Chi Raq The Movie: Spike Did Us No Favors

Should I start by saying I am a Spike Lee fan? Do I need to put the disclaimers out there to try and not seem biased or critical because I disagree with the individual? Perhaps. However, my city means more to me than someone who may discount my perspective because I’m ‘hating’ on Spike. So if that’s how you feel, in the words of Colonel Jessup from A Few Good Men, “I don’t give a shit”. Chi-Raq is bullshit. While Spike may have went into this production with the best of intentions, and that remains to be seen, the final product falls far short of any call to revolution or change for a city in turmoil and chaos. Please allow me to count the ways. Let’s deal with the whole, “No Peace No Pussy” approach. I do understand what satire is and have seen Spike Lee pull it off beautifully in a few movies, my favorite being Bamboozled. I also understand that this ‘call to chastity’ has been employed by women before in other countries. However, I strongly disagree with the premise as it relates to each gender. For the men, it suggests that we are driven by our dicks. That lack of sex will somehow awaken us to the error of our ways. I am not a slave to my sex drive nor a prisoner of my carnal appetites. So withholding sex from me will only succeed in both of us being frustrated while still not resolving whatever the real issue is. Speaking from the perspective of a man who was raised in a society that objectifies women while simultaneously championing the cause for them to not be viewed as mere sex objects can be a bit confusing. But I get it. Therefore, to suggest that the strongest power a woman has is her sex is an utter and direct contradiction. Is she more than her pussy or nah?? I do understand that it is a tactic and not the defining factor however, it sends a very questionable message. Also, I challenge the validity of such a tactic in our society and, to his credit, Spike didn’t sound confident that it would work here either. So I am unsure why this was the approach chosen as a fictional fix. If the goal was to simply bring light to the issue while still proving the remedy eludes us all, ok. But the issue got lost in the man versus woman power struggle where pussy is the ultimate prize. But I thought this was supposed to be about the senseless violence taking place on the southside of Chicago. Seems to me, Chicago became the backdrop of the story Spike truly wanted to tell. My next point is not so much of an issue with the movie, but rather the culture that exists in such neighborhoods as the one depicted in the movie. On one hand there is an understanding that situation and circumstance facilitate the neverending line of sacrificial youth in America’s inner city. It is a known fact that these neighborhoods exist and the mentality is kill or be killed. Much of the time you are not allowed to not be affiliated with some organization and for your safety and the safety of your loved ones the smart move is to join or create your own. These are known facts. Another known fact is the prison industrial complex and its role in enslaving the lower half of the nation’s economy but doing so disproportionately in favor of minorities. It is a known fact that prisons are now privatized and the inmates perform labor for the slightest of wages. Prison is big business and rehabilitation is counterproductive and therefore no longer practiced, encouraged, and is barely tolerated. Where it used to cost money to take care of prisoners, now prisoners generate revenue for corporations and contracts are signed between the government and prison owners to ensure their capacity doesn’t drop below a certain percentage. These are known facts. So, according to Chi-Raq, knowing all the aforementioned facts, it is my duty as a citizen to ruin another young black life in the event that a young black life is taken? With the state of our justice system, cops who have a license to kill us with extreme prejudice, and prisons no longer valuing human existence over profit thus not rehabilitating those who make mistakes to be productive members of society, am I supposed to turn over a young black life to such an end? How have I helped? How have I sought justice? On one hand we are told to value young black lives and in the same breath say turn these young misguided offenders over to authorities that would much rather shoot them than arrest them, that would much rather enslave them than rehabilitate them. I am not saying give the murderer a pass, but what I am saying is how about we deal with the root causes that led to the shooting in the first place than to be only reactionary and be cogs in the wheel of our own subjugation and demise. Our justice system is at best inherently and catastrophically flowed, and at worst, broken. No, I do not feel comfortable turning over a young black man or woman who lacks guidance and opportunity to such a system. I have no problem turning over a truly evil person, a person who has no regard for human life but in our society we employ these people as our spokesman and call them politicians. We shop at their stores and purchase their products, meanwhile they seek to destroy us, and if not purposely destroy us, cash in on our ignorance and self-hate. Liquor stores, pawn shops, check cashing, title loan lenders all come to the hood to cash in. But they could care less about our condition, our quality of life. As a matter of fact, black genocide is big business. The movie did have a scene that spoke to this very idea where a life insurance salesman sought out a new mother to get her to purchase life insurance for her son because his death is virtually inevitable. Funeral homes, liquor stores, the drug trade, and it goes on and on and on, all benefit from black and brown death at the hands of each other. Its big business and in a country where the number one religion is CAPITALISM why should there be an expectation of change or aid? And it looks to me like Spike Lee came to town to get his slice of the pie, whether unintended or intended.