<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">"<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Palatino, 'Palatino Linotype', Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">If the most militant person in the movie is played by Oprah, you know something is very, very wrong.”</span><div><font color="#333333" face="Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif" size="3"><span style="line-height: 24px;">--Prof. Abdul Alkalimat, University of Illinois</span><br></font><div><a href="http://www.blackagendareport.com/node/14624">http://www.blackagendareport.com/node/14624</a></div><div><font color="#333333" face="Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif" size="3"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br></span></font></div><div><br></div><div><div><div>On Jan 26, 2015, at 8:49 PM, David Johnson <<a href="mailto:davidjohnson1451@comcast.net">davidjohnson1451@comcast.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">Karen and all,<br><br>Selma is a very powerful well done film, and like a lot of things in life,<br>sometimes one has to make the best with what you have until you can get<br>something better.<br>In that regard, I think the film does serve a purpose in getting people to<br>think about the need for mass protest and direct action in demanding social<br>and economic change.<br>I do recommend that people see the film.<br>At the same time however we do need to be aware of propaganda subtle and<br>otherwise.<br><br>David Johnson<br><br><br>-----Original Message-----<br>From: Carl G. Estabrook [<a href="mailto:galliher@illinois.edu">mailto:galliher@illinois.edu</a>] <br>Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 7:50 PM<br>To: David Johnson<br>Cc: Karen Medina; <a href="mailto:peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net">peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a><br>Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] The real problem with Selma<br><br>David J.'s observations are, as usual, spot-on. (I just wish he'd put a<br>little passion into it...)<br><br><br>On Jan 26, 2015, at 7:26 PM, David Johnson via Peace-discuss<br><<a href="mailto:peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net">peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a>> wrote:<br><br><blockquote type="cite">"All the black people had flaws, and those flaws were exposed . The<br></blockquote>divisions among black America were demonstrated. "<br><blockquote type="cite"><br>Yes Karen it did, but remember Oprah Winfrey produces this film and hence<br></blockquote>she has a definite neo-liberal elitist spin to it and more important totally<br>distorted the role of SNCC ( Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee )<br>and one of its leaders James Forman.<br><blockquote type="cite">The person who wrote this article is Adolph Reed, an African American<br></blockquote>Leftist scholar who I happen to know. I seriously doubt he " just read the<br>cliff notes ". You should read his entire article.<br><blockquote type="cite">Here is another section of the article ;<br><br>"Du Vernay's vision of the local movement doesn't extend much beyond King<br></blockquote>and his SCLS confederates at all. Glen Ford rightly criticizes Selma's<br>characterization of the SNCC radicals' relation with King and SCLS. Du<br>Vernay reduces the tension to an expression of some of the SNCC activists'<br>ultimately petty and juvenile turf-protectiveness. Political or strategic<br>differences are beyond her purview. While license is what it is, and the<br>SNCC/SCLC tension is arguably not crucial to the story she wants to tell,<br>her choice to portray James Forman in particular as a young, narrow-minded<br>hothead may be as revealing as it is gratuitous and inaccurate. Forman was<br>one of the most systematically leftist voices in SNCC, a Korean War veteran,<br>a former teacher and organizer before going to join SNCC and was actually a<br>year older than King."<br><blockquote type="cite"><br>Also from Glen Ford's article via Black Agenda Report ;<br><br>"Some people are missing from the film that absolutely should be in there.<br></blockquote>No, I'm not talking about Stokely Carmichael, although yes, he is quite<br>relevant to the story. I mean the Kennedy brothers, John and Bobby, who were<br>the ones who authorized the bugging of Dr. King's phones and office and<br>hotel rooms. But Oprah loves the Kennedys, and so the movie leads the<br>audience to believe that J. Edgar Hoover and President Lyndon Johnson set<br>out to surveil and destroy King because of his push for voting rights. But<br>Attorney General Robert Kennedy signed the order, while his brother, who was<br>then president, was still alive. Oprah insults Black SNCC civil rights<br>heroes, but she protects the white, rich Kennedys.<br><blockquote type="cite">"Finally, near the end of the film, Dr. King is depicted as yearning for<br></blockquote>an end to mass protests, so that Black people could achieve real political<br>power - quite clearly meaning the election of more Black people to office.<br>As if that's what the mass movement was all about, in King's mind. We know<br>that's not true, because Dr. King said the opposite in countless sermons,<br>speeches, books and essays; that he was seeking social transformation, a new<br>system of living. Three years after Selma, King died, still seeking to<br>revive the mass movement.<br><blockquote type="cite">"For Oprah Winfrey, Dr. King was just an opening act for a future<br></blockquote>President Obama, and for an age of billionaire Black TV celebrities."<br><blockquote type="cite"><br>Remember Oprah a few weeks ago stating that she just didn't understand<br></blockquote>what the Black Lives Matter organization wants because they have no clear<br>message of what they want?<br><blockquote type="cite">This was the exact same thing that talking heads in the corporate media<br></blockquote>were saying about the Occupy Movement a few years ago. They knew what the<br>message of Occupy was but they were not about to talk about it, so to<br>belittle the movement and confuse people they stated that they just didn't<br>understand what Occupy wanted, hence implying that Occupy had no message and<br>were just a bunch of Anarchist Hippies causing trouble for the hell of it..<br><blockquote type="cite">I guess for someone like Oprah it is confusing since she doesn't have to<br></blockquote>worry about being assaulted and murdered by the police. And for a<br>billionaire like her this is the best country in the world and everything is<br>hunky dory.<br><blockquote type="cite"><br>David J.<br><br><br><br><br>From: Peace-discuss [<a href="mailto:peace-discuss-bounces@lists.chambana.net">mailto:peace-discuss-bounces@lists.chambana.net</a>] On<br></blockquote>Behalf Of Karen Medina via Peace-discuss<br><blockquote type="cite">Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 5:48 PM<br>To: Peace-discuss List<br>Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] The real problem with Selma<br><br> I assume these comments are about the 2014 film, Selma.<br><br>I will divide them. <br>1) <br>...reduction of politics to a narrative of racial triumph that projects<br></blockquote>"positive images" of black accomplishment, extols exemplary black<br>individuals, stresses overcoming great adversity to attain success and<br>recognition, and inscribes a monolithic and transhistorical racism as the<br>fundamental obstacle confronting, and thus uniting, all black Americans.<br>History is beside the point for this potted narrative...<br><blockquote type="cite"><br>Seriously? Anyone who says the film portrayed positive images, extols<br></blockquote>exemplary black individuals, and a portrayed a united black America did not<br>see the film. <br><blockquote type="cite"><br>All the black people had flaws, and those flaws were exposed.<br><br>The divisions among black America were demonstrated. <br><br>I remember when "holy" people were writing complaints about the first<br></blockquote>Harry Potter book, saying that Potter was a devil worshiper. If you read the<br>first book and read the complaints about the books, you would quickly<br>realize that not one of the complaints reflected even the slightest truth<br>about the book. <br><blockquote type="cite"><br>I believe the same is true here. Whoever wrote this about Selma read the<br></blockquote>Cliff notes version and on the day that Cliff wrote it, Cliff was too busy<br>to get even the smallest bit of information correct.<br><blockquote type="cite"><br>-karen <br><br><br></blockquote><br></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>