Forums / Controversial /
CSA- Spike Lee's latest blame whitey film


  • NeferMaatNetjer
    Apr 3 6:01 AM
    Reply
    Spike Lee has taken an interesting idea, and turned it into an hour and a half of white bashing. the film, titled "CSA-confederate States of America" takes the hypothetical notion of what today would be like if the South had won the US Civil War.i would like to pick this film apart one item at a time

    1; According to Lee, the Confederacy would have conquered the US, and assimilated all of it.That was never even the goal of the South. the Confederacy was a SECESSIONIST movement who wanted to break away from the United states, not take it over.


    2; Lee would have us believe that if the south had won, ALL white people would be slave owners, and ALL non-white people would be slaves. That is simply not the case. it wasn't even the case in the Old South. less than 20% of white people owned slaves at any time, and even in the south there was a good sized population of free Negroes, some of whom owned slaves themselves! Lee doesn't take into consideration that even in the south, there were white people who were morally opposed to slavery, as well as a good majority of white people who couldn't afford one even if they had wanted one. The second amendment gives the right of all lawful citizens to own guns. Does that mean that we all do? no, it does not. So it would be with slaves. just because people have the right to own slaves, does not mean they all would.

    3; Lee makes the claim that slavery would still be an institution into the twenty-first century. I think that highly unlikely for 2 reasons. first, the industrialization of the cotton industry in the early 20th century would have made large slave-labor forces obsolete, as one cotton harvester can do the work of 100 slaves in a fraction of the time. Plus, slaves are high maintenance. Even when they are not working, the owner still has to feed, shelter, and clothe them, and pay for a doctor when they get sick. A machine- once you are done with it, you put it back in the garage until you need it again. The other reason is world opinion. The south exported most of it's cotton to Europe, which had already abandoned slavery long before then. One of the principal reasons England and France did not intervene on behalf of the Confederacy was because of the slavery issue.since upwards of 70% of the Southern economy depended on the foreign sale of cotton, all it would have taken the bring the Confederacy to it's knees to end slavery would have been a European cotton boycott.

    4. Spike Lee asserts that the Confederate States of America would have allied with Hitler during WWII, and would have struck the first blow against the Japanese fleet at Tokyo bay on Dec. 7, 1941. He ignores the fact that Japan was already allied with Germany at that time, and if the Confederacy was also allied with Germany, wouldn't that put them on the same side as the Japanese?


    In short, CSA is just another in a long series of Spike Lee's "Blame Whitey" films, intended to stir anti-white sentiments among Blacks, and guilt among whites. It paints neither a realistic nor accurate picture of what America would be like if the south had indeed, won. i personally think it's a little hypocritical for a millionaire film maker to keep making movies about how oppressed he is by the system that made him filthy rich.

  • Weydon
    April 3
    Reply
    I agree with most of your points, especially with 3 and the oddity of 4, but I don't think 1 is unreasonable. Yes, the Confederacy had no real intention of taking us over (perhaps their weakness in comparison made them never even consider it, but still). BUT, Lee is making a movie about a twist in history. I think it's okay to assume the premise is "What if the Confederacy won AND took over the North" just as it is "What if aliens invaded during the war". Whatever, that's the premise. Everything after that has to make sense in line with that though.

  • bob2314
    April 3
    Reply
    I have never seen a Spike Lee film and consider myself to have profited by the experience.
    I have also never seen a Michael Moore film I
    am doubly blessed.

    • NeferMaatNetjer
      April 4
      Reply
      true, bob. your time has been better spent than those of us who have suffered through Spike and/or Mike. You are blessed indeed!

  • bob2314
    April 8
    Reply
    while i haven't seen spike lee's films i have seen others that i imagine are like this. (shaft comes to mind but isn't probably the best example).
    should these films be looked at the same way birth of a nation or an AL Jolson film is?

  • Weydon
    April 9
    Reply

    LOL

    No, I don't think Shaft is very similar to Spike Lee's movies. I've seen a few, they're not so bad.
  • :