Spike Lee Celebrates the Enduring Legacy of Malcolm X on the 100th anniversary of his birth

[get these nets]

05/15/25

Spike Lee celebrates the enduring legacy of Malcolm X

Malcolm X was immortalized in Spike Lee's biographical movie in 1992. The filmmaker told Newsweek why the life and message of the civil rights leader still resonates on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

www.newsweek.com

 

[get these nets]

1992

Malcolm X premiere and @16:00, sitdown interview with Spike

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

While the movie was important, it lowkey tried to neuter Baba Malcolm’s radicalism. Zero mention of his trips to Africa, zero mention of Pan Africanism and what “Afro-American” actually means rather than the hijacked shyt we have today.

Film has to be observed with a critical eye, it’s not enough to find a film like this “entertaining” it also has to do justice to the person and their narrative. What good is it if our own people can’t be trusted to tell the story holistically and in full.

 

[get these nets]

While the movie was important, it lowkey tried to neuter Baba Malcolm’s radicalism. Zero mention of his trips to Africa, zero mention of Pan Africanism and what “Afro-American” actually means rather than the hijacked shyt we have today.

Film has to be observed with a critical eye, it’s not enough to find a film like this “entertaining” it also has to do justice to the person and their narrative. What good is it if our own people can’t be trusted to tell the story holistically and in full.

Within the time constraints for a Hollywood studio film, I think he did a great job.

The details of his life were written in the Autobiography . The film was broadly accessible to those who hadnt read the book and for generations born after his death.

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

Within the time constraints for a Hollywood studio film, I think he did a great job.

The details of his life were written in the Autobiography . The film was broadly accessible to those who hadnt read the book and for generations born after his death.

And that’s fair, I don’t disagree. But even with that, those were incredibly important parts of Malcolm’s political development that didn’t need to be omitted.

 

[FlimFlam]

glad someone came in here and said it aint wanna be the party pooper. the more I read on Malcolm the less favorable that film becomes. Its a great spectacle... but it isn't a good project on Malcolm X. Theres always been a suppressed but audible rejection of this film, and I definitely understand why now

even as seminal and praiseworthy as the autobio rightfully is, that also has some pretty dramatic voids regarding malcolm x's life and ideology especially. Let along his mother

heres a cpl influential short texts on Malcolm that can hell fill some of those voids

William Sales From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcom X and the Organization of Afro-America Unity

and heres a great article about the women around Malcolm from his mother on down and how his political development

https://www.mappingstl.org/place/collection/files/original/4a8253dc5531673f7bb662af7a8e9006e446cfe3.pdf

if you aint tryna deal with lanks which i understand, the title is:

“If you’re in a country that’s progressive, the woman is progressive”: Black Women Radicals and The Making of
the Politics and Legacy of Malcolm X" by Mcduffie