Spike Lee Nails It at the 91st Oscars

If you can look past the mawkish, annoying acceptance speeches of most of the winners at the 91st Oscars last Sunday (2/24/19), and focus on the startling candor and heart-felt speech of just one of the winners, it can redeem the entire ceremony.

That’s how it was for me. I am, of course, talking about director/producer Spike Lee who reflected on the African American experience of slavery and achievement while accepting the best adapted screenplay award for his film “BlacKkKlansman.”

"The word today is irony. The date, the 24th. The month, February, which also happens to be the shortest month of the year, which also happens to be Black History Month. Four hundred years,” said Lee, each word and sentence a combination of restrained emotion and resolve, evoking the oratory brilliance of Malcolm X in impact if not in style. "The year, 2019. The year, 1619. History. Her story. 1619. 2019. 400 years. Our ancestors were stolen from Mother Africa and bought to Jamestown, Virginia, enslaved. Our ancestors worked the land from can’t see in the morning to can’t see at night. My grandmother, who lived to be 100 years young, who was a Spelman College graduate even though her mother was a slave. My grandmother who saved 50 years of social security checks to put her first grandchild — she called me Spikie-poo — she put me through Morehouse College and N.Y.U. grad film. N.Y.U.!”

A rapt audience of celebrities and surely millions from around the world absorbed every word that Lee uttered with wonder, tempered by a sense of tragedy.

Lee continued: “Before the world tonight, I give praise to our ancestors who have built this country into what it is today along with the genocide of its native people. We all connect with our ancestors. We will have love and wisdom regained, we will regain our humanity. It will be a powerful moment.”

Then came the coda: “The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let’s all mobilize. Let’s all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love and hate. Let’s do the right thing! You know I had to get that in there.”

Of course you had to, Lee! Without your speech, the 91st Oscars would have devolved into a saccharine display of the obvious and the ridiculous. Lee brought the sublime into the picture. Americans, he exhorted, do your duty in 2020 because that fateful year will be here before you can (my embellishment) even pause to say “Trexit!”

As predictable as the waxing and the waning of the moon, the Narcissist-in-Chief fired off his risible tweet, claiming that he did more for African Americans than almost any other Pres! That “almost” must have unconsciously slipped through but it also showed the limitless mendacity of Trump for whom lie is truth and wrong is right. Far better to terminate Trump's fake presidency than his emergency.

“Let’s all mobilize.” 

Indeed let’s, for when the history of America is written 50 or hundred years from now, it will pivot on a single fact: Did we Americans have the courage and the urgency to regain our love, wisdom and humanity and vote out the worst president ever to disgrace the White House?