Spike Lee's new film of Da 5 Bloods isn't an ordinary Vietnam War era film. It describes the complex lives of five African Americans who experienced the horrors of the Vietnam War (and they returned to Vietnam in paying homage to a fallen comrade). The Vietnam War devastated the lives of Americans and Vietnamese people. You probably know that I don't agree with the Vietnam War because of many reasons. The film goes through the era of the late 1960's and the early 1970's. During that time was the peak of the American military involvement in Vietnam and the height of the anti-war movement. It was time of massive social and political changes (from the Kent State and Jackson State massacres to Watergate) that we still are the recipients of during 2020. The black Vietnam War veterans in the film came back to Vietnam in order to try to get a treasure of gold bars. They fight among each other at times, and they promote brotherhood at the same time. Delroy Lindo stands out as an amazing actor in the movie. The movie has the shocking character of Paul, who is a black Donald Trump supporter with the MAGA hat and all. He complains about immigrants going into America when the 1% is complicit in racism and xenophobia. In other words, immigrants collectively aren't responsible for systematic racism or economic inequality. The 1% uses regressive policies worldwide that harms black people in America, those of the global South, and other human beings. Da 5 Bloods is the nickname of the group of soldiers. Other Vietnamese forces try to get the gold too. There are flashbacks to the past about the 1968 Dr. King assassinations and the rebellions in response to them. The soldiers want the gold as a form of reparations. Norm speaks of black liberation. At the end of the film, Spike Lee implies that the Black Lives Matter movement is the modern day equivalent of the black liberation movements of the 1960's. The movie is certainly Spike Lee's way of seeing complexity in war, and how interrelated the past and the present are.
A lot of news are coming on today. Trump wants to eliminate every aspect of the ACA law even the parts of it protecting pre-existing conditions. Ending the ACA will put millions of Americans' lives at risk. Trump has deceived the country on the severity of the coronavirus. Recently, he said that the virus would just disappear when he has allowed states to basically mostly be on their own in responding to this pandemic. He could easily use his federal power to directly fund states to battle this illness. Trump has overtly defended the Confederate statues and claims that the slogan of Black Lives Matter painted on the road in New York City is representative of hate. So, Trump is obviously a racist. 2020 now is one of the most tragic years in our history with over 120,000 Americans alone passing away from the coronavirus. In early July, over 50,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus in one day.
The DOJ replaced one judge from Brooklyn, NYC. While this is going on, Xi has promoted the Security law on Hong Kong that harms various democratic freedoms in Hong Kong. For example, the law will make some trials to be heard behind closed doors, Beijing will take priority over Hong Kong's judicial or policy body, and people suspected of breaking the law can be wiretapped and put under surveillance. This is a violation of the one country, two systems principle. Some people want to condemn U.S. imperialism (which should be done), but are silent on the oppression of the Uighurs, black Africans (who have experienced racism in China), and others in China. There is a distinction between regular Chinese people who want freedom and justice, and many leaders of China who want the status quo. China shouldn't be a puppet state of the West obviously. It should be independent, but Hong Kong deserves its autonomy too. We know that Trump not only violates democratic rights, but he refuses to fulfill his obligations as being a member of the executive branch.
I want to mention this information before I go off for a few hours. Today, the governor of Mississippi signed into law removing the Confederate emblem off the Mississippi state flag. That is good news. Mississippi is home to a lot of racism, but it is also home to some of the greatest black freedom fighters in history. Fannie Lou Hamer is from Mississippi, and she fought for justice throughout her life. Bob Moses, Myrlie Evers-Williams, Medgar Evers, Victoria Gray Adams, Unita Blackwell, Annie Bell Robinson Devine, Sammy Younge Jr. George Raymond Jr., Dorie Ladner, Timothy L. Jenkins, and other heroes were from Mississippi as well. Some want to make Mississippi the total home of racist sentiments. That is precisely not accurate as racism and bigotry in general are worldwide phenomena. There are people waving racist Confederate flags in Pennsylvania and Missouri when both states were part of the Union during the U.S. Civil War. Therefore, as Eddie Glaude Jr. has stated, we want America to be born anew. He has written a new book about James Baldwin and America. It is entitled, "Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own." James Baldwin was a man who one of the greatest writers in history as Cornell West has truthfully stated.
Baldwin articulated, in eloquent terms, the hurt, the joy, the anger, and the hope of black Americans in relation to America. We, who are black people, have a complicated relationship with the United States of America. We love freedom just as much as anyone (many of us fought in every war that America has been involved in), but we hate the injustices that plagued the history found in America (from the Maafa, the peonage system, and to Jim Crow). Baldwin used his literature to explain the paradox of our aspirations and the troubled reality of American history simultaneously. James Baldwin knew Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The actress and activist Aunjanue Ellis has worked hard along with others in making sure that the Confederate emblem is gone form the MS state flag too. Ellis (who is one of the greatest actresses of our generation in being in great films like The Book of Negroes, Ray, Men of Honor, Miss Virginia, If Beale Street Could Talk, etc.) has stated that Confederate culture must be eradicated in our world. She is right. We have a long way to go from Houston facing record coronavirus cases to the record number of protests desiring social change. Freedom is not just about individual actions being expressed on a day to day basis. Freedom is about health care for all, educational rights, structures of racism being gone, our civil liberties protected, and economic exploitation eradicated. That is why we believe not only in the Dream, but we are realistic to promote a more accurate vision of how America ought to be beyond what it has been.
By Timothy
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