Bamboozled

“You’ve been hoodwinked. You’ve been had. You’ve been took. You’ve been led astray, run amok. You’ve been bamboozled.” The Brother Malcolm’s words perhaps have applied to all of us at various times. I took it upon myself to watch Spike Lee’s Bamboozled.Spike Lee once again throws an important issue on the screen in this film. It is a film that to some degree exposes the racist aspect of the media. It touches on how our corporation-influenced society breeds racism inside and outside the community of colored people.

It shows various peoples reactions to what is blatantly racist - and - how people justify their racism by looking at the black man to see if its okay (i.e. tell a politically incorrect joke and all the white people look to see if the black people laugh, and then follow suit).

Each one of us carries a our share of racism - whether we know it or not - whether intended malicious or benign. Slowly we start to understand that racism isn't simply calling a black man nigger, Jew a kike or Arab a dust monkey, towelhead, camel-*censored* (I've heard them all). Racism is our attitude and perceptions towards other people. We must evolve past dehumanizing others and ourselves. I don't know if this film drives that message to everyone, but I would hope it did.