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Part 1

I wasn’t even a teenager in 1992 when the film “X,” Spike Lee’s biopic of the late civil rights legend Malcolm X, hit theaters. But after watching it, I immediately became a fan of that young, Black pioneering director from Brooklyn. Not only did Lee’s directing of “X” enthrall me, the film indirectly influenced my fashion choices.

I, along with millions of Black men across the nation, copped an “X” baseball cap and a red, black, and green Africa medallion soon after viewing the film. (Yes, the early 1990s were also the days when “Troops” and “Filas” were the sneakers to have on your feet and kids were saving up money to buy a Luster’s S-curl kit.)

A reading of Alex Haley’s “Autobiography of Malcolm X” soon followed. I had never been so conscience about being a Black man, until I saw this landmark film. At the tender age of 12, Spike Lee had me self-assessing my Black male masculinity.

But now, at the age of 31, Spike Lee has me scratching my bald head.

How and when did he become such hater? And when did he stop making those gritty, Afro-centric grassroots films that “fought the power” and start complaining about his lack of it instead? His self-indulgent rants against Hollywood and unprovoked diatribes at fellow directors are becoming so common that I have to wonder if he is experiencing a midlife crisis.

During a Q&A about his new film, “Red Hook Summer,” at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Chris Rock asked Lee, “What would you have done differently if you had gotten a bunch of studio money?”

It was a simple enough question that should have rendered a simple reply. Instead, Lee went on a profanity-laced tangent about how Hollywood doesn’t know anything about Black people. (He said “muthaf*cka” five times and “f*ck” once in the presence of young child actors.)

He sounded less like a sophisticated, avant-garde director and more like DMX. He embarrassed himself as well as those close to him: “My wife is looking at me like I’m crazy.”

Trust me, Spike, she wasn’t the only one.

This is not the first time Lee has pontificated less-than-constructive criticisms of the industry or his colleagues. Back in 1997, he complained about how inappropriate it was for Quentin Tarantino to use the N-word so often in his retro-Blaxploitation flick “Jackie Brown.”

(Isn’t it “muthaf*ckin’” ironic that he, of all people, lectured someone on inappropriate language?)

Samuel L. Jackson, one of the film’s stars, shot back at Lee saying, “I don’t think the word is offensive in the context of this film. … Black artists think they are the only ones allowed to use the word. Well, that’s bull. Jackie Brown is a wonderful homage to black exploitation films. This is a good film, and Spike hasn’t made one of those in a few years.”

He wasn’t lying about that. (Ironically, Tarantino played a small role in Lee’s 1996 film “Girl 6” and Jackson acted in several Spike Lee Joints. Brotha Spike has a penchant for burning bridges, doesn’t he?)

Even Clint Eastwood has been served a dose of Lee’s “hateration.” When Eastwood received rave reviews for his World War II film “Heros of Iwo Jima” several years ago, Lee went into hater mode again, criticizing the film for its dearth of Black faces. When Eastwood counted that his film dealt with a very specific group of soldiers and situation that reflected historical fact, Lee balked. In turn, Eastwood recommended that Lee “shut his face.”

It is becoming a common practice of Lee’s to make less-than-stellar films and then play the race card when no one supports them because he feels they should.

Take his first attempt at a war movie, “Miracle On St. Anna,” for example. Based off of a novel of the same name, Lee’s film focuses on the segregated 92nd Infantry Division, aka the Buffalo Soldiers, who mistakenly fight their way behind enemy lines during World War II. His attempts to capture the heroism of these Black soldiers via film were admirable; however, the film as a whole left much to be desired.

Instead of chalking up his poor box office showing as a learning experience, he ridiculed Black moviegoers for not supporting the movie and blamed them for preferring Tyler Perry’s “coonery” and “baffonery.” Lee’s mean-spirited analysis is perplexing, given that Perry’s business model and artistic taste toward film making epitomizes the anti-Hollywood mantra that defines Lee himself.

Perry ended up telling Lee to “go straight to hell.” But I don’t want him to do that.

I’d rather see Spike Lee stop being a bitter, old grandpa and start making those great, thought-provoking movies that made me want to “waaaaake uuuuuup!”

I want to see that daring, undauntedly aggressive director I remember from the late 1980s get his mojo back because the Spike Lee of today is failing miserably to direct or say “the right thang.”

Watch for Starr’s final installment of this opinion series titled, “Why We Should Celebrate, Not Playa Hate On Tyler Perry.”

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Lee said Monday that in the “upper echelons of television and studios, it’s 1950. It’s Eisenhower.”

He says there is much work to be done before the film industry reflects the diversity of the United States. He noted that the U.S. Census shows that “white Americans will be a minority by 2045, maybe sooner,” and said it makes “good business sense” for companies, including entertainment companies, to diversify their workforce.

Lee unveiled “Red Hook Summer” on Sunday to a full house that included such guests as Chris Rock, Alfre Woodard and Cuba Gooding Jr.

Murphy is not known for dramatic roles but scored an Oscar nomination for his role in “Dreamgirls.” This would be the first time Black film veterans, Lee and Murphy would work together.

The Hollywood Reporter reports:

HBO Films is developing an untitled television biopic centered on former Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, whom Murphy would play should the project move forward, a source confirms to The Hollywood Reporter.

Spike Lee is attached to direct with John Ridley (Red Tails, Da Brick) to pen the script. Murphy, Lee and Ridley would all serve as executive producers as the Washington Post first reported.

Read More At The Hollywood Reporter

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Some premieres usually enter the independent-film showcase with U.S. distribution already lined up. But festival director John Cooper said all the premieres that Sundance announced Monday will be looking for distributors.

“I don’t think that’s ever happened before,” said festival director John Cooper. “It makes for a much more exciting buyer’s market, I think. At least, lively.”

Among Sundance’s big-name premieres: Kirsten Dunst’s wedding romp “Bachelorette,” directed by Leslye Headland; Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Las Vegas bookie caper “Lay the Favorite,” from filmmaker Stephen Frears; Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon’s Wall Street saga “Arbitrage,” directed by Nicholas Jarecki; Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro in Rodrigo Cortes’ paranormal thriller “Red Lights”; and actor-director Julie Delpy’s “2 Days in New York,” co-starring Chris Rock in a follow-up to her 2007 romance “2 Days in Paris.”

Sarandon also stars alongside Frank Langella in a second Sundance premiere, director Jake Schreier’s geriatric comedy “Robot and Frank,” which also features Liv Tyler and James Marsden.

Former “X-Files” partners David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson both have premieres playing Sundance. Duchovny and Vera Farmiga star in Christopher Neil’s father-son story “Goats,” while Anderson is featured along with Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough in James Marsh’s Irish terrorism tale “Shadow Dancer.”

Director Spike Lee, who came to Sundance with his 2009 rock musical “Passing Strange,” returns with “Red Hook Summer,” the story of an Atlanta boy spending the summer with his grandfather in Brooklyn.

Cooper said the film is a return to the same urban landscape Lee explored two decades ago in “Do the Right Thing,” with the director reprising the role he played in that film.

“It’s very back to his roots, very much in his old style. He’s even playing his old character, Mookie,” Cooper said. “This is the same neighborhood.”

Overseen by Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute, the festival runs Jan. 19-29 in Park City, Utah.

Sundance opens with four films that were announced last week among the festival’s dramatic and documentary competitions. It closes with one of the premieres unveiled Monday, directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal’s literary plagiarism story “The Words,” starring Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Irons, Dennis Quaid and Olivia Wilde.

The premieres, which screen out of competition, also include actor-director Josh Radnor’s campus romance “Liberal Arts,” co-starring Elizabeth Olsen and Allison Janney; Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ aging supermodel documentary “About Face,” featuring Christie Brinkley, Paulina Poriskova and Christy Turlington; Rory Kennedy’s Ethel Kennedy portrait “Ethel”; and two musical documentaries — an as-yet-untitled Paul Simon documentary from director Joe Berlinger, and rapper Ice-T’s “Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap,” featuring Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kanye West and other performers.

The premieres present strong roles for women, said Trevor Groth, the festival’s programming director. Among them: Michael Walker’s workplace tale “Price Check,” starring Sundance regular Parker Posey; Lee Toland Krieger’s divorce romance “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” with Rashida Jones, who also co-wrote the film; and Frears’ “Lay the Favorite,” with Rebecca Hall in the lead alongside Willis and Zeta-Jones.

Dunst’s “Bachelorette,” co-starring Isla Fisher and Lizzie Caplan, and director Jamie Travis’ phone-sex farce “For a Good Time, Call …,” starring Ari Graynor and Lauren Anne Miller, are raunchy comedies that could benefit from the success of last summer’s R-rated female romps “Bridesmaids” and “Bad Teacher.”

“Both written by women, both very funny and pretty outrageous for that type of comedy,” Groth said. “Happening to sort of follow in the wake of the success of ‘Bridesmaids,’ that seems to have opened some doors for creating female comedies outside the traditional romantic comedy. I think these two are really going to pop.”

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The movie starred Denzel Washington, who gave the performance of a lifetime capturing the passion and essence of Malcolm X. The three hour epic captured Malcolm’s transformation from street hustler to Muslim leader, and Angela Basset and Delroy Lindo contributed to an excellent supporting cast.

