[caption id="attachment_603877" align="aligncenter" width="794"]<img src="http://madamenoire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/spl1172026_085.png" alt="" width="794" height="631" class=" wp-image-603877" /> Splash News[/caption]
After all, Chrisette Michele is gonna keep talking...
This time, it is through the time honored tradition of annoying spoken word voice.
Here, take a listen:
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For those of us who like to read along with the shenanigans, here are some of the lyrics:
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">“I am the Black song Spike Lee won't sing</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I am the Black voice inauguration bells ring</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I am the Black sheep disguising the scared wolf.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I am the Black elephant in the red room, scared shook</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">White House invites me, you call me their coon</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I am the butterfly growing from history's cocoon.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I can carry the mantle with God as my goon.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">He provides the life support, I'm dying singing his tune.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Church folks may not clap but I sing their song</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Hip hop for Jay Z, now you say you lost one.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">R&B for Def Jam, rich hipsters for Brooklyn.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">But Spike won't pay me, a crook from Crooklyn.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I'm still Black girl: magic</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I'm still American: tragic.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I'm still born-again: miracle.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">And we're still on the border line: pentacle.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The brink of love and destruction. This is the junction</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Will we divide in consumption for social media productions?</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Or will we finally unite, for the 200 year fight</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><i>[no clue what she said here]</i></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Did MLK die for my rights or just spite?</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I am no political genius...”</p>
</blockquote>
You can say that again.
Actually the poem is pretty powerful. And if not for her personal politics (whatever they may be), she might be getting all sorts of <i>“Yassss, girls! Say that!”- </i>declarations<i> </i>from the Black Girl Magic contingency of the community.
With that said, I really wish she would stop speaking now. In fact, I really wish she hadn't bothered explaining herself to begin with.
After all, who are we to talk and pass judgment about her White House appearance?
I mean, with the amount of funny money floating between parties, loyalties and interests, you would be hard-pressed to find a Negro not taking a check from White Supremacy.
And that's also the truth, Ruth.
Granted, Lee has over the years produced some pretty-powerful Black imagery, largely funded from the struggle lint in his own pockets.
But Lee has also made some questionable statements. Like the time he gave an #<em>AllLivesMatter</em> response to MSNBC's Chris Hayes' question about his 2015 film Chiraq's focus on Black-on-Black crime when the rest of the community was focusing on Black Lives Matter.
More <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/spike-lee-goes-off-on-chris-hayes-about-black-on-black-crime/">specifically, he told Hayes</a>:
<blockquote><strong>Lee</strong>: "Sir, it doesn’t matter to me what color or complexion that pulls the trigger. As an artist, I’m going to look at it, and look at both sides. There’s a specific scene where Samuel L. Jackson talks about it. Where he’s in the middle, there’s a gang banger on one side and Chicago cop on other. If you’re a parent — whether your child got killed by a gang banger or cop, you still feel the same.
<strong>Hayes</strong>: Right.
<strong>Lee</strong>: Your child is dead and your child is never coming back to you forever and for the rest of your life, you are going to have a hole in your soul. So it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to get about — it doesn’t matter to me"</blockquote>
Moreover, Lee has also made some questionable alliances. Like the time he was for Trump before he was against Trump:
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That's right: that's a picture of Spike Lee and Donald Trump at the opening night premiere of the Lee-produced Broadway show, <em>Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth</em>.
In my Deborah Cox voice, how did he get here?
Who knows. Perhaps Tyson who appears to be a close personal friend of the president, invited him?
Nevertheless, here is Lee, not looking sad or the least bit disgusted by having to stand chummy next to the man who<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/23/nyregion/trump-draws-criticism-for-ad-he-ran-after-jogger-attack.html"> in 1989 took out a full-page ad in four newspapers in New York</a> demanding the death penalty against the recently exonerated Central Park Five.
And yet his subscription with the Black community remained intact.
Now, don't get me wrong: I don't think we all gotta hold hands and sing the Black national anthem. And truthfully, as an artists and business person, he can work with whomever he wants to work with.
But <i>clearly</i> Michele, a singer and performer, is not a political person. And it's really not fair to hold her to a higher standard than we were<i> ever</i> willing to hold the person we are all <i>now</i> supposed to be afraid of.
Like, let's be for real: President Trump had a lot of Black friends prior to his run for office. So I really don't know why folks are trying to act like they don't know him now.
Not to mention, how does “canceling” Chrisette Michele really affect Donald Trump or stop any of his policies from taking effect?
It seems that at this point, we are ready to cannibalize ourselves for politics that regardless the party affiliation has remained largely anti-Black and for relationships with allies whose own commitment to the cause remains questionable.
<em>Image via Splash News </em>
<i>Charing Ball is a writer, cultural critic and smarty-pants Black feminist from Philadelphia. To learn more, visit<a href="https://nineteenseventy-seven.com/"> NineteenSeventy-Seven.com</a>.</i>
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