THANK YOU!!!!! abetterworld.me/blog/selma-the-movie-another-assault-against-our-dignity #StayWoke brother Ahjamu Umi STAY dropping ETHER bombs , b Ill start with the troublesome portrayal of Malcolm X and the films depiction of an interaction between him and Coretta Scott King. In the film, when she sees him arriving in Selma, she dresses him down for attacking her husband and he cowers like a mouse in response. This depiction may represent the movie makers sick desire to rewrite history to fit their political agenda, but it aint what happened folks. First, the movie goes to great lengths to give you the impression that Kings organization -the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was the dominant civil rights organization and other groups like the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC - pronounced SNICK) were portrayed as being unreasonable fringe militants. The movie suggests that Malcolm opportunistically pushed his way into the work SCLC was facilitating in Selma while Dr. King was in jail. The truth is that SNCC had a base in Selma long before SCLC arrived and it was SNCC, not SCLC, that organized the event that day and it was SNCC, whose organizers were becoming increasingly influenced by Malcolms militant nationalist/Pan-Africanist ideas, that enthusiastically invited Malcolm to speak to them, not SCLC, that day. In fact, Coretta Scott King gave an interview of her account of that day to Jackie Shearer on November 21, 1988. During that interview, Coretta Scott explained that she didnt even arrive at the event that day until after Malcolm had spoken. She recounted that she got there and Andrew Young immediately started chiding her to speak to try and redirect the enthusiasm that Malcolms speech had generated. Coretta Scott indicates that she went into the event and spoke and after concluding, sat down next to Malcolm on stage. According to her, and everyone else who was present, it was at this time that he leaned over to her and told her that he was there to help. She expressed that her response was a simple thank you and that was it. No discussion. No tension. No drama. She goes on to state during that interview that this was her one and only encounter with Malcolm and how much she appreciated his kind words. Their exchange lasted no more than 10 seconds, which was 10 seconds longer than any verbal exchange Malcolm and Dr. King ever had. These are facts folks. Problem two is how SNCC was portrayed. The movie represents SNCC through the presence of only two characters; John Lewis and James Forman. The fact only two SNCC organizers are portrayed is unfortunate. SNCC had so many magnificent organizers working around Selma at that time. For example, the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, a SNCC project (lead by Kwame Ture - formally Stokely Carmichael) was functioning just down the road from Selma in 1965 and its success to register almost 1000 Africans through an armed self-defense effort was probably more significant than what happened in Selma. Actually, it was the Lowndes County project, better known as the Black Panther Party (BPP), which of course influenced the Huey P. Newton/Bobby Seale initiated Oakland-based BPP the next year. Also, Kwame Tures defeat of John Lewis as chair of SNCC in 1966, represented the clear militant push to the left that SNCC was engaged in that had a major influence on the Black Power movement and in defining the struggle for the latter part of the 60s, 70s, and beyond. Thats why it was curious why the film makers choose to depict SNCC as simply John Lewis - at that stage in SNCCs development he was one of its most moderate members - and a completely under-developed James Forman who was much more in SNCC than the whining malcontent displayed in the film. Last, but not least, the depiction of Lyndon Johnson and his interaction with Martin Luther King, George Wallace, and J. Edgar Hoover, was downright criminally inaccurate. Johnson was a Southern cracker from Texas who was not very different in his thinking from George Wallace. Johnson was known to be just as quick at using the n word as anyone could accuse Wallace so the films effort to depict Johnson as the pragmatic political leader and Wallace as the bigot is a very weak attempt at political revision. The truth is Johnson and Kings relationship at best was highly strained and difficult and no one can find anywhere any evidence of King referring to their relationship as anything else. In other words, those two had no working relationship. Anything Johnson did, from signing the Civil Rights legislation in 1964, and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, was done only as a result of overwhelming political pressure mobilized against him to do so. And, he certainly didnt tell Hoover what to do. Any student of history knows that J. Edgar Hoover ran the FBI with an iron fist from the 1920s until he was forced out in 1971. How? Because Hoover used the bureau to spy on everyone, including presidents. He had files on everything dirty every president was involved in from Coolidge in 1923 through Nixon in the late 60s and he made sure each president knew it. As a result, no president ever did anything to challenge Hoover, in public or private and this is a fact. The only reason Hoover was effectively moved out of directing the FBI in 1971 was because at that time he had exceeded the age limit for being eligible to be an FBI Director and this was the leverage Nixons administration used to persuade him to finally step down. This is important for people to understand because the FBI continues to function autonomously, engaging in illegal practices against so-called citizens whenever it pleases. Hoover set the model. The bureau doesnt wait for any president to tell it to terrorize African people. Thats its policy directive.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 21:18:47 +0000
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