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Spike Lee’s Racism Isn’t Cute: ‘M—–f—– Hipster’ Is the New ‘Honkey’
What’s really bothering Lee is that he doesn’t like seeing his old neighborhood full of white people, which makes him historical detritus.
By John McWhorter Feb. 28, 2014875 Comments
It’s interesting that the director of the richest oeuvre of black films in the history of the medium doesn’t understand what the Civil Rights revolution was for. In his expletive-laced comments about the gentrification of Fort Greene during an interview at the Pratt Institute, Spike Lee seemed to think that what we Overcame for was to be grouchy bigots.
Basically, black people are getting paid more money than they’ve ever seen in their lives for their houses, and a once sketchy neighborhood is now quiet and pleasant. And this is a bad thing… why?
Lee seems to think it’s somehow an injustice whenever black people pick up stakes. But I doubt many of the blacks now set to pass fat inheritances on to their kids feel that way. This is not the old story of poor blacks being pushed out of neighborhoods razed down for highway construction. Lee isn’t making sense.
“Respect the culture†when you move in, Lee growls. But again, he isn’t making sense. We can be quite sure that if whites “respected†the culture by trying to participate in it, Lee would be one of the first in line to call it “appropriation.†So, no whites better open up barbecue joints or spoken word cafes or try to be rappers. Yet if whites walk on by the culture in “respectful†silence, then the word on the street becomes that they want to keep blacks at a distance.
In his interview with Anderson Cooper on Wednesday to clarify, Lee mentioned the controversy in Harlem some years ago over park drumming, which new white residents protested. Lee thinks whites were supposed to put up with being woken up on weekend mornings by the drums. That was a subtle issue. I refer to it in my Western Civilization class as a difficult judgment — the kind that shows that real life offers few easy answers.
What’s really bothering Lee is that he doesn’t like seeing his old neighborhood full of white people, which makes him historical detritus.
By John McWhorter Feb. 28, 2014875 Comments
It’s interesting that the director of the richest oeuvre of black films in the history of the medium doesn’t understand what the Civil Rights revolution was for. In his expletive-laced comments about the gentrification of Fort Greene during an interview at the Pratt Institute, Spike Lee seemed to think that what we Overcame for was to be grouchy bigots.
Basically, black people are getting paid more money than they’ve ever seen in their lives for their houses, and a once sketchy neighborhood is now quiet and pleasant. And this is a bad thing… why?
Lee seems to think it’s somehow an injustice whenever black people pick up stakes. But I doubt many of the blacks now set to pass fat inheritances on to their kids feel that way. This is not the old story of poor blacks being pushed out of neighborhoods razed down for highway construction. Lee isn’t making sense.
“Respect the culture†when you move in, Lee growls. But again, he isn’t making sense. We can be quite sure that if whites “respected†the culture by trying to participate in it, Lee would be one of the first in line to call it “appropriation.†So, no whites better open up barbecue joints or spoken word cafes or try to be rappers. Yet if whites walk on by the culture in “respectful†silence, then the word on the street becomes that they want to keep blacks at a distance.
In his interview with Anderson Cooper on Wednesday to clarify, Lee mentioned the controversy in Harlem some years ago over park drumming, which new white residents protested. Lee thinks whites were supposed to put up with being woken up on weekend mornings by the drums. That was a subtle issue. I refer to it in my Western Civilization class as a difficult judgment — the kind that shows that real life offers few easy answers.
My personal childhood did not involve any routine encounters with criminals, drunks, addicts, whores, crazy people or parolees. Creepy vacant buildings, weed infested parking lots, and urine saturated alleys weren't a background for happier memories of friendship and fun for me.
Spike is emotionally knee-jerking his personal past. I personally have strong emotional reactions to the smell of manure and the sound of horses and cattle - those reactions are highly positive for me! I also understand that most urban people would be annoyed or frightened by those same things.
If the rest of us have to be "okay" with many similar changes to our culture, he does too. He's not "more special" due to complexion.
Time
Read more: Spike Lee Gentrification Controversy: Hipster Is the New Honkey | TIME.com http://ideas.time.com/2014/02/28/spi...#ixzz2ug8Yoz60
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