THIS IS AMERICA
We’ve All Been Hoodwinked
Whether you know it or not, you’ve been taken for a ride
I’ve written before about how random things influence my writing. The inspiration often comes from where I least expect it. Take last weekend, for example. In our home, we designate Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as movie nights.
The curriculum at my kid’s respective schools vis-à-vis Black history is sorely lacking, so I’ve used our sequestration to drop a little knowledge on my teenagers. Instead of forcing them to listen to my impromptu lectures, I found the right movie to be an excellent stand-in.
Which brings me to Malcolm X…
Whenever I hear the word ‘hoodwinked,’ I think of Malcolm X. Not the real Malcolm X, but Spike Lee’s version of him in the movie by the same name. So as I watched the film with the family last weekend, I couldn’t wait for my favorite scene. Standing before a large crowd of Harlemites, Malcolm X, played by Denzel Washington, preaches against the systemic racism of the 1960s. That’s where he gets to my favorite part of the movie. I don’t know if Malcolm X said it precisely this way, but I don’t care; Denzel’s version of Malcolm X is a thing of beauty:
“Oh, I say, and I say it again, you been had! You been…
