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Friday, January 09, 2015

King, Johnson and Selma

My latest post, on the controversy over Selma, is here.

4 comments:

Energyflow said...

Thanks for setting the record straight. Too much of hollywood and other media invent the story as they go along according to ideology. This is true about historical films, in news reports, etc. The desire of people nowadays to report objective and rational truth by investigative journalism has dropped to zero. You have discussed how universities focus on PC issues like gender issues, race based history, etc. The whole population has become irrational, insane, in that they believe only what they want to believe. You have previously stated that the consensus reality was destroyed by the 60s and needs a crisis war or similar to reproduce a new consensus. What that could be nobody can foresee.

Bozon said...

Professor

Great stuff.

I guess I will pass on the movie. I pass on almost all of them, in recent decades, unfortunately. It has to do with a decline in quality, for me, really, leaving aside the important issue, in this case apparently, of veracity.

all the best

Gloucon X said...

One overlooked aspect of the Civil Rights era was the context of the Cold War. The US and USSR were competing for influence throughout the world. Having racist laws on the books was not helpful to US hopes for winning that competition, especially in places like Africa. The open racism displayed on the streets of the South was a real embarrassment to the US on the international stage.
-------------------------
We have seen that despite the passing of Civil Rights laws, cultural attitudes persisted. Racists simply set up their own private schools under the banner of religion. This weakened the very notion of “the public” and is a big reason for the disunity and anti-government attitudes that are so pervasive today, especially in the South.

That reaction to the end of centuries old legal racism was the major factor that destroyed consensus in the US. It had nothing to do with any particular generation. The same reaction would have occurred had it happened a generation before or a generation later. Historical events (like the struggle for Civil Rights) happen when they happen though a build up of events and forces that can take many generations. The development of the mass media, for instance, certainly not the willful decision of any particular generation, helped the Civil Right cause enormously by putting racists on television screens around the world.

Alejandro said...

Complains about white people being the main villains when in many many multiple movies the few PoCs and Black people are villains. #OK

Writes an entire article about "omg LBJ wasn't the real villain or a villain at all why did they make him look like that." Doesn't focus on how voting rights are violated in (Southern States) with Voter ID and shit like that. #OK

"LBJ is the main obstacle to what King was doing." #OK Like Racism wasn't???? #OK (I mean did you even listen to the what King was saying the whole movie???)) #TripleOK

"LBJ asks for Voting Rights Act in '64 and gets it passed in '65." IMMA PRETEND LIKE SELMA WASNT THE ONLY MASS DEMONSTRATION HELD BY KING THAT FORCED KENNEDY (RIP) AND JOHNSON TO ADDRESS BLACK RIGHTS. #ok

"Because he had gotten the Justice Department going on a voting-rights measure, he knew he would have it ready when he decided he needed it." UM ITS CENTURIES BEEN NEEDING IT OK. #OK

"They were, in short, agreeing upon the eventual solution to the crisis." That was obvious during the movie. #OK

"Like John and Robert Kennedy before him, he was terrified that Hoover would successfully discredit King and set back civil rights for years. Fortunately, because no media outlet would print the salacious material Hoover provided, the FBI Director failed." (Wonder who killed MLK in '68 after MLK actively protested against the Vietnam War and LBJ being so butthurt over it) (#PretendsLikeFBIDidntGoOnToStopTheBlackPowerMovement)

"King and the Selma marchers obviously deserve credit for tapping into broader support for civil rights, but that support had been building for decades." Imma pretend like this wasn't said but if it was I'd probably say something like it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard because it discredits the entire Civil Rights Movement.

"Beginning in the late 1960s a very different view began to take hold: that white people were hopelessly infected by racism and that black people could and should depend only on themselves.

Selma contributes to that view. It not only leaves out much of the story of how the Voting Rights Act was passed, but also fails to illuminate how further progress might be made in the future."

OMFG IMMA PRETEND LIKE KING DIDNT GET ASSASSINATED WHEN HE STARTED ASKING FOR ECON OPPORTUNITY AND MAYBE THATS WHY THAT THOUGH PROCESS ACTUALLY HAPPENED COS THEY KILLED AND CONSTANTLY ATTACKED NON-VIOLENT PROTESTS LIKE ARE YOU SERIOUS. SELMA FAILS TO SHOW THAT THE CIVIL RIGHTS AND VOTING RIGHTS BILLS DIDNT MAGICALLY STOP RACISM AND OPPRESSION LIKE THAT'S DEEPLY ROOTED STILL. AND YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT HOW WE CAN MAKE PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE BECAUSE IT DOESNT GLORIFY WHITE PEOPLE WHO STOOD WITH THE PROTESTORS ENOUGH????? #DONE #BUTOKAY

"I'm sorry" (not really) that I'm not politically correct with what you may be used to Professor. But with all due respect, I'd really love a response/ elaboration of what you meant. Okay your Great LBJ didn't get his Halo you think he deserved, so what? I think you missed the entire point of the movie, seriously. Did you write an article of how great Selma was (out of curiosity) or nah?