With all the hype surrounding spike Lee's fim of Malcolm X, I looked ionward to reading Steve Smith's review (X misses the spot S039) with anticipation. However, 1am afraid to say it came as something of a disappointment.
Far from the thoughtful analysis of art formed in a capitalist society, which I have come to expect from Socialist Cufook, Smith seemed absurdly upset That Spike Lee had not managed to produce a big budget bio-pic of MalIt seems clear to me that the biggest implication of this fim, wil be the politi cal direction it pushes black youth Whether the black middle classes get 10 stop cases in the beds is d ver secondary question to the increased numbers of black working class youth autobiography and possibly even Breitman's The Last Year of Maicolm Surely socialists should welcome this increased interest in Maicoim's wndnes and nis ate, walever molife fon inspired Spice Loo to make the As for condemning Lee for his lack of class content, since when has 'middle class' been part of Marxist terminology? Middle class is a bourgeois to do with a clear understanding of people's relationship to the means of production.
In that sense, Lee is correct to say clude the middle classes'. Neither does Marx's message. What Malcolm did do was recognise that there are dilferent in oppressed layers. Just as socialsts should.
The black 'middle class" does en counter racism on a daily basis, just as women encounter sexism every day of their lives whether they are working in the home, on a factory floor, or an executive office.
To think otherwise is to trivialise the nature of specific oppressions as sone in the past Sociaist Outlook has always been one of the best on the left in reaching a dear understanding of the relationship between class oppression and specifc oppressions. It is unfortunate thet this arcle did not demonstrate it Julla Stevens London N22