Today, Twitter feeds, Face Book, internet website news feeds, and talk shows are all talking about Selma! And they should be… However, conversations are ranging from the backlash the film is receiving for acclaimed historical inaccuracies regarding President Lyndon’s approach to incorporating legislation for African Americans’ voting rights to Common and John Legend’s Golden Globe win for Best Original Song “Glory”.
After watching the film this past Saturday, I am suggesting America, that we shift the conversation elsewhere because according to David Edelstein, a New York, NPR, and CBS Sunday Morning film critic, the movie is not far off from a true depiction of history.
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The question is what element of reality is the argument really trying to distract viewers and “the world” from?
Just a little review: Blacks denied the ability to vote, politicians’ personal agendas for reelection, Black leadership uniting, cops murdering harmless Black men, Black leadership and government uniting, and many lives risked for many lives to come… Sounds familiar?
Selma, a movie of racial profiling and the Civil Rights Movement was released right before the late Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday; not for notoriety from critics because of the true experience of many, not for admiration toward the struggle, not even for MLK as we approach the day the country highlights in honor of the man. NO! As we shift this conversation about Selma from the film’s vivid display of terror, let’s begin to view the release of Selma as inspiration for such a time as the one our country is currently living out… history repeating itself!
While Selma, on the screen, looks back at all the diverse viewers ask, “Now that you have relived where you come from as a country, what are you now going to do about where you are going as a people?”
Do we have to be reminded of what we are being denied individually to feel more compelled to fight for the whole? According to MLK in the movie, we can no longer lack the moral will to protect those in America taken by hate. But we also cannot fight using old tools and tricks. We must think outside of the box as we move forward. We are in a different era people that no longer values and responds to protest and peaceful marches.
The protest on Wall Street, what came from that? The recent protest marches on the killings of unarmed Black men by police officers, what evolved from those outward expressions of denial? Accordingly, Wall Street is still Wall Street and becoming richer by the minute and after the peaceful marches protesting for unarmed Black men being killed by officers, more breaking news stories about unarmed Black men being killed by officers were shared.
Please do not mistake my writing as a highlight of nothing being done differently about these painful occurrences. I place emphasis on the difference that has to be made, which has to come from within “a united people”. Let’s take that cliff note from the movie Selma; united we stand, united we fall from all crevices of the land both Black and White and in between. This war is not about race, this war is about maintenance of power and class differentiation.
As MLK stated, [unquote] if you believe that we are all made from God, FEAR NOT! We’ve come too far to turn back now. We have an American problem that will soon become a World problem. Selma, I believe, was created to ignite the fire in you, in me, in us to SPEAK and DO SOMETHING! What are you going to do NOW?
Let me encourage you… Go RUN FOR OFFICE within your local, regional, state, and national open positions. Go VOLUNTEER with the schools within your community and get on the school board to assert your voice about necessary changes for your children and others. Go and EMPOWER the lost, FEED the hungry, TEACH the uneducated, and LOVE the brokenhearted.
GO and BRING HEAVEN to EARTH!
Written by: Dr. Fuller
