decade of the 21st century trans POC's have the talent, education and ability to hold thought leadership positions in this community.  You don't like that new paradigm, too damned bad.

Translation: to break it down for you WWBT's the discussions about trans labels that impact all of our lives as ttranspeople isn't going to be a whites-only party and y'all need to get over it..

I'm making it abundantly clear where I stand and you can run tell that to the rest of WWBT World and your radical lesbian separatist allies like the Exterminationalist Twins where I stand.

I hate your WWBT doctrine, the racist memes you're pushing, and the failure to realize that transpeople have 'been there done that' when it comes to the medical model.  It didn't work from the 1950's to the 1980's and it damned sure isn't going to work in the 2K10's.

I don't hate you TS separatists individually, I despise your selfish vanillacentric doctrine. 

I have to ask the question once again.  If you hate the transgender label and the community that has been coalescing and evolving around it, why stay in a community you loudly hate since you're women now? 

You are free to leave, adhere to the failed medical model of transsexuality and go on your quixotic mission of chasing pseudo-cisgender status. 

What I'm saying about you are some of the same things we've been saying in the Black Trans Revolution Will Not Be Televised discussions we in chocolate transworld have been having for years about TS separatism. I'm just the one who is in the position and ain't 'scurred' to bring that hard dose of reality to your behinds in living color, pun intended.

And you and your separatist buds can hate that all you want.

I don't hate WWBT's, I hate your vanillacentric exclusionary doctrine you're trying to pimp.

All Is White In So-Called Multicultural Canada

Guest post from Renee, the editrix of Womanist Musings and my fave north of the border mommy blogger.

So, Saturday was the annual Santa Claus parade in Niagara Falls.  I am not a big believer in Santa, because I don't like the idea that this benign White guy travels around and grants wishes.  I think I would be more amenable to the idea, if Santa was occasionally a person of colour.  I always think of Santa as just another manifestation of Whiteness, and we all know that White men are not exactly lining up to do people of colour any favours.  At any rate, after writing their letters to Santa, we headed off to the parade.

We have been going as a family for the last seven years, and so my kids were super excited.  We always have a big breakfast, watch the parade and then go out to lunch.  It's really a family day of fun for us. Each year, the people participating in the parade hand out treats to the kids lining the parade route.  This year, my kids sat down on the sidewalk next to two White kids, with their hot chocolate and blankets to watch the parade.  They were just brimming with excitement.  As the parade got going, we noticed that the participants would hand candy to the two little White boys sitting next to the left my kids and the White girls on the right, but not to my sons.

When they were skipped time and time again, my kids would look back at us to ask what was going on.  Neither of them could understand why they didn't receive candy, while the White boys on their left did, and the White girls on their right did.  The unhusband finally asked me if I thought race was a factor, and I told him of course it is.  Despite the bullshit lie that we tell ourselves about all children being special, marginalized children are just seen as surplus population.


Finally, noticing that nothing was going to change, the unhusband encouraged Mayhem to step further into the street and hold his hand out.  It was not until the Mayhem pushed ahead, and held is hand out that parade participants deigned to give him candy.  At six years old, he is too young to figure out that what he was experiencing was discrimination first hand, but as his mother, I was absolutely enraged.  Standing right next to them, I could not protect them from the bigotry and privilege of others. 

I am quite sure that the people participating were not actively thinking about what they were doing, but their actions still amounted to discrimination and ruined any form of fun I could have potentially had at this event.  Whiteness has been so ingrained socially, that racism often happens without any premeditated thought. The sad truth of the matter is that while White kids are being sheltered and taught to believe that they are special, kids of colour are actively being torn down and encouraged by the world to see themselves as "other".  White people may look at them as babies, and think that they are cute, but shortly after getting out of diapers, they begin to see Black boys as future rapists, thieves and gang bangers. They are systematically written off as a matter of course.  The childhood that White children have, is denied to children of colour, in order to teach them their role in the pecking order. Discrimination does not wait until adulthood.

If you read mommy blogs written by White women, they are full of things like recipes, rainy day activities, coupon deals and pictures of their smiling kids.  White women may write about the stress of working and raising their kids, but they will never have an experience like I did this past Saturday.  They will not have to cheer up their kids after being passed over repeatedly.  They will not have to teach their children that they will have to be better than everyone else to succeed in life, or that the world is happy to see them fail. They can afford to have fluffy little blogs talking about nothing, but as a mother of colour, I have to deal with the realities of White supremacy, as I attempt to salvage some kind of childhood for my precious boys. I wonder if on their business cards, these women have the words only my kids matter.

I know that in years to come, my kids will look back and know exactly what happened to them and why. I know this because there are plenty of events from my childhood that I now understand to be racist.  I know that my parents attempted to shield me as much as possible from the harshness of this, but one can only do so much, when society is determined to undermine your every effort to invest your child with self worth.  Each act of racism will build upon the other, creating rage, and in some cases outright depression.  They will be told that they are reading too much into things, and that they are just looking for a reason to be upset, because it is easier to accept that the marginalized person is wrong, rather than deal with the fact that the world has not moved into this post racial utopia that we continue to hear so much about.

I know that what happened to my kids is not an anomaly, and I also know that they are going to have experiences that are far worse due directly to the colour of their skin. This is the unavoidable future of children of colour.  Even as I am writing this, I am fully aware that this not considered appropriate mommy blog conversation, because isms are something that don't get discussed in parenting spaces.  The generic standard is Whiteness, just like everything else, and this simply reinforces the idea that there is a monolithic experience that constitutes childhood.   I don't have the luxury of such vanilla conversation, and this is why this why social justice is a priority here at Womanist Musings.  You can only afford to ignore race, if you are never going to be a target of racism.