The legacy of the movie is strong today as the epic historical tale of one of America’s most significant leaders is still relevant.

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Lee is set to direct the South Korean blockbuster “Old Boy,” an adaptation of a manga that won the Grand Prize Jury Award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

In making the announcement, Mandate describes the story “of a man who is kidnapped and imprisoned on his daughter’s birthday.” For fifteen years, he is held captive, and, upon his release, must begin his journey to find the reason for his imprisonment. He soon finds out that his kidnapper has plans for him more tortuous than he can imagine.

Will Smith and Steven Spielberg are some of the names that have been associated with the English language remake. For Lee, the movie marks his first feature since his 2008 Miracle at St. Anna.

Read more at The Hollywood Reporter.

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“In 1989, ‘Do the Right Thing’ was not even nominated,” he said. “What film won best picture in 1989? ‘Driving Miss Mother F*cking Daisy!’ That’s why [Oscars] don’t matter. Because 20 years later, who’s watching ‘Driving Miss Daisy’?… There are many times in history where the best work does not get awarded. And I’m not even talking about my own work. So that’s why [the Oscars] don’t matter.”

Read The Whole Story At The Hollywood Reporter

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Before I even begin, let me admit that I’m not entirely qualified to answer that question myself because although I’ve seen every movie Spike’s ever made including Joe’s Bed Stuy Barbershop, I’m not as familiar with entirety of Tyler Perry’s filmography.

The five Tyler Perry movies that I have seen, I’ve liked. The first Why Did I Get Married, perhaps the best.

The thing about Tyler Perry movies to me though is that while they’ve all been admittedly good, none have been, to this point at least, spectacular.

None have demonstrated any nuance in either style or form, none have presented anything groundbreaking as far as the art of filmmaking is concerned, and perhaps most importantly, none have ever required from any of their actors or actresses the type of performance that pushed him or her to the boundaries of their abilities.

Spike Lee, on the other hand, is a nut. His style is always nuanced, his technique original and Denzel Washington, John Leguizamo, Clive Owen, Angela Bassett, Mira Sorvino and Rosario Dawson have all been at their best while rocking with him.

This work itself however, has mixed results.

When Spike’s been off, he’s produced clunkers like Miracle at St. Anna and Girl 6.

But when Spike’s on, he’s produced absolute gems like Malcolm X, Summer of Sam, Bamboozled, and Inside Man.

This isn’t to say he’s better than Tyler Perry, though.

To say that, I’d have to presume to know what each filmgoer needed.

On the issue of the current beef between the two men, I take Tyler’s side all the way.

Spike was way out of pocket to compare Tyler to Amos n Andy, not even able to disguise the fact that all he’s doing is hating, mostly because Tyler Perry movies are like dynamite at the box office, while Spike’s films are more like a firecracker.

On the issue of films however, if I had to choose one over the other, I’d choose Spike.

I always want to feel passionate about art one way or another.

I’d rather walk out of a movie feeling that it completely sucked than feeling pleasantly indifferent.

I realize however that not everybody shares this sentiment.

Some people simply want to be entertained.

And at least Tyler’s guaranteed to give them what they paid for.

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SAVANNAH, Georgia — Spike Lee spoke to college students at the historically black Savannah State University, telling them to fight ignorance with education.

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Savannahnow.com reports

Using anecdotes from his own experiences, the bespectacled Lee told the hundreds gathered in Tiger Arena what he believes is the key to a positive, happy life.

“Some way, some how you’ve got to figure out what you want to do and make that happen,” he said. “If you don’t, you’ll be unhappy in many, many ways.”

Spike Lee, an alumni of Atlanta HBCU More House College,  said he relished the opportunity to speak at Savannah State University.

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10. The Harder They Come

This Jamaican movie had one of the best soundtracks of all time and featured excellent acting by star Jimmy Cliff and an great ensemble cast.

Should Have Won-Best Soundtrack, Best Song (Harder They Come), Best Foreign Language Film (It had subtitles)
Should Have Been Nominated Best Actor (Jimmy Cliff) Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay

9. Five Heartbeats

This epic movie which told the story of the evolution of a Temptations-like R&B group in the 60s and 70s had great music, great writing and great acting.

Should Have Won Best Soundtrack, Best Song, Best Director (Robert Townsend)
Should Have Been Nominated, Best Actor, (Leon) Best Supporting Actor, Michael Wright, Best Screenplay

8. Spook That Sat By The Door

Great movie that follows a Black CIA agent who learns their tactics to start his own revolution.

Should Have Won Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Lawrence Cook), Best Soundtrack (Herbie Hancock)

Should Have Been Nominated Best Picture

7. New Jack City

Great crime drama about the birth of crack and the violent gangs it spawned.

Should Have Won Best Supporting Actor (Chris Rock), Best Soundtrack

Should Have Been Nominated Best Actor (Wesley Snipes)

6. Love Jones

Great love story about two intelligent artistic African American 20-somethings.

Should Have Won, Best Actor(Larenz Tate), Best Actress(Nia Long), Best Picture, Best Soundtrack

5. Cooley High

Great coming of age story on Chicago with great cast and music.

Should Have Won Best Song(It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday),

Should Have Been Nominated Best Actor Glynn Turman

4. Jungle Fever

Excellent movie about the stigmas around inter-racial dating, Black families and the crack epidemic.

Should Have Won Best Actor (Wesley Snipes), Best Supporting Actor (Sam Jackson) Best Supporting Actress (Lonette McKee), Best Sondtrack, Best Song (Stevie Wonder, Jungle Fever), Best Director(Spike Lee)

3. Love And Basketball

Great epic love story with a great cast and great writing.

Should Have Won, Best Actor(Omar Epps), Best Actress(Sanaa Lathan), Best Soundtrack

2. Mo’ Better Blues

Great story of love jazz, friendship and brotherhood.

Should Have Won Best Actor(Denzel Washington) Best Supporting Actor(Wesley Snipes), Best Score, Best Soundtrack, Best Song (Mo’ Better Blues)

1. Malcolm X

Great epic story of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X. History on film.

Should Have Won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor(Wesley Snipes), Best Actress, (Angela Basset) Best Director(Spike Lee)

Duncan told an audience that more than 1 million educators are expected to retire in the coming decade and that federal officials are hoping to harness that opportunity to create a more diverse teaching work force, noting that less than 2 percent of the nation’s 3 million teachers are black men.

“Everybody can’t be a business major,” Lee told the auditorium packed with male high school and college students. “We have to educate ourselves. We have to educate our young black men.”

Lee, a Morehouse graduate, said he was influenced most — outside of his own family — by two of his Morehouse professors. Both educators attended Monday’s gathering and were asked to stand up to be honored.

Duncan used the occasion to promote the federal TEACH campaign. The program was launched in the fall to persuade more minorities — particularly males — to enter education. The federal government has launched the teach.gov website, a one-stop-shop for anyone wanting to enter teaching, including professionals hoping to switch careers.

“If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation, if you want to make a difference in the life of a child, become a teacher,” Obama said in a video address taped for Monday’s event. “Our country needs you.”

The Education Department also recorded TV commercials with Oprah Winfrey, performer John Legend and others to talk about the influence of teachers on their lives. Duncan said he will visit Los Angeles next month, seeking to recruit more Hispanics for teaching.

Duncan said that while many school districts are confronting layoffs and tight budgets, there are many high-need areas such as science, mathematics and special education facing a teacher shortage. School districts nationwide hire between 80,000 and 200,000 new teachers each year, even in tough economic times.

Duncan pointed to 8,500 unfilled teaching jobs listed on the teach.gov website as of Monday.

The government is working to help students obtain more financial aid for college and to create loan-forgiveness programs once they graduate and commit to teaching, Duncan said. He urged private organizations to get involved in recruiting minorities to teaching and supporting them once they’re in the classroom.

“The government can’t begin to do this alone,” he said.

Social activist Jeff Johnson is joining the effort. The MSNBC contributor has launched a task force that aims at putting 80,000 more black male teachers in classrooms across the country in the next four years.

Johnson told the audience that being a teacher isn’t considered “cool” in the black community and that perception must change.

“They look at business, engineering and law as professions that will make them better men, but the very profession that determines what the next generation looks like isn’t even on their radar,” Johnson said.

Lee says the high-profile wins had observers declaring “a new dawn” in Hollywood’s racial landscape, but adds that nothing has changed since then.

“I remember a couple years ago, when three or four black people won — Halle won an Academy Award, Denzel won and Sidney Poitier won a career achievement award and people were saying, like, ‘Oh, this is a new dawn.

“Nothing happened, you know. People looking at superficial things trying to think there’s great movement that happened. And it hasn’t happened.”

Despite critical acclaim for his work, Lee has never been nominated for best directing Oscar — only in the screenwriting and documentary categories.

The Academy Award nominations come out Tuesday — the same day Lee is due to speak in the city. Leading contenders this year include “The Social Network,” “The King’s Speech” and “Black Swan.” There are no obvious African-American frontrunners.

Read more at 680news.com

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NEW ORLEANS – Spike Lee screened portions of his follow-up documentary about Hurricane Katrina in front of a big crowd at Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans.

