From: Nile Barrabas@dartmouth.edu (Nile Barrabas)
Newsgroups: alt.discrimination
Subject: Re: Go see X
Date: 18 Nov 92 21:51:26 GMT
Organization: SOB
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A73024C7FA015004@kip-sn-4.dartmouth.edu>
X-Xxdate: Wed, 18 Nov 92 15:50:15 GMT
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d11


  Here's an interesting article I found on Clarinet. In case you don't
know, Gov. Wilder is the first African American to be governor of
Virginia.

	NORFOLK, Va. (UPI) -- Gov. L. Douglas Wilder says the hyperbole and
interest over director Spike Lee's motion picture about Malcolm X
puzzles him.
	Wilder said he wonders why people who idolize Malcolm X overlook
blacks who have achieved real, mainstream power.
	Malcolm X's life and contributions ``are being made more historic and
adventurous than they really were,'' Wilder said in an interview for an
op-ed article published in The Virginian-Pilot on Monday.
	``This is not at all to distract from Malcolm X, but I think (retired
Supreme Court Justice) Thurgood Marshall was right when he said he never
knew of anything important Malcolm X ever did and would not miss him if
Malcolm had never lived,'' Wilder said.
	``Today you could ask young people who was Roy Wilkins, who was
Whitney Young, even Thurgood Marshall, and they don't know,'' Wilder
said. ``But because of the movie and the hype they all know about
Malcolm X ... and it energizes some people.''
	The movie, ``Malcolm X,'' opens in theaters nationwide Wednesday.
	Lee told the newspaper in an interview published in weekend editions
that he fulfilled his commitment to show Malcolm ``with warts and all.''
	``I think it's possible to be angry and hopeful at the same time, and
my movie is that,'' Lee said. ``People say to me, 'Why are you so angry,
Spike? You have money. You're successful.' So what. In the end, people
need hope, and I think that's what this movie gives them.''
	At stake is a $35 million production -- at least $15 million over
budget.
	``We as a people have to support this film because Hollywood is
watching,'' Lee said at the New York unveiling of the film for the news
media.
	Originally he urged black students to skip school to attend the first
public showings of the movie. But he backed off last week, calling for
students to see the movie with their parents.
	Lee was anxious to discuss pre-release controversies, saying he was
misquoted about granting interviews to only black journalists.
	``I never said it,'' Lee said. ``I just said I would prefer to be
interviewed by black journalists, and that was just a ploy to lend a
helping hand to the brothers and sisters. I'm not afraid to use any
clout I've got.''
	He is irate, also, that Esquire magazine titled a recent interview 
``Spike Lee Hates Your Cracker Ass.''
	``I never said that,'' Lee said. ``That was the title of the article,
but it sounded like a quote. It made it sound as if it was a quote. All
the stories about me state, in effect, that I'm a racist, that I'm an
angry black man and I hate white people.
	``The media just plays on white hysteria, and they think they'll
scare people away from this film. I see people every day who said they
liked 'Do The Right Thing' but they saw it in the safety of their homes
-- afraid to go to theaters.''