Blackkklansman: Mirroring reality

 Kaitlyn Woodard

Professor Matt Wisniewski

English 280

November 20, 2020

    Blackkklansman is a movie that explores serious themes regarding racism through a slightly more comedic and yet serious lens. Spike Lee makes obvious statements about our current political climate and violence regarding minorities throughout the years. With the way he arranges the movie we experience fear alongside our protagonists, experience moments of laughter, frustration, and disappointment with a side of anger.  

    We follow the journey of Detective Stallworth as he works towards becoming a police officer, in hopes of bettering the system for African American people. This film gives us these triumphant moments and almost fools you into believing everything will be okay however, he keeps us grounded in both subtle moments and in larger scenes. Stallworth suffered and worked his way up to and reassigned into the intelligence division and here is where he concocts his plan to infiltrate the KKK. Before this we witness Kwame Ture and Patrice be harassed by his coworkers. Then we witness Stallworth teaching his coworkers, Flip and Jimmy, how to talk like him in order to try and incentivize them to help him. These scenes contrast against moments like the one where Flip is interrogated in Felix’s basement over the fact that he believed that Flip could be Jewish. This moment was further stressed when Stallworth was talking to Flip and Flip wanted to end this. Flip talks about how he wasn’t originally a part of the Jewish faith and how he did not want to be put into a situation like that again. This moment highlights the violence that occurs to minorities and how due to unique situations some find it easier for them to hide: Because they have unique features that help them blend into the majority. A lot of the film towards the ending highlights the dangers of what’s going on and the racist behaviors displayed inside and outside of the clan. When the clan meets up you can hear phrases like, “Make America great again,” shouted within the crowd connecting the viewer to the current political climate. We also witness the Klan cheering praise while watching “Birth of a Nation” which has been considered a historically significant film by many with painfully obvious racist propaganda running throughout. This is momentarily broken up by an older black waiter comedically stating that if he knew this was a Klan meeting he wouldn’t have catered it. Shortly after we witness Felix’s wife gleefully try and stuff the bomb into Patricia’s mailbox, she fails and ends up stuffing it in the wheel well of Patricia’s beetle. Then all hell breaks loose as she claims she was  assaulted by Stallworth when he was chasing her down. Due to his race his colleagues don’t listen to him and as they beat on him in the streets the bomb explodes killing Felix who was rolled up next to the car. Later we see the men celebrating a job well done, calling Grand Wizard David Duke to mock the fact that he was unaware Stallworth was black, and by getting one of his coworkers arrested for sexually harassing Patricia when they pulled her over and threatened her. Yet the end also highlights how awful the actual situation is with Chief Bridges saying that he’ll be moved back to narcotics, that this never happened, and that they were done because there was no longer a threat. But, as watchers we know that’s not true because Spike Lee ends the film going from a double dolly shot of Patricia and Stallworth to a Klan meeting. Then to video footage of actual footage going on today of protestors being mowed down, and video footage of our president refusing to acknowledge that the people involved in counter protests were violent.

    Spike Lee approaches the topic of racism expertly in this film. Not even a single comedic moment feels detached from the movie or out of place. He highlights the struggles of minorities in regards to violence. He also highlights how members within a community can see a situation differently believing that they can better a situation elsewhere: for Stallworth he believed he could improve the situation from within however Patricia and quite a few other people in his life stressed how he alone would not be able to fix a corrupt system. That protests are a necessary part of our democracy and how suffocating the words of minorities can be extremely dangerous.

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