The premiere Tuesday included hours one and four of the HBO documentary, “If God Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise.” It airs on Aug. 23 and 24. Among those attending were Mayor Mitch Landrieu and New Orleans Hornets star guard Chris Paul.

Lee also produced “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” after Katrina struck in August 2005.

In the new movie, Lee returns five years later to see how plans to rebuild New Orleans have played out.

It also touches on the Saints’ Super Bowl victory and details the impact of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill on people who have yet to fully recover from the hurricane.

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Federal scientists said last week that nearly three-quarters of the oil from the BP oil debacle has been removed by various artificial or natural means, but that the spill’s effect on wildlife will long continue. Filmmaker Spike Lee says that the U.S. government report is a “lie.”

He then said journalists should expose “the real story” while speaking at a meeting of the Television Critics Association on Saturday.

Lee argued that it’s unlikely that “abracadabra, presto chango” the vast majority of the oil has vanished from Gulf of Mexico waters and coastal wetlands. While we understand that Spike Lee is not a scientist, common sense would suggest that those numbers relative to the reported amount of devastation and spillage are a little suspect.

Not to mention the constantly changing information during the actual spill. We’re not understanding the controversy, since Lee basically said what a lot of people are thinking.

Click here to view photos:

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Spike Lee visited the National Association of Black Journalists convention in San Diego Saturday to give folks a sample of his new HBO documentary that includes a look at the BP Gulf oil spill.

The director showed about 90 minutes of “If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise,” his follow-up to “When the Levees Broke” about the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.Spike Lee visited the National Association of Black Journalists convention in San Diego Saturday to give folks a sample of his new HBO documentary that includes a look at the BP Gulf oil spill.

The director showed about 90 minutes of “If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise,” his follow-up to “When the Levees Broke” about the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

The film picks up with the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl victory and chronicles the impact of the spill on people who have yet to fully recover from Katrina

When asked if BP cooperated he said, “Nobody was speaking to me from BP.”

Click here to read more at eurweb.com

Click here to see gallery of Black Hollywood

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From CNN:

In the weeks since an oil rig exploded and later sank into the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama has dealt with the tragedy with his signature cool, calm and collected approach.

But with the oil still gushing in what is now the worst spill in U.S. history and the environmental devastation coming ashore, the president is becoming a target of the anger that was originally directed only at BP.

“One time, go off!” director Spike Lee urged on CNN’s “AC 360°.” “If there’s any one time to go off, this is it, because this is a disaster.”

Text continues after gallery …

Lee’s sentiment echoes the frustration of people who want to see Obama get loud, take charge and inspire them like he did during his presidential run.

Click here to read more.

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By Ashley AC Trybula

Wayne State University‘s Tom Adams Field was packed Wednesday morning to hear first lady’s speech on mentoring and the future of Detroit: the youth.

Obama pushed those in the audience, including more then 5,000 Detroit Public Schools students, to focus on their studies and make a difference in their lives. She used her life and that of her husband, President Barack Obama, as examples of how students can rise from modest upbringings to the highest office in the land.

Michelle Obama, wearing a hot pink, sleeveless dress, told students she was going to share a secret with them, the secret of success.

What was the secret?

“There is no secret,” she said. “It is your education. It is mastering math and science and learning how to write well … that’s what the difference is for so many people.”

WATCH highlights of her speech:

Previous to Michelle’s Speach, Hollywood director Spike Lee and basketball legend Magic Johnson along with a panel full of heavy hitters including former “American Idol” contestant Kimberly Locke. Several local officials joined forces with the first lady including Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Mayor Dave Bing, Congressman John Conyers and Denise Ilitch, whose family owns the Detroit Red Wings. The panel answered student questions and stressed the importance of being a mentor.

Michelle Obama was also accompanied by Michigan first gentleman Dan Mulhern, who actively promotes Mentor Michigan, which oversees more than 200 state mentoring programs, and Susan Cares, founder of the National CARES Mentoring Movement.

The White House said the event is “designed to engage, encourage and inspire.”

Michelle Obama is asking thousands of Detroit-area students to rise up and become the next great leaders of the city and the country.

Click here to view photos:

Obama says she and her husband, President Barack Obama, believe in them and says she knows they “can do this.”

Obama called on everyone to help others, every race, creed, black, white, Asian, Arab-American. And “both sides of Eight Mile,” she said. This quote in particular was a huge hit with the Detroit crowd.

WATCH full speech here:

The first Lady also held a special lunch afterwards with Detroit students.

The Detroit trip is part of Obama’s mentoring outreach. In March 2009, during Women’s History Month, she focused on young women, and paired up female high school students in the Washington, D.C., area with female staff in the White House.

Last year, 28,536 Michigan children were helped by 19,578 mentors, according to a survey of 161 of the Mentor Michigan-supported groups.

There are 238 organizations in the Mentor Michigan Registry.

Such programs have been found to help disadvantaged youths do better in school, have higher self-esteem and not fall into criminal behavior.

Contributing Sources:
Patrick Harris
detnews.com
Morris Davis

Charles Barkley says Tiger Woods changed his cell phone number the day after his car accident and is not talking to some of his famous friends.
On a show that airs Sunday on news network HLN, Barkley and filmmaker Spike Lee worry that Woods isn’t taking advantage of the invaluable advice that can only be offered by friends who are used to the spotlight.
“You should reach out to your celebrity friends when things go bad,” Barkley told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday. “They’re the only people who understand what it’s like.”
Barkley appears on “With All Due Respect” with two other Turner Sports analysts, baseball Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley and longtime NASCAR driver Kyle Petty. Lee is one of the guests in the one-hour special during which the sports stars discuss a variety of topics.
Turner Sports and HLN are owned by Turner Broadcasting System.
“He’s insulated,” Lee said during the taping for the show. “If Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan can’t get to him, and those are his boys, then other people are making bad moves.”
Barkley said Tuesday he has not spoken to Woods since the Nov. 27 accident, which unleashed a series of events that resulted in him admitting to marital infidelity.
“I’ve been trying to get to him and can’t get to him,” he said. “It’s very frustrating.”
Barkley said he just wants to tell Woods, “Hey, man, we love you. If you need anything, pick up the phone.”
Chatting about subjects ranging from sports to world news, entertainment and current events is a natural for the outspoken Barkley, who has long expressed an interest in entering politics. He said he wants potential voters to be familiar with his views, with include support for abortion rights and gay marriage.
“I hope people get a chance to see where I am on different issues,” he said.
While taping the show, the three athletes found they had similar feelings about another of the year’s big stories: the death of Michael Jackson. Each felt at peace about the saga after seeing “Michael Jackson’s This Is It,” the film about the King of Pop’s final rehearsals.
During the conversation, Barkley said, “I thought Kyle was going to cry.”

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I woke up this morning to see that Tyler Perry is being forced to defend himself against nasty allegations coming from Spike Lee.  Spike has made it clear that he doesn’t appreciate what he perceives to be “coonery” in Tyler Perry films and TV shows. When I saw Perry flat out say that the accusations “pissed him off,” I thought, “Wow, now that’s an honest brother!”

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I grew up on Spike Lee and I’ll always love him.  I am also certain that images of black people singing, dancing and eating chicken certainly won Perry instant favor with the not-so-in-touch executives in Hollywood.  But here are three reasons that Spike Lee might be wrong about Tyler Perry:

1)    Tyler Perry is not all about Madea: I went onto BET a few times to talk about Hip Hop.  My hoity-toity friends in academia (many of whom pride themselves on writing research papers for journals that nobody ever reads) criticized me for being “unscholarly” by talking to rappers.  But my response was that hip hop culture has a dramatic influence on the young minds that I am trying to reach with education.  You don’t get a baby to eat healthy by only forcing vegetables down his throat; you sprinkle sugar on the food to get the child’s attention.  It’s not always a matter of forcing people to consume what they NEED – you should also be willing to let them have some of what they WANT.  Every positive black movie doesn’t have to be a PBS special.

2)    Tyler Perry’s films produce a diversity of images: The objective in black Hollywood is not for every black person to be presented in a perfect light.  Lord knows that black people are not perfect.  The objective is for us to have our humanity respected.  That means accepting the fact that African Americans are as diverse as white Americans: we can be just as good, just as evil, just as brilliant and just as “ignant.”  The image of the black man in media should not stop with Flavor Flav, but it doesn’t always have to be Barack Obama.  For every Oprah Winfrey, it’s ok to throw in a “Hoochie mama.”  Media should present a mixture of all images that exist across the spectrum.  Perry does a good job with this in his films and Spike Lee should recognize that.

RELATED: Spike Lee Compares Tyler Perry To Amos and Andy

3)    Sorry, but Spike Lee is not the Godfather of Black Cinema: As much as Spike might seem to feel that Tyler Perry needs his blessing to be successful, the truth is that he does not.  The same was true when Muhammad Ali realized he did not need the approval of Joe Louis, and the protestors of the 1968 Olympics ignored the words of Jesse Owens.  Spike is “the man” and an amazing talent, but Tyler Perry has created his own legendary impact on the world.  Sometimes, if we take a difficult and excessively disciplined route to our success, we can be tempted to become bitter toward those who find a simpler solution.   Also, Spike Lee’s implied notion that the many educated and uneducated black folks who see Tyler Perry’s movies can’t identify buffoonery on their own is somehow insulting to the intelligence of the African American community, if not a bit self-righteous.   I’ve seen Tyler Perry’s films and I liked them.  What makes matters worse is that I didn’t want to like them: I watched them with a skeptical eye, and I still found myself laughing, crying and thinking deeply at the end of each film.  Tyler Perry is good, and Spike Lee might as well accept that.  Just let the brother do his thing.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and author of the forthcoming book, “Black American Money.” For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.

