O.H· on
Then on also recelv th
I movie industry cann ar
ndrum d ignedtowh t
the movieg r' appetite.
Spi e Lee w correct when
hid, "We know you can't t
i fy everybody' vi ion of
Malcolm X. He bas chieved
mythic proportion, but we knew
going into it tbat we'd have the
problem."
Bur IF ANYO i going
to be able to cover at I t some of
the peets of EI Hajj Malik EI
Sbabezz, Spike Lee, tanding at
the head of the cl today, i that
person.
This will be Spike Lee' ixth
commercial film. A few years ago
and prio to his fourth film, "Mo'
Better Blu ," I wrote a column
titled "Spike Lee's First Three."
At that time I said that if and
when Spike directs his tenth, twen
tieth and thirtieth film. th pattern
would already have been set.
Namely that Lee is a film
maker, not a revolutionary film
maker, not a soothsayer film
maker, nor a patriotic filmmaker.
Filmmakers make films, en
terta iners entertain, entrepreneurs
conduct business, educators edu
cate. Spike Lee has that pecial
gift of bringing the African expe
rience to life.
SPIKE LEE cannot and does
not claim to possess the final word
in the African-American experi
ence. Still,Iamoftheopinionthat
one's culture and roots are impor
tant career ingredients.
In a two-part article that I wrote
earlier this year titled, "Criticizing
Malcolm x, " I stated that Malcolm
X was not a finished product at
thirty-nine. ,
Like many master teachers,
he spoke and orchestrated in
sweeping macro terms.
Minister X was a world-class
mid-twentieth-century social sci
entist. One measure of his signifi
cance will not be in reciting his
spceches( entertainers who merely
entertain can do that). but rather in
also studying those other great
individuals and organizations who
helped make him and the times
what they were.
If appreciating our great Min
ister Malcolm, the man, opens
doors or turns on lights for those
interested in strengthening inter
national, Pan-African and human
ist bonds, then "love him."
IF, HOWEVER, Malcolm,
the man, or for that ",.Olatter any.
man or woman, becomes synony
mous with overshadowing a for
ward movement, then perhaps a
light fine tuning of the man/myth
and machine/movement are in or
der.
, My respect and adulation for
Malcolm X grows stronger each
day. However, I will eontinu to
do my part to counter any and all
attempts to overtly or ubliminally
discredit another great African
leader and organization<197>the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad and
the Lost Found Nation of [slam.
One does not have to be an
African Muslim to understand the
importance of this organization
and their message, "Blac man
and woman, do for I f" - to this
day, still relevant.'
Hilton: Higher Education is
designed to dialogue with college
and world readers. Education is
ongoing and certainly not limited
to classroom 'Study. Let's talk.
(714) 899-0650.
D 'G T concen-
tration of upport w regi tered
among whit who had ufferedmo t
in the late' economic rec ion.
Sixty-eightperc ntofa11 whit with
a high chool education or 1 voted
for Duke; 69 percent of the white
"born-again Christians" and 63 per
cent of all whit with family in
com between $15,000 to $30,000
favored Duke.
Conversely, only 30 percent of
whit who earn more than $75,000
annuall y vo ted fo r the former
VIEWS/OPINIONS
I tion
long 0 for veral o. irst,
d pit B h' d lin in popul rity,
incum nt p id n 0 either p rty
rarely 10 . Tb only incumbent presi-
a nts who were def ted kin re-
el tion in World ar I were
Herbert Hoover and Gerald Ford, th
victims of th Gr t Depr ion d
th Watergate candal respectively.
Second, Republicans have re
ceived majority of whit ' vot in
every p idential election e cept
one in 1948. 0 matter who th
Democrats nominate for the presi
dency, any candidate will have th
same difficult las : pulling together
northern white ethnics and many
white workers from the South while
courting African-American and
Latino voters. The only recent Demo
cratic candidate who achieved uch a
coalition was Jimmy Carter back in
1976. But even Carter failed to gain
a majority of the white vote nation-
HARRIS
HOW AM I 001 NG
ON EDUCATION ?
�ou FLUNKED!�
...
I '
BU H ow that if two-thirds
of all white Americans upport in in
1992 -exacly th arne p rcentage
of whites who bac ed Reagan eight
years before - that he would win the
White House without a ingle Blac
or Chicano 'Vote.
By pandering to white racism,
Bush solidifies his upport among
earful, frustrated whites. Millions
of jobl ,discouraged whites are
earching for Simplistic answers to
WORD MAKERS
Edited by NATHANIEL SCOTT
GOOD!
LET THE
CAMPAIGN
BEGINf{
Send all'poetry to the Michigan Citizen, P. O. Box 03560, Highland
Park, MI48203.
John Henry said to his chlldren
You know! they �lways try t
make you think it's hopele
to fight 'em
And that they're always ahead 0
ya
And that things will always
this way
And tbere' nothin
about it.
It gets y u down,
My Momma aid that's the sam
way they talked about slave
too.
But they were wrong about that.
When it comes down to it,
Life's wor and freedom;
That's worth fightin for.
Otherwise, what's the difference
between and man and a
machine.
John He
Detrol
0' r:
� --'. ':
..
� ,
V'
t wasn't that I thought I could beat
that machine.
t was a protest. A joke.
d I didn't die. Heckeeeenaw!
just passed out.
he boys and me had a good laugh.
ou see, they wanted to breakup
our crew since they had the
machine.
ut beside our strength and our
skill,
e had 'each other
use they sure didn't pay us '
decent.
e and our families couldn't live
right (but)
e had pride and joy in our jobs.
ell, I had nothing against a
machine.
t could ma e things easier.
ut the bosses didn't see it that
way.
orry bout t
card" is his competition from
f right, ithinhisownp rty.By
threatening to run for p ident, re
actionary journalist P trickBuchanan
p ured B h to ume more con-
ervative pol cy po itio . Du e
even uggested that h and B harlan
run conserv tive policy po i
tions. Duke even ugg ted that
h and Buchanan run a conserv -
tive "tag team" to challenge Bush.
But all peculation concerning
the demi e of Duke national
presence due to his recent electoral
10 in Lo iana is highly e agger-
ted.
Duke florisb because Bush h
prepared the ideological and cultural
terrain by his own pandering to rae
ism.In political terms, Duke is Bush'
illegitimate son and heir.
Duke is the child ho the presi
dent d perately desires to disown,
but his political features of hatred
be dec' ive in American politi , 0
long hite Ameri vote
cording to ui ir perceived cia! in
ter , and not in concert iib their
b ic materi inter . Millio of
white women do not recei CCl
pay for equal wor d experience
discrimination on the job li e mi
norities.
IFAD OCRATICpr ideo-
tial candidate d the co e and
vision to att c tb lies behind the
race card, and carried an gg ive
message of ocial justice, the Repub
licans could be defeated next year.
READERS WRITE
Job ,not tax cut
Dear Editor:
Tax cuts, tax credits, lower and
lower interest rates are worthless
incentives and will do nothing to
arouse or re-energize the Ameri
can economy. And on an equal
plane, prophetic urances from
Mr. Bmhand Congress have grown
predictably thin, along with
America' trust in government
promise , with dependence on
government discretion, with be
lief or faith in government pru
dence.
There is but one way to "jump
start" the U.S. economy: jobs,job
availability, and job security,
which produces a healthy
economy.
Candy-coated formulas, tax
cuts, low interest rates, and scores
of other over-used congressional
uncertainties, are nothing more
than political smoke screens. Such
stimuli are mere band aids and
designed by those seriously out of
touch with the science and strat
egy of basic economics.
There is, quite simply, one
stable, realistic, sensible formula.
Its principle is as old as Solomon,
Black intellectual
Recently. I told you why it is
unwise even harmful, to refuse to
askquestionsofa�ybody, about any
thing. When you do ask questions,
the answers that you get might be just
the information you need to improve
your life. If you depend on a palm
reader, a fortune teller or intuition to
guide you, you may never receive the
reall y imp rtant information you
need.
Sometimes, people refrain from
asking questions because they don't
want to offend another individual.
Or, they fear they won't know how to
use the new i nformatio n. Or, they are
afraid they might have to change the
way they Live. Or, they are afraid to
admit that what they believed for
mo t of thei r live was wrong.
Or, fi nail y, they fear they might
be left without neat little answers to
the problem in their lives that other
o-called "expert " had provided.
Whatever the excuse, they are left
with only limited knowledge about
the real world. They remain isolated
from new information, and shrouded
in their current uniformed, or igno
rant tate.
Mr. W. of Seattl Washington,
aid in a letter to me, "Black people
aretbewarm t kindest.most Chris
tian, mo t forgiving people in the
univers . Thi piritofgoodn was
broughtbyourfore(ath rs to America
hundreds of years ago, and is with us
today."
The above description says noth
ing about the ability of Black people
to think and to reason. Sometimes,
the wrong thing to do is to forgive
your enemies. If their abuse of you
is unjustified, the logical thing to do
is to re taliate, to fight back in order to
regain your dignity.
BLACK PEOPLE seem to be
trapped in a elf-charaterization.
They seem to be trapped in this
"gentle, non-assertive, non-offen
sive" idea that they baveabout them-
elves. They think it' good.
It has become comfortable for
Blacks to think of themselves as non
intimidating. People who think that
they were born with a non-assertive
personality will do everything trying
to behave in any 0 ther manner. Tbss,
they tereotype themselves just as
others have stereotyped them. Or, to
put it differently, they doggedly,
pacifistically, unthinkingly bend
themselves to fit the mold that was
made by people who hate them.
Black people have potential that
far exceeds Mr. W.' limited stereo
type. Black people can think. They
can philosophize. The can change,
improve and adapt to this world that
is not receptive to the way that they
think of themselves. But will they
modify and adapt to a world that for
their own survival requires-them be
fundamental McDonalds: no
jobs, no money; no money, no
new ggres ive buying; no new
aggressive buying, no new
gressive economy.
Gill Phillips
Rapids, MI 49508
F dback ought
Dear Micbigan Citizen,
Ilike the piece you did on AIM
Magazine. My on also tbought it
was excellent.
One thing only - I Vi' h you
could have included our �.
Perhap then we could have got
ten some feedback.
Sincerely,
Ruth ApUado, Editor
AIM
Editor's not.: AIM (AIMriaJ's
'Intercultural Magazine) is a pub
lication promoting peace and in
terracial Jumnony. Those inter
ested in writing lor or subscribing
to this magazine can write to
AIM, P.O. Box 20554, Chi-
cago, I llinois 60620. •
lumber
Or. Charles W. Faulkner
COPING
fighters.
At present, some Black people
will accept almo t anything tbat of
fers even a slim possibility of hope
and of escape from the miseries of
being Black in America.
THUS, BLACKS are trapped in
phenomena which promise to free
them from poverty (lotteries, gam
bling, the drug Culture), from the
racial stress syndrome (drug use,
alcohol), and from the neganvismof
being Black in America (mysticism,
and the expectation that their "en
emy" will be punished.)
These phenomena might offer
only mild, temporary psychological
freedom. When the effects of these
"escap "dissipates, the problem
associated with racism still exist and
will continue to exist until offended
Blacks release themselves from tbil
intelleCtual slumber.