Hollywood | Hip-Hop and Politics

So according to NBC’s Today Show, they are dubbing 2014 the Year of the Bible. This is where Hollywood puts in motion its propaganda machine and does re-enactments of popular Bible stories to bring to the big screen.At a date and time when text books are being re-written, ethnic studies is being short changed or outright eliminated and in the case of Arizona, made illegal, what we have is a key nail in the coffin to uphold white supremacy..

Look for these Biblical stories to inaccurately depict its key characters… Its the return of ‘white Jesus’ complete with piercing blue eyes and flowing locks along with lots of white people and a maybe a couple of Black extras running around countries within Africa..

Look for the heavy promotion and young kids having it permanently etched in their easily influenced minds that ain’t no way anyone with a darker hue was up and about doing anything ‘Holy’… It doesn’t hep that we have our Arab brothers and sister running around Timbuktu destroying ancient manuscripts burning down libraries all in the name of religion..and our dear brother Kanye West doing tours with white Jesus

Of course at the end of the day, there will be many who will say… ‘Jesus’ race doesn’t matter’, but apparently it does to Hollywood and the promotion machine behind it. The solution to this is to encourage folks who are on the come up in the acting world, to pen their own stories and and craft their own films.. Ideally it would be great to get actors Idriss Elba or Don Cheadle to play Jesus. Or maybe get Sam Jackson or Danny Glover to play Noah. At least there it’ll be more accurate…

Below is a trailer for Son of God

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcIXCok9HPg

Below is a trailer for the movie Noah starring Russell Crowe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkS_d6W7EYA

There’s been a lot of chatter about the movie Django and how it touches upon slavery and the resistance to it..Lots of debates have sparked off talking about what’s accurate, what’s fantasy etc etc.. I say use this excitement around Django and the hype machine that director Quentin Tarantino has around him to turn folks onto other projects they may have overlooked, forgotten about or not seen at all..It doesn’t have to be an either or thing.. See ‘m all.. Contrast, compare and build..

Sankofa One film that is frequently mentioned is Sankofa by Haile Gerima It’s a film that he said took more than 10 years to complete. Hollywood wasn’t interested in financing a movie about;

A self-absorbed Black American fashion model on a photo shoot in Africa is spiritually transported back to a plantation in the West Indies where she experiences first-hand the physical and psychic horrors of chattel slavery, and eventually the redemptive power of community and rebellion as she becomes a member of a freedom-seeking Maroon colony

There have been some who upon seeing the release of Django and its popularity have referenced Sankofa and asked why we didn’t support the painstaking efforts of film makers like Gerima who tried to give the Black community serious information about an institution that is constantly being written out or sanitized in our history books..

If you can’t rent the film here’s one of several copies on line..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx0PAMOvnfw

Another film which is often mentioned is Spook Who Sat By the Door..by Sam Greenlee. It’s a landmark film that came out in the early 70s and was based upon a book with the same titled which was released in 1969. Although this film isn’t about slavery, it’s about rebellion and fighting oppression which is whats attracting many to Django.

The plot of Spook Who Sat by the Door goes as follows.. The CIA because of politics needs to recruit African-Americans to the agency. It’s supposed to be dog and pony show. In other words have Blacks try out for the agency, make it public, but have them fail. However, there was one guy, named Dan Freeman who played the role of an ‘Uncle Tom’ when in real life he was a Black nationalist.. He gets into the CIA, soaks up all their game and then leads an armed rebellion..This fim was so controversial, that it was banned from movie theaters and was hard to get up until recently..

According to Greenlee almost everyone involved in that film from the director Ivan Dixon on down to lead actor Lawrence Cook found themselves outcasted in many Hollywood circles. Cook wouldn’t appear in a major film for almost 20 years after Spook Who sat by the Door.

You can peep the movie here…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BynXfREPG8

Another flick building on the Slave revolt theme is the Legend of Nigger Charley and Soul of Nigger Charley featuring Fred Williamson. It focuses on a trio of escaped slaves who are down to fight and win against white oppressors.. Believe it or not when these films came out there were posters all over subways in NYC advertising the film. The N word was not covered or changed.. It was very much in your face.. Legend of Nigger Charley went on to be Paramount pictures highest grossing film in 1972 when it was released.