Spike Lee has called Tyler Perry’s TBS sitcoms “Meet the Browns” and “House of Payne,”  “coonery and buffoonery.”

Perry responded to that criticism in a Sunday interview on “60 Minutes.”

“You know, that pisses me off,” Perry tells Byron Pitts. “It really does. Because it’s so insulting. It’s attitudes like that that make Hollywood think that these people do not exist and that’s why there’s no material speaking to them. I would love to read that to my fan base.”

NEW YORK — Thousands of Michael Jackson fans danced the rain away in a Brooklyn park on Saturday at a party hosted by filmmaker Spike Lee, marking what would have been the 51st birthday of the late pop star.

Crowds of partygoers streamed into Prospect Park late Saturday afternoon, many wearing fedoras, sporting white gloves and showing off other Jackson-esque outfits. DJs spun Jackson’s hits one after the other as people danced and sang along. Dozens of hawkers wandered through the crowd with T-shirts, buttons, posters and homemade memorabilia.

“I was just like everyone else. I loved his talent,” said Lee, who directed two music videos for Jackson in 1996. He also reminisced how Jackson had visited him in his home in Brooklyn to talk about their music video collaboration.

The day was also designated Michael “King of Pop” Jackson Memorial Day by Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz.

“We all know Michael Jackson had fans around the world, but we all know the best fans come from Brooklyn,” Markowitz boasted to a roaring crowd that grew as heavy rain in the morning lightened to a drizzle by mid-afternoon.

Edna Robles of Brooklyn was on her feet all afternoon. In a red baseball cap and flip flops, she closed her eyes and swung her hips, pivoting in the grass and mud to the beats of Jackson’s hit “Thriller.”

RELATED: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MICHAEL: NewsOne’s Full Coverage

“It could be thundering, I don’t care,” she said. “I watched him through the years and I think he’s the best. I love him.”

The event, originally planned as a block-party-style gathering for 2,000 in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park, was moved to Prospect Park to accommodate a bigger crowd.

Peter Brodie and his wife, Corrine Rodriguez, brought their daughters, 3-month-old Astrid and 2 1/2-year-old Makeda, to the party. Rodriguez danced with Makeda to “Beat It” while Brodie swayed side to side as he held Astrid in his arms.

“I grew up listening to Michael Jackson. I was 9 years old and he opened up a whole new world of music and dancing to me,” said Brodie, who said it was a shame that such a spirited celebration of Jackson’s music came only after his death.

Aubrey Harris, a 45-year-old from New York, was clutching a stack of homemade portraits he made of Jackson.

“I’m spreading the memory of Michael Jackson,” said Harris, who cut out Jackson’s image from posters and created 19 collages decorated with paint and glitter. “I’m keeping it in the forefront of people’s minds.”

By mid-afternoon, he had already sold 10 portraits for $15 each.

Director Spike Lee’s Brooklyn public celebration of Michael Jackson’s birthday has been moved amid predictions of a big crowd.

The free bash will be held in the Nethermead meadow in Prospect Park on Saturday afternoon, rain or shine. It originally was planned for Fort Greene Park.

The New York Times reported Friday that the initial crowd estimate of 2,000 swelled to more than 10,000.

The paper says the Rev. Al Sharpton will say a prayer at the party. President Marty Markowitz will present a proclamation declaring Aug. 29 Michael Jackson Day in Brooklyn. DJ Spinna will play all things Michael Jackson.

Jackson would have turned 51.

Lee collaborated on Jackson’s video for “They Don’t Care About Us.”

Jackson died on June 25.

Q: Spike Lee is known for his stylish visuals, so it’s interesting that he chose to make a straightforward filmed version of the play. Were there any discussions about taking a more cinematic approach or did you want to preserve the theatrical experience?
Stew: I think the movie accomplishes both things—it gives you the flavor of the theater piece, but Spike shot it in a cinematic way. It’s not a dry documentary. Spike wanted to stay true to the sweat and great and rock ‘n’ roll aspect of it. People always ask me “Were you worried about how it might translate?” and I wasn’t worried for a single second. Why would I be worried? Spike Lee is making a film out of my musical! [Laughs]

Q: Has Spike ever told you what attracted him to Passing Strange in the first place?
Stew: One thing that we both like about it is that it tells a story that is specific yet universal. I think he also likes the fact that we have an obsession with the idea that black culture is not monolithic. Ultimately though, it’s the story of the artist and that’s what Spike gravitated towards. Also he’s a music guy—it’s weird he ended up a filmmaker and not a musician. His films are very musical.

Q: How involved were you behind-the-scenes during the film’s production? Were you allowed into the editing room, for example?
Stew: Spike and Barry were extremely generous. They invited Heidi and I into the editing room for almost a week. That’s unprecedented. Denzel doesn’t get into the editing room! They wanted to tell the story and they knew nobody knew it better than us. You know, we went into this thinking the only filmed record of the play we could hope for would be a one-camera videotape in the back row of the theater. So for it to end like this is great, because what artists want more than money is to last. We can all go to bed tonight knowing that 100 years from now, some geeky kid who wants to know what was going on in 2008 can watch this film.

Q: It sounds like you’re ready to let go of Passing Strange after living with for a long time.
Stew: Totally. That’s why it’s so weird when people start talking about whether we’d want to do it again. I feel like it would only be for money.

Q: Would you be open to reviving the play with someone else playing the lead beside yourself?
Stew: I would so love that. Heidi and I know a handful of amazing rock singers who could do this, like Corey Glover from Living Color. But the theater people don’t know them because they don’t know any rock singers. They think I’m special. In order to make this happen, she and I are going to have to make a video with Corey and show him kicking ass on one of these songs for them to understand it.

Heidi: I think what’s great about the movie is that Spike actually captured us living through this thing. So now that its done it would be nice to see other people do it. Of course it would be different—there’s no way it could be the same.

Stew: Yeah, there would be a different relationship between the audience and the narrator, but I think that’s where the power of the performer comes in. I believe a good rock singer can make you believe anything the same way a good actor can. You could cast it so that the narrator and the kid look a little more like each other. Or have a woman be the narrator.

Heidi: As long as people are doing it in their own way and not just doing you.

Q: Passing Strange begins when you’re a teenager and ends when you’re in your early 20s. Is there material from your adult life that you think could be the basis for a new musical?
Stew: It would take awhile. I’d have to be an older man to really write about it. But Heidi and I have often talked about doing a play or film about what it’s really like to be in a rock band. Not the 22-year-old kid with a hit record, but what its like to be 35 and the question about whether you’re going to make it or not really comes in. I’ve never seen that onscreen, you know, when the drummer has a wife whose not happy with the music and the guitarist has a habit and the other guy has a really good computer job with health insurance. I feel lucky to be us in this business, because we’re not writers trying to invent cool stories. We just know our lives and the people we’ve observed and are lucky enough to be in the position to tell their stories. But it’s not like I can make anything up—I can only invent songs, not stories.

Q: Do any of the real people you base your characters on ever get angry with you about your portrayal of them?
Stew: Luckily, all of the characters are composites. I still have some real names; I use my mom’s real name even thought the mother in the play isn’t in any way shape or form like my mom. There’s a great Bob Dylan story from the ’60s when he started writing love songs. There would be six women in Greenwich Village going “That song is about me because I wore a green shirt.” But then another girl would be like “You know where he mentions the snaggle tooth Cheshire Cat? That’s me, I’m the one with the cat.” But those songs were composites; he wasn’t writing about one woman. That’s the beauty of the composite—you never get totally in trouble. Nobody can show you the song and say “I’m gong to kick your ass because all of these things correspond to me!” [Laughs]

Q: What do you hope viewers take away from the film version of Passing Strange?
Stew: I would like people to say, “I want more.” I want the Asian American Passing Strange. I want the girl version of Passing Strange. I want the gay Hispanic Passing Strange. I want stories that actually exist to be told. Not just the same out boy meets girl bullshit.

Heidi: Also it’s nice for people to walk away thinking, “Anything I’m doing I should just do it, because these kind of things just happen.” We didn’t plan to get to Broadway. We stuck to what we were doing.

Stew: It’s pretty dorky and sentimental but I get a lot of emails from young people going “This makes me feel like doing what I want to do now” and older people going “Maybe I should have finished that novel.” It’s pushing buttons and I’m grateful. Sometimes on Broadway I’d walk into the lobby after the show and people would start telling me all this personal stuff about their lives. And I’m standing there on 46^th Street thinking, “I just finished a two-and-a-half hour show. What I really need is a beer and steak right now!” [Laughs]

Passing Strange opens in limited theatrical release on Friday and will be available via Sundance Channel’s new on-demand service starting August 26^th.

From HuffingtonPost.com:

Spike Lee is planning a Brooklyn block party in honor of Michael Jackson’s birthday.

On August 29th, what would have been Jackson’s 51st birthday, Lee and “the great borough of Brooklyn” will take over Fort Greene park with, according to The Root, “DJ Spinna… spinning all things Jackson, from the Jackson 5 to the Jacksons to Michael Jackson.”

Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz, who has already named June 30th “Spike Lee Day,” is set to declare Aug. 29 “Michael Jackson Day.”

Click here for full story.

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Hundreds including Rev. Al Sharpton and film director Spike Lee gathered at the Apollo Monday afternoon to honor deceased pop king Michael Jackson.

Calling Jackson a “genius” and an “innovator” Sharpton led the crowd in a moment of silence at exactly 5:26 p.m., the east coast time Jackson was declared dead last week Thursday.

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: APOLLO THEATER HOSTS TRIBUTE TO THE KING OF POP

Lee, who directed both music videos for Jackson’s song “They Don’t Really Care About Us”– one set in Brazil, the other in prison–partied with the celebratory crowd.

Lee danced and took pictures of the hundreds who filled the historic Harlem theater, some of whom had waited five hours just to get into the venue.

Fans came carrying posters, wearing Jackson t-shirts, white gloves and black fedoras. They left behind bouquets of flowers, stuffed animals, and handwritten notes that covered the lower part of the Apollo stage.

It was in August 1967 on that same stage that nine-year-old Jackson performed alongside his four older brothers. Known then as the Jackson Brothers, they won the Apollo’s signature show “Amateur Night.”

Today in honor of Jackson the Harlem theatre will host a tribute to Jackson during tonight’s Amateur night scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.

See more of our continuing coverage, check out:

Sharpton Dances at MJ Tribute and More

Jackson Has Top 3 Albums This Week

Spike Lee Compares Tyler Perry To Amos and Andy

NY Paper Outs Tyler Perry

Madea Beats Jonas Brothers For #1 Box Office Wknd

I’ve always envied white writers if only for the fact that they don’t have to read Zane. They can dismiss Zane out of pocket while I, if I want to remain in touch with my community, must at least give credible reasons for not liking her work. Like, say, in Addicted, I’d complain that there’d be no way that the husband would have returned to that horrible woman. She got men killed, after all. And not only that, I found it implausible that this guy would make practical use of pornography and avoid certain lovemaking actions with his own wife. And while we’re at it, let’s talk about Nervous. I mean, sex with the mattress store employee on a mattress? C’mon!

Now, as a prestigious alumnus of the nation’s greatest university (hint: our colors are blue and white), I know a lot of smart Black people. None of them like Tyler Perry. Or at least, none will admit to it. I’ve been silent on my fandom up until this point for two reasons:

• 1. I didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of my friends.
• 2. I don’t think I’ve seen enough Tyler Perry movies to qualify as a “real” fan.

To date, I’ve only seen Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Why Did I Get Married? I liked Diary, but Why Did I Get Married?, which I saw recently on cable, was fantastic. I plan on cramming and getting the rest of them in as soon as possible.

And here’s the thing: while yesterday’s smart Blacks with a taste for film debated the value of Fellini versus Bergman, today’s smart Blacks are all about Soderbergh versus Mamet. You mention Spike Lee, you get verbally bashed. You mention any other Black director, you get ignored. You mention Tyler Perry; you might get something thrown at you. If the Black intelligentsia needed a logo, they might have to go with Uncle Ruckus.

So here again as a film fan, I find myself envying white people.  White people are free to go to the movies simply to be entertained. Black people go in worrying about whether or not we’ll see a realistic depiction of ourselves onscreen.

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Personally, I never have concern. I know for a fact that they’ll never be a realistic depiction of me onscreen unless they bring in Rodney Allen Rippy.

But here’s what I think scares my smart friends the most: Tyler Perry movies are realistic depictions of Black people. There’s the whole spectrum. As in real life, the upwardly mobile stands right alongside the crack-head cousin. You also can’t hate on a guy for giving work to Black actors and actresses.

And I strongly suspect that some of my brilliant friends that hate Tyler Perry so much haven’t even seen any of his movies.

God, I wish I were that smart!

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Twenty years later, the trash can is still crashing through America’s window.

At the climax of Spike Lee’s 1989 drama “Do The Right Thing,” the eternal battle between love and hate teeters on a razor’s edge. The young black man Radio Raheem has been choked to death by white police after a fight with a Brooklyn pizzeria owner. A seething crowd gathers in front of the shop.

Lee’s character, Mookie, a black pizza deliveryman, stands between the crowd and the shop. He’s shoulder-to-shoulder with Sal, the shop’s Italian owner. They exchange looks of confusion, betrayal and regret.

The crowd stares at Mookie. He’s on the wrong side. Mookie moves over to his brothers, rubs his face, wrestling with the weight of the moment. Then he decides.

“Hate!” screams Mookie as he hurls the metal can through the pizzeria’s plate glass window. The dam bursts. The mob destroys the shop in a frenzy that was both inevitable and completely avoidable.

Much has changed since “Do The Right Thing” announced Lee’s special gifts to the world. The police choke hold that killed Radio Raheem — a fictionalization of the real death of Michael Stewart in New York City — has long been outlawed. Life on the ravaged Brooklyn block where Lee filmed the movie has improved. Ronald Reagan has given way to Barack Obama.

But for every measure of undeniable progress, “Do The Right Thing” also points to the divides that remain.

In May, a black New York City undercover cop who was running after a suspect with his gun drawn was shot to death by a white officer. Boarded-up buildings, broken windows and jobless young men still populate that Brooklyn block. And Lee, who wrote, produced and directed the film, insists the racial disconnect at its heart still exists.

“White people still ask me why Mookie threw the can through the window,” Lee said in an interview. “Twenty years later, they’re still asking me that.”

“No black person ever, in 20 years, no person of color has ever asked me why.”

That question is what made “Do The Right Thing” so explosive. Some writers speculated, erroneously, that it would incite riots.

“People were fearful of the backlash,” said Rosie Perez, who played Mookie’s Puerto Rican girlfriend, Tina. “A lot of things happening in the movie were happening in real life. People were afraid when the truth, although a little exaggerated, was put up on the screen for everyone to see.”

Meanwhile, Lee got rave reviews from many influential critics. Roger Ebert cried after watching it at the Cannes Film Festival, where it lost to “sex, lies and videotape.”

Audiences definitely were not prepared.

Most serious films about race, like “In the Heat of the Night,” “To Kill A Mockingbird” and “The Defiant Ones,” ended with understanding or even brotherhood. And for every ambitious movie like “Watermelon Man” or “Black Like Me,” there were a half-dozen violent, sexy ghetto shoot-em-ups — “blaxploitation” flicks.

Lee had something new to say. “In just three feature films,” critic Gene Siskel wrote then, “Spike Lee has given us more genuine and varied images of black people than in the last 20 years of American movies put together.”

Today, Ebert says “Do The Right Thing” should have won the Oscar for best picture. “It was so honest about the way people really feel,” he said via e-mail. “No hypocrisy. It generated grief and left us with a central question of American society.”

The best picture of 1989, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: “Driving Miss Daisy,” about the friendship between a white Atlanta woman and her black chauffeur.

It ends on a Thanksgiving in the 1960s, with the chauffeur feeding Miss Daisy a piece of pie.

___

The trash can almost stayed on the curb. Paramount offered Lee the biggest budget for his film, but executives there wanted to change the ending.

“They just couldn’t understand why Mookie throws the trash can through Sal’s window,” said Hollywood veteran Tom Pollock, who gave the film the green light when he was chairman of Universal Pictures. “Quite honestly, I didn’t understand either, until it was explained to me by Spike.”

Pollock agreed to give Lee creative control. After the film was done, Pollock only had one problem. At the time, the movie ended the morning after the riot, when Mookie visits Sal at his burned-out shop and demands his $250 salary for the week.

“The movie offered no hope whatsoever at that time,” Pollock said. “All I said at the time was, ‘This is a really powerful film, but we can’t go out of here being totally depressed that there is no future for this country in terms of race.’”

Lee responded by adding two quotes at the end. The first, from Martin Luther King Jr., preached nonviolence: “The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.” The second, from Malcolm X, advocated self-defense against “bad people” who block racial progress: “I don’t even call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence.”

“It got misconstrued that it had to be either Dr. King or Malcolm,” Lee said. “It was never meant to be that you had to pick one or the other. These are the two most prominent African-American leaders of the 20th century, and they both wanted the same thing.”

The quotes, the trash can, the title of the film — like a painting or a piece of music, they all meant different things to different people. And they still do.

The riot is sparked by the militant Buggin’ Out, who demands that Sal add some black people to his all-Italian Wall of Fame. Buggin’ notes that Sal’s all-black and Puerto Rican clientele provides his livelihood. Sal responds that if Buggin’ wants to make decorating decisions, he should start his own business.

“They both had good points,” said Lee, with a challenging smile.

Buggin’ tries to organize a boycott, but his black friends have no problem with Sal or his wall. He finally enlists Radio Raheem, whose enormous boom box blasting Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” has offended both Sal and various black residents.

“It’s absolutely one of Spike’s most interesting and profound films because of that ambiguity,” said Giancarlo Esposito, who played Buggin’ Out. “In our lives, nothing is absolutely black and white, because none of us are the same. So we’re not going to all act the same.”

As night falls on a long, broiling day, Buggin’ Out and Radio Raheem invade Sal’s Famous to press their case, with “Fight The Power” playing at full blast.

Throughout the film, Sal has expressed his love for the neighborhood and its residents, over the racist objections of his son Pino. Sal has been lenient with Mookie’s meandering deliveries, even saying he’s “like a son to me.” Sal’s shop would have been closed when Buggin’ and Raheem arrived if he hadn’t unlocked it to feed a few neighborhood kids.

But after Raheem doesn’t turn down his radio, and Buggin’ calls Sal a guinea, Sal drops the bomb — “Nigger!” — and destroys the radio with a bat.

Raheem attacks Sal, the police arrive, and Raheem ends up dead.

As his body is carried away in the back of a police car, a black cop runs alongside.

___

Twenty years ago, amid racial battles stoked by everyone from Lee Atwater to Tawana Brawley, Lee’s film seemed like another salvo. Today, the smoke has cleared, revealing a less contentious world, but one where many of the issues raised by “Do the Right Thing” still resonate.

Take the Bedford-Stuyvesant block where the movie was filmed. In 1989 there was a crack house and abandoned buildings there; Sal’s pizzeria and the Korean grocery were built on empty lots.

Today, the block is clean, the brownstones well-tended and the residents working class. Yet those lots are still empty, home to cars in various stages of repair. A boarded-up storefront church sits on one corner.

Four young black men stand on the opposite corner at midday, in front of an apartment building with a broken window in the front vestibule. Another man emerges from the building and asks if this reporter’s employer is hiring.

People on the block talk about the white people who are moving in, although almost none are evident at this time of day.

“This is the suburban part of the ghetto,” said Rachel Ward, who has lived there for all of her 52 years.

“It’s come a long way,” she said, “but it still has a long way to go.”

That’s exactly how Lee feels about race in the age of the first black president.

“I’ll tell you one statement I don’t agree with: Post-racial society. What does that mean? That we’re past it?” He snorts derisively. “We’re not there, we’re definitely not there. Those are people wishing upon a star. It’s not like it’s gonna be presto change-o, abracadabra, Obama Obama — it doesn’t work like that.

“One of the biggest criticisms about ‘Do The Right Thing’ is, ‘Spike Lee didn’t provide the answer to end racism and prejudice.’ That’s not my job, I don’t have the answer for that. The film was to show what I felt at the time were issues that needed to be dealt with.”

But still no answers, 20 years later?

“It doesn’t matter,” Lee said. “I’m not gonna sit here and lie and say I have the answer to end racism and prejudice in America.”

Spike Lee had an interview with Ed Gordon on Our World with Black Enterprise scheduled to air this weekend. In the interview he complained about “coonery and buffoonery” and both of Tyler Perry’s shows “Meet the Browns” and “House of Payne,” comparing them to characters from minstrel shows.

From EurWeB

“We’ve had this discussion back and forth. When John Singleton [made 'Boyz in the Hood'], people came out to see it. But when he did ‘Rosewood,’ nobody showed up. So a lot of this is on us! You vote with your pocketbook, your wallet. You vote with your time sitting in front of the idiot box, and [Tyler Perry] has a huge audience. We shouldn’t think that Tyler Perry is going to make the same film that I am going to make, or that John Singleton or my cousin Malcolm Lee [would make]. As African-Americans, we’re not one monolithic group, so there is room for all of that. But at the same time, for me, the imaging is troubling and it harkens back to ‘Amos n’ Andy.’”

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“Each artist should be allowed to pursue their artistic endeavors, but I still think there is a lot of stuff out today that is coonery and buffoonery. I know it’s making a lot of money and breaking records, but we can do better. … I am a huge basketball fan, and when I watch the games on TNT, I see these two ads for these two shows (Tyler Perry’s “Meet the Browns” and “House of Payne”), and I am scratching my head. We got a black president, and we going back to Mantan Moreland and Sleep ‘n’ Eat?

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From the L.A. Times

On Christmas Day, 1987, the 30-year-old Brooklyn-based filmmaker Spike Lee started working on the script for his third feature. His first, the 1986 surprise hit “She’s Gotta Have It,” was a trailblazing romantic comedy about young upscale African Americans, and his sophomore effort, “School Daze,” a musical look at black college life, was in the can and set to be released two months later. In this new project, Lee wanted to examine the racial tension that enveloped New York City at the time, most of which was due to an incident that occurred in the predominantly white Howard Beach section of Queens a year earlier: A group of white youths attacked three black men outside a pizza place for simply being the wrong color in the wrong neighborhood. One of the black men, 23-year-old Michael Griffith, was chased onto the Belt Parkway and was struck and killed by a car.

The new film, which Lee titled “Do the Right Thing,” wound up detailing how a single block in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant — one with the white-owned Sal’s Famous Pizzeria at its heart — erupted in racial violence on the hottest day of the year. It featured a striking visual style, an idiosyncratic blend of comedy and tragedy, and an extraordinary ensemble cast including Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizzeria owner; Lee as Mookie, an unambitious deliveryman; and Ossie Davis as Da Mayor, the local drunk. It also instantly established Lee as a major talent who couldn’t be ignored or dismissed.

When “Do the Right Thing” was released, audiences and critics were divided. Vincent Canby hailed it in the New York Times as “a remarkable piece of work,” and Roger Ebert, in his four-star Chicago Sun-Times review, added that it came “closer to reflecting the current state of race relations in America than any other movie of our time.” On the flip side, Lee was criticized for a drug-free presentation of a crack-ravaged neighborhood and for being recklessly incendiary. In his review in the June 26, 1989, issue of New York magazine, David Denby said that “the end of this movie is a shambles, and if some audiences go wild, [Lee's] partly responsible.” Jack Kroll in Newsweek called the film “dynamite under every seat.” The critics’ fears underestimated the audience — no riots resulted.

Read the Whole Story

Watch the Trailer For Do The Right Thing

Spike Lee went through the ESPN Car Wash promoting his film, “Kobe Doin’ Work”, yesterday. I suppose he is the first major motion film director to go through the car wash, and I also imagine that he’ll be the only major motion film director to do so. And after seeing his film about “a game in the life of Kobe,” I imagine this will be the last piece of work he does on ESPN’s dime.

I love Spike Lee, and I love ESPN. The marriage of the two entities seemed destined for greatness. When I was watching the film’s “game of choice” between the Spurs and Lakers last season, I was 100% ecstatic to hear that Spike Lee was doing a piece on Kobe and I could not wait to see what would come of it.

Spike is known for doing some outlandish stuff in his movies. First of all, he is a cinematographic genius, and he really can change the perception of a scene, character or purpose with any one of the hundreds of unique angles, graphic effects and cinematic techniques that he has used over the course of his career.

Secondly, Spike is the master of addressing the issues that few other directors touch on. Sure, Spielberg talks about genocide, and Allen talks about the perils of love, but Spike talks about what’s real and what’s now. When he brings up racism in his films, his characters do not just experience it, they embody it. When he brings up sex and love, he doesn’t just explore the perils of monogamy, he explores the perils of not being monogamous.

Lastly, Spike is a terrific storyteller. Have you ever meet somebody who told stories in a roundabout fashion, seemingly with no rhyme or rhythm to their tale, only to hear the end of the narrative and became convinced it was the best story you have ever heard in your life? That is Spike Lee. His movies come across off-topic at first, only to convince the viewer that it is not his movie that is off topic, but it is the viewer himself who is off topic. He makes his audience see things a in a new light, that can turn a story about a hot day in Brooklyn into one of the greatest social archetype flicks of all time.

That—and more—is what makes Spike Lee a tremendous film director and thinker beyond his time. That being said, very little of those aspects were found in his documentary about Kobe Bryant.

I know it’s a lot to ask of a guy to make this grand biopic about a guy when you’re locked into the timeframe of a 48 minute basketball game. But I thought, if anyone could do it, it was Spike Lee. I also thought, if it could not be done, than Spike would not take this project on. Needless to say, I was wrong on at least one of those accounts.

As I said before, Spike is a master of touching on deeper social issues. Of course, Kobe is not the Plato of our generation, but he is an icon in our society, and clearly his own thoughts about his place in basketball, society, and maybe even just on his own team, would all be worthy points of discussion, but the film touches on none of that. Then there is the obvious thing we all want Kobe to elaborate more on, which was the whole Colorado debacle, but Spike didn’t even go near that topic—not even so much a question regarding how he has grown individually and with his family since that dubious event. And Spike didn’t dare bring up the LeBron-Kobe debate. Some insight on what Kobe thought about LeBron, or at least what it was like to play against LeBron and MJ, would have been nice, but it wasn’t in the film. Heck, I would have settled for a conversation about what Kobe hopes to accomplish in his remaining years as an NBA player.

Remember how I said Spike was a master storyteller as well? Well, not so much in this film. “Kobe Doing Work” is basically 80-something minutes of Kobe talking over footage of a basketball game. There is no plot, there is no story to tell, and there is no underlying meaning Spike is trying to drive home. It is more or less like sitting through a poorly-written, sitcom version of a basketball film session, only the lead character (Kobe) isn’t the least bit funny. Occasionally, Kobe tries to make a joke or two about giving Kurt Thomas a hard time, which I’m sure is funny if your name is Kobe Bryant or you have a really big soft spot for guards bouncing off power forwards. And as great as Kobe is, let’s face it, he won’t be doing play-by-play for the Lakers after he retires. He has one of the most monotonous voices—which is high criticism coming from me, someone with a no inflection in my voice whatsoever. The film would have been better off if it were narrated by one-time ESPN reporter Stephen A. Smith. Too bad they let him go, huh?

I will give Spike some credit for at least bringing some of his great cinematography work to this film. He does a nice couple of ultra-slow-photo shots that are pretty unique. However, they don’t really add to anything or give the audience any new perspective that say a really good Nike commercial wouldn’t give you.

So when “Kobe Doin’ Work” airs on ESPN this Saturday, don’t get too overly excited about it. It’s really not an Oscar-worthy film. Which is probably why they are airing it on television—then again, it’s not exactly “Must See TV” either. However, if you’re a sports fan, it’s kind of a “must see” for you, if not solely for the purpose of being able to talk about the film in the future. And at least you can rest your hat on the fact that it does not come across as some kind of homage to the Lakers or any other team—so Sacramento Kings fans, you can watch this too. At its core, the film is really just a look inside the head of Kobe Bryant. Unfortunately, it only gets skin deep, which is to be expected, given that skin-deep is about a deep as Kobe has ever let the public see him.

In the BP news article titled “Blacks, as usual, misplace their outrage and ignore the REAL problems.” members discuss whether the NY Post deserves our attention in light of the issues in our own communities.  He goes on to say…

“Al Sharpton, Spike Lee and the NACCP are concerned about a damn cartoon? Why not give as much energy, press and air time to BLACK homelessness, homicides, college attrition rates, black abortions, black absent fathers, black men raping black babies, BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT, BLACK PEOPLE GOING HUNGRY EVERY DAY, Black health issues, BLACK MEN DYING TOO EARLY FROM PROSTATE CANCER, black illiteracy, black boys terrorizing entire black neighborhoods — but we talking about a damn cartoon?”

What is your opinion? Are we losing focus on important issues or is protesting the NY Post worthwhile? Check out the ongoing debate here. Look at some of the people that do support the petition against the NY Post here. Keep updated on the latest news here. Sign the petition here.

BP Member Rosko_24_7 says, “The recent issue with the NY Post and their cartoon was just the tip of the iceberg. Racism is rampant in the US and all over the world. We need to stand up against it.”

To add your name to the Member Petition Against Racism (NY Post Chimp/Stimulus Cartoon) click here. For our editorial on the NY Post Cartoon situation click here. For the latest updates on this controversy click here. To add your comments and on the situation click here.

David Peart
I support this petition because the time has long come to say enough. It has never been acceptable to engage in this sort of blatant disrespect, but it does appear that there is an element out there who believes that they deserve a free pass on such behavior. They are wrong, and maybe the now unfortunate necessity of this papers demise will educate the last stubborn vestiges of such bigoted ignorance that their lack of self control is not a birthright the nation are obligated to endure absent rebuke.

Yvonne Jackson
The placement of the cartoon is irrelevant. The simple fact that it is a chimp and it references the “stimulus bill” identifies the chimp as Obama. Together with the long history racist of equating black people with animals makes the cartoon utterly inexcusable as merely “free speech.” It is hate speech plain and simple, so full of hate in fact that its author fails to realize that it doesn’t even rise to cleverness.

Shani Porter
I support this petition to fullest because the cartoon made me very sick to my stomach. Also it made me very disturbed by people having the audacity of publishing this racist drawing. If it was any other president, this picture would’ve never been created.

Gary Shaw
I support this petition. I suggest also that we boycott Fox 5 and the NY Post and push for their financial sponsors to yank their support from them.

Malcolm Mccormack
I support this petition.Because the New york Post has being doing this for a Long time & geting away with it… Time to shut them Down.

Lillie May Jackson
I support this petition It’s the same song, different verse, Why can’t we ( Americans) be like children, accepting of everyone!

Richard Packard
I support this petition. I have continued to spread the message about FOX news and the way they have historically treated black people. This is good work. Truly, Rick Packard, Chicago

Carmen Pullen
I support this petition. the idea that something like this still occurs in 2009 is absolutley ridiculous. This needs to stop.

Chicago Rounder
I DO NOT support this petition. I am not offended by the cartoon and believe that the time and energy of Black men and women in this country is better spent on real atrocities such as addressing violence and drugs in our neighborhoods, educating our children and ourselves, and promoting high moral values in our community. A so-called “racist cartoon” is the least of our worries.

W. Parham
I completely support this petition. And would like nothing better then to see The New York Post, The Boston Herald as well as the Fox Network boycotted from now on because this is not the first racist or insensitive comments either of those Newspapers have made and it won’t be the last unless something is done.

Raine Stefens
I support this petition. This is not acceptable for a brighter future. Let these hurtful hateful thoughts go. Thing about racists is that if they got their way and all other races disappered … they would start killing each other off

C. Henderson
I support this petition and the view that the cartoon may have been created with different intent then received BUT I do not accept the cartoon. The cartoon by itself is acceptable. The words by itself is acceptable. Placing them together is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Blackman Whoaint Bitter
This is coming from a black man… Get over it! Nothing is worse than black people who have no clue of what those before them went through, getting on their high “dats racist” horse every time they sense a HINT of racism. If you ever expect things to get better in this country, you need to start being part of the solution, and not part of the problem!

CHERYLL MARTIN
I support this petition. I am totally outraged with this cartoon. There is no way the post can clean this up, it pure unadulterated racism.

Terrance Perry
I support this petition. After all the comradery that was displayed at the signing in of our new president. It shows that ignorance is still ramped in our country. It goes to show that we still have a long way to go, when people can still get away with showing racism in a public venue. Im very dissappointed in but not angry. I still expect this behavior from some people.

Maurice Russell
I support this petition.I can’t believe that anyone would think this is funny. Shame on anyone who does. Blacks, Whites, Asia,Hispanics, and everyone else voted Obama in..Not just one race. People Grow UP!!!!!

shawn white
I support this petition.And further decry the notion that an apology is enough.Fire those involved or shut them down enough is enough.

RON HARRELL
I support this petition. SO LET ME GET THIS RIGHT. SOMEONE ALLOWED THIS 2 REACH THE PAPER’S…THE EDITORS ALLOWED IT THREW..AND THE PRESIDENT OF WHATEVER JOURNALIST COMPANY LET IT HAPPEN…TELL’S YOU ALOT ABOUT THE WAY THEY RUN THERE BUISNESS!!!SEEM’S 2 ME LIKE THEIR THE MONKEY’S AND THEIR BUILDING IS THE CIRCUS..LOVE A TICKET TO THAT SHOW!!..LOL

Destiny N
I support this petition. That is a nasty message to the young people and to everyone out there that sees this. There was no need for this cartoon. If the creator wanted a significance to the actual chimp that got shot, he should not have added that specific quote. Adding the quote is what made it racist, and i am white.

James Modeste
I support this petition in its scope. My outrage extends to the mainstream media that considers this type of freedom of speech acceptable.

Sterling Williams
I support this petition. In light of the fact that President Obama just signed the stimulus bill I find it to be of very poor taste and not funny at all with the inferences that can be drawn from the comments in the caption.

Devon Dassaw
I support this petition because the time is now for a major change on race across this entire country. Accept the diversity or get out. Remember your ancestors are mixed with black, white, latin roots, and more.

Amirah Wint
I support this petition and feel very outraged and hurt by the ignorance we as a Black people have to face. There is a fine line between “freedom of speech” and hatred. The NY Post definitely crossed it.

David Ortez
I support this petition. This is a racially charged cartoon aimed directly at president Barrack Obama and African-Americans everywhere. There is no way to justify this the image drawn by the racist N.Y Post and we will not stand for it. A public apology is in order by all parties involved in this disgusting show of bigotry. There is a thin line between freedom of speech and prejudice…and has been crossed.

Ivan Gainous
I support this petition. That cartoon is apalling and insensitive. It shows the underlying thoughts of some people’s prejudice and hatred.

Alysia Orengo
I support this petition. I can’t believe this type of behavior and to think a newspaper actually allowed this to be printed. Are you kidding me?

avonia taylor
I support this petition. Not only is the said cartoon a disgrace to President Obama the said cartoon is a disgrace towards the entire country. If a News paper company can disrespect our president so the world can see, other people outside the U.S can feel the exact same way, but possibly go further with their hate. America is suppose to be the Land of the free and the home of the brave , but the only thing i see within the post and others since the election is that they’re free to say whatever and brave to do it without any care. With that being said I as a young female feel we should do the same, but in a classy and a well manner as when Our President ran for Office. There I am more than grateful I was able to take part in signing this petition. Yes we can, Yes we did, and Yes we’ll rise!!!!!

NewsOne was at the scene at Day 2 of the protests against News Corporation and  the New York Post. The outrage was fueled by a cartoon printed in Wednesday’s issue, depicting a chimp being gunned down by two white police officers and a caption reading “They’ll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.” Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network have organized multiple protests and boycotts against the paper.

Spike Lee attended today’s event with his son Jackson. Also at the rally was Judge Greg Mathis and National President of the NAACP, Ben Jealous.

Check out the EXCLUSIVE NewsOne interview with Rev. Al Sharpton at the event!!!

NOT ENOUGH: BOYCOTT THE NEW YORK POST

a NewsOne editorial

What do Chris Brown, Alex Rodriguez and the New York Post have in common? All three gave half-apologies this week for huge ethical and moral transgressions.

In the case of the New York Post, it is not enough to say, in effect, “We didn’t mean it the way you thought we meant it, and if you got us wrong, we’re sorry. And, by the way, we do not apologize to Al Sharpton, or anyone with the temerity to speak on your behalf.”

This is what a real apology might look like: “Americans of all colors, we sincerely apologize for the cartoon we ran. We were wrong to not consider the historically racist implications of the imagery we used, and racism — whether deliberate, implied or by mistake — is unacceptable. We completely understand the anger and outrage that many Americans feel, and we honor their right to speak out.”

We at NewsOne feel that as long as the New York Post holds the concerns, safety and well-being of African-Americans in contempt, it is important not to buy the New York Post, nor visit their website.

– The NewsOne Staff

PETITION DEMANDING APOLOGY:

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION!

We, the members of BlackPlanet.com, the world’s largest online community for African-Americans and people of African descent everywhere, are outraged at the recent publication of a racist cartoon in the pages of the New York Post, a daily newspaper owned and operated by one of the largest media corporations in the world, News Corporation.

The cartoon, created by Sean Delonas, depicts a dead chimpanzee, just shot dead by two white police officers who exclaim: “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

According to the editors at the Post, this cartoon plays off the recent, sensationalized shooting of an actual chimpanzee in Connecticut.

But given that this cartoon is displayed one page after a picture of President Barack Obama; given the random connection made to Obama’s recently-signed economic stimulus plan; given the editorial animosity of the New York Post to Obama; and given the racist, bigoted history of the cartoonist, Mr. Delonas; it’s very easy to infer that the Post and the cartoonist are likening American’s first Black president to an ape.

The African-ape comparison is unconscionable, a centuries’ old cliche, a favorite of white supremacists everywhere.  So, too, is the threat of police violence and brutality against African-Americans. So, for that matter, is the specter of assassination of an American president. And whether the editors and cartoonists meant to make these comparisons, or were merely comfortable riding the edge, we declare that this is inexcusable, intolerable conduct in a multicultural society.

The New York Post and Mr. Delonas are entitled to their “free speech.”  We are also entitled to protest, with our voices, our bodies and our pocketbooks, if necessary.

The era for this kind of “humor” has passed. We stand alongside well-meaning Americans of all races and ethnicities to condemn this cynical, backward, racist cartoon, and its publisher.

We demand an apology from the News Corporation and the New York Post.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION!

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST UPDATES IN THE CARTOON CONTROVERSY

MARK ANTHONY NEAL: Hit Cartoon Publisher In The Wallet

BLACK PLANET Members Speak Out Against Racist Cartoon

TOP 10 OFFENSIVE NEW YORK POST CARTOONS

Here is Al Sharpton’s response to the NY Post Cartoon from the National Action Network

CNN ended its documentary last night with my former Hip Hop professor, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and his incarcerated brother meeting in jail. This scene was representative of the whole documentary. CNN did not show Black men in America, they showed the tragedies and success stories of black men, without giving any light to the middle ground.

They started in Little Rock Arkansas, which was a good place to start, given its history. They covered one member of the Little Rock 9 who went on to become a judge and then covered a man who had a long history of drug abuse and crime who had turned his life together. They did show some insight into how he fell into drug abuse and crime. The man was a Vietnam veteran who had begun abusing drugs while fighting the war. The Vietnam War, which disproportionately recruited black men, did a lot to damage to the black man and subsequently the black family and community.

The Vietnam War brought a lot of stress and trauma to the black men who were forced to serve, many of whom did not believe in the war. Many black men also had good access to heroine in Vietnam, which they brought back home causing the 1st devastating drug epidemic in the black community. The stress and trauma of the war led to many soldiers falling into permanent drug addiction.

CNN also went into depth on the incarceration rate among black males. It seems that a tactic CNN likes to do is take a negative thing and then give statistics about it in which black people are double or worse than white people. One statistic they didn’t give is that black people and white people use drugs at the exact same rate as black people. Why is it then that black people are arrested for drugs at 5 times the rate than white people?

After the white-collar criminal, the least risky criminal profession has to be the white drug dealer. Without having to be worried about stopped and frisked, pulled over or followed, white drug dealers are free to get through customs, move enormous weight and freely sell cocaine, ecstasy, crack, meth without facing any of the risks of incarceration that a black drug dealer would. Its not like all the white people are going to the black community to get drugs so there must be a large amount of white drug dealers seeing as there are a lot of white drug addicts. If white people’s sons or daughters were being arrested at the same rate as black people, I’m sure a public outcry at the injustice and unnecessary incarceration would lead to a change in the drug laws.

The drug war is really a war on young black men. These men serve as a scapegoat for the drug and crime problem in America. I won’t say that selling drugs is a victimless crime, but the drug addicts are victims of their addiction and the drugs, not the drug dealers. Unfortunately drugs have become intertwined with American life. If America is going to deal effectively with drugs they are going to have to deal with how drugs actually come in and how to treat addiction. Black people are not bringing in cocaine or heroin to the country and mostly serve as low-level retail distributors. If the US were to invest the money they did in the war on drugs, into drug education, addiction treatment and providing other opportunities to the young men who sell drugs, police would be able to put people in prison who really deserve to be there.

The USA has not only the highest percentage of incarcerated people in the world and has more people in jail than any country in the world including China which has 3 billion people and is often attacked for their human rights violations. In the US, jail does not rehabilitate its prisoners; it just serves as a place for criminals to train and network with other criminals. USA brings in the drugs(CIA), creates the demand for drugs, and gives little opportunities other than drugs to the black community and then locks them up for selling them, creating a new cycle of poor fatherless children who face the same lack opportunities.

While the USA chases down black people to fill their jails, they are ignoring the growing meth and prescription drug problems that are plaguing their own white communities. Jails are owned by corporations who lobby politicians for longer sentences and harsher drug laws so they can fill up their jails. Corporations like Pfizer are also lobbying for stricter drug laws so they can knock out the competition for their own prescription drugs. The drug war is like the war in Iraq, it is an occupation, with the black community being held hostage in the crossfire.

CNN profiled two successful black males in different worlds. One was a family man with three sons living in the suburbs, the other a successful New York marketing director. Rather than focusing in on their successes, they focused on their struggles with keeping their identity while assimilating into the white communities and workplaces. The family man lived in the suburbs and all his sons dated white women. One son said he used to try and be real black by wearing cornrows and listening to hip hop as if that’s what being black was all about. They didn’t mention at all the growing number of black suburbs near DC, Atlanta and LA where black people have been moving without leaving their people or social class. They also played no mind to the growing number of black businesses in which black people work together without having to sacrifice their identity.

Spike Lee also showed a lot of insight into perceptions of blacks in the media. Lupe Fiasco proved to be an articulate spokesman for the current state of Hip Hop, while Russell Simmons refused to criticize any part of Hip Hop, proving that he will promote anything he makes money out of whether it be blood diamonds or the negative influence of current Hip Hop.

Overall this show presented two different parts of black America, the tragedy who felt the pains of drugs, crime and poverty and the success who has to assimilate into white society. They left out the working class black man, the successful black man who lives among other black people or works with other black people. They focused on lot of problems in the black community but did not look at any of the causes or solutions.

Watch the Whole Second Part Here

In defense of criticism on Obama being only ‘half black’ or not black enough, Spike Lee said ‘One drop [of black blood], and you’re black. The truth is, every African-American is biracial. Go back far enough, and you’ll find the massah was in the slave quarters.’

Spike continued his defense saying ‘You can’t be black and go to Harvard Law School? You can’t be black and be articulate?’ Spike would also defend the statement Obama made that got him his famous criticism from Jesse Jackson in regards to black fathers saying, ‘You can’t hide that stuff, Single-parent households, high-school dropouts. The statistics are there for everybody to see. We have to confront that head-on.’
Spike would also defend Obama’s highly criticized choice of Biden as a running mate despite Biden’s earlier criticism of Obama, ‘Look, Biden was trying to be the nominee then. If Barack’s cool with him, then I am. And Joe Biden can be the muscle guy” who can tussle with John McCain.’

Lee would also address the polls and encourage Obama supporters not to be overconfident, saying ‘Don’t be like the New England Patriots – think that you just have to show up,’ he said. ‘The Republicans are going to try all kinds of hijinks. Shenanigans. Trickery. Flimflam. They’ll try to hornswoggle us, bamboozle us. It’s not a done deal!’

Watch Spike Lee Endorse Obama