Thank you, Spike Lee….

Thank you, Spike Lee…

You know… no matter what happens… years, decades, centuries from now… Spike Lee – no matter how radical or strange we may have found his works to be in the past will be remembered as a director / producer / film maker who tried to present a different image for Black People. Who tried to make others see things from our perspective. Who tried to make us have a common vision. His ways may not have always been accepted or his view widely shared or understood – but he tries/d. I got home in time to watch the end of “When the Levees Broke” on HBO and although I swore I’d be so detached (for the one time where I felt the rift between myself, a West Indian, and these Black Americans – because they sure don’t seem to give a flying fuck when hurricanes beat down the shores of Haiti) I really felt. I felt horrible. I felt angry. I felt wronged, again. I felt 3/5ths. As a people, I felt what he thought I should feel. Being a member of this great diaspora – my people were in need… and the government, upon whose backs this country was built, and who has subsequently learned to ignore due to our own ignorance at times… ignored our cries. Let us to die. Claimed that they were looking for ways to alleviate the poor population anyway… and so this hurricane which would kill, cripple and change people’s lives was viewed almost as a solution. I sat in a meeting today, strategizing how to eulogize the 1 year anniversary of this tragedy earlier and found how I was convinced that the rest of Black America really didn’t care. Maybe like I didn’t earlier today. But seeing what I saw… made me really understand more than the media EVER let me see. And now I care more than I thought I would have.

And I wouldn’t have if Spike didn’t think it was worth covering.

So thank you Spike – for trying to unify our vision. It worked for me today.

I hope it always works….

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