Taking the Revolution to The Butler
September 1, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From readers:
On Saturday night, a crew of us went to see Lee Daniels' new film, The Butler. Among other things, without here commenting further on the film's art, or its overall narrative and message, what it does vividly show, with strengths and weaknesses, is the generations of oppression suffered by Black people—and their struggle against it.
After the film, a revolutionary got up in the theater and read from the Three Strikes poster, pointing to the pictures of Dred Scott, Emmett Till (whose murder is brought up in the film), and Trayvon Martin—showing that this system's oppression of Black people is still in full effect and that we need Revolution—Nothing Less! As a couple of people were handing out palm cards for the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live, she called on people to get a copy of Revolution newspaper and to get with the movement for revolution.
There was a marked and differentiated response to this agitation—including in the context of this film (and how sections of people understand, interpret, respond to and are affected by it). Many—including what empirically seemed like most white people, and many Black people—refused to take the palm cards we were handing out. Others just grabbed them up.
Almost immediately, five city cops came up to threaten the revolutionaries. This sharpened things up even more, as people had just seen stark images in the film of the police brutality unleashed against Black people, and now several people expressed concern that the revolutionaries were going to be arrested. Outside, a few people responded to the message that "we don't need a new civil rights movement, we need a revolution," by getting the paper, Revolution, and giving donations—including a young Black woman who gave $100 right on the spot! She said, "I know. We do need a revolution."
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