Review of BlacKkKlansman (2018) by Jason D — 09 Aug 2018

Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman is a powerful commentary on the state of American society, highlighting both overt and disguised racism. The plot delivers a heavy blow in an unsuspecting manner by using a combination of witty, serious humor and ridiculing of an absurd reality.

Many scenes are rightly discomforting both visually and in language usage. In some, people bless "white America" or people toast to America in a perversive context. Most likely, these are not lines you hear in your day-to-day life.

But lines like these and the lines with racist "jokes"--whether they exist as physical sound, buried in our subconscious, or manifest tacitly in consequential actions and policies--cry out: what is the American identity we live out? Who does, and who should, our flag stand for today? We are asked to question and take ownership in our individual heritages, recognize the lack of progress in our battles against a multifaceted racism, and notice shifts toward subliminal racism that are more threatening than the overt racism before.

Many spurts of good laughter erupted throughout the viewing, but they accentuated the silence of a gut-sinking understanding of our own society.