“The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975” (2011) is a film based on interviews and news stories done by Swedish television some 40 years ago on the American Black Power movement. It features Stokely Carmichael, the Black Panthers and Angela Davis. It shows film from that period with voice-over comments made in 2010 by Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Questlove, Sonia Sanchez, Miss Angela Davis herself and others. Swedish Göran Olsson directs, American Danny Glover co-produces.
It goes year by year. It starts with Stokely Carmichael in black-and-white saying that Martin Luther King’s civil disobedience will not work on those without a conscience. It ends in living colour with the CIA flooding Harlem with heroin and the rise of Minister Louis Farrakhan.
It has tons of scenes of poor black neighbourhoods, particularly Harlem in the early 1970s, with voice-overs from 2010.
It is not an “Eye on the Prize” sort of documentary history. They leave plenty out. For example, they say little about Cointelpro, Fred Hampton, the riots or why Carmichael and Davis were not Panthers. Some facts are got wrong, like the year of Medgar Evers’s death. I would not depend on it to learn the history, but it is certainly worth watching for the material it does have.
The Swedish parts are subtitled, but it is mostly in English since they let black Americans do most of the talking – from guest voice-overs to revolutionaries to a bookshop owner to a hospital doctor to people on the street.
The two best parts are in the Bonus section of the DVD:
- A half-hour interview with Angela Davis in 1972, the first she gave in prison. The most powerful moments are when she talks about the white violence and black poverty she saw growing up in Birmingham, Alabama.
- A half-hour piece on Shirley Chisholm running for president in 1972. It is especially interesting to watch now 40 years later in the time of a black president. Unlike Obama, no big Wall Street banks backed her. Shows you how far America is from being a true democracy.
There is also a Bonus piece on the landmark rape case of Joan Little.
A theme that runs throughout is the moral right of blacks to use violence, particularly when civil (white) society fails to protect them. Great quotes on that from Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis and Erykah Badu.
No White American gaze: They show Central Park as viewed from Harlem! They do not assume American society is naturally just. They picture Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis and the Panthers as heroes fighting for the American ideals of freedom and equality, not as dangerous extremists.
- Not: “We gave them their civil rights, it is not our fault now if they screw it up” – the White American and Rented Negro framing.
- Instead: What a shame America does not live up to its promise as a great nation.
TV Guide complained Swedish television was anti-American. In this film President Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI are the true anti-Americans.
See also:
- Angela Davis
- White American and Rented Negro framing
- White American gaze
- just world doctrine – America as naturally just
- Cointelpro
- Fred Hampton
- Harlem
- Other films set in this period:
I appreciated it for the very same reasons.
Btw, why not call “Miss Angela Davis” Dr. Angela Davis?
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“They do not assume American society is naturally just.”
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I’d be more than disappointed with Mr. Danny Glover (and company) if this production had assumed otherwise! “American society is naturally just.” is an assumption clueless whites make. If blacks do it’s a sure sign of mental illness.. delusion.
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“TV Guide complained Swedