BlacKkKlansman

So, this afternoon I made it over to the Laemmle theater in Pasadena. I saw a film that fulfilled all three of late-Coach Jim Valvano’s requirements for a great day. In 1993, the NCAA Basketball Championship coach died of adenocarcinoma ten years after his Championship Season. And shortly before his death, the beloved Valvano shared some advice while being honored during the '93 ESPY awards.

Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman made me laugh, made me think, and lastly…made me cry; it also echoed Valvano’s ESPY theme, “…you can never give up.”

The movie, based on a true early 70s’ story, takes us to Colorado Springs where Ron Stallworth becomes the first African American to serve that city’s Police Department. Set on making a name for himself and being prepared to take risks, Stallworth phones in his request for membership of the local Klu Klux Klan chapter. For obvious reasons, Stallworth teams up with a white officer to go undercover to infiltrate and expose the Klan, aka “The Organization.”

No spoil alert necessary; let’s just say the opportunity for irony here is beyond ripe. And I don’t know about you, but I’m overjoyed by any prospect of history or the First Amendment revealing bigots for the ignorant hateful dumbasses they are.

And it was easy laughing as the story up on the screen unfolded and good triumphed over a klan of buffoons, all having well-deserved inferiority complexes and a psychotic sense of misdirection. We also nervously laughed while David Duke shared a vision, now some 40-years old, of one day having a president sympathetic and supportive of the “Organization” and a purely White America.

So, I have a patient we’ve served for over 30-years; we love her. She’s family. We follow one another on Facebook. And I know we’ll be friends forever, mostly because we’re both opinionated and share a similar sense of humor. And I know for sure neither of us will never understand racism…its source, its practice, or its enabling.

A few weeks ago, Linda put out a question on her Facebook Page, asking why she should support the President; she just wanted to know. There was one response. The responder denied any characterization of bigotry or attack on freedom of the press; she basically hated the Clintons and thought they should both be in jail. She also asked for no attacks, only civil conversation. And who said you can’t have it both ways?

My comment was “Interesting response. But I still don’t get it.” And I don’t think I ever will.

BlacKkKlansman ends with a look back to one year ago and Charlottesville; I’d never seen some of the footage. Must admit; I shed some tears of hurt. But there were also some tears and a little shaking inside coming purely from anger and frustration.

Decency and going high aren’t so easy these days. And it took so much courage, sacrifice, and hard work to get to where we perceived we were only a very short time ago. But as a film chronicling events of the early '70s and venturing right up until today shows, hatred and bigotry have some serious staying power. And the word “base” or “the lowest part of something” has never more accurately been applied than when racism is supported by a political “base” or enabled by it.

When it comes to defending decency and looking for solutions rather that scapegoats; when we look to collaborate rather than divide and when we embrace our differences the way families do, the message is in our true American DNA. Like Jim Valvano shared some 25-years ago, “You can never give up.”

Vote on November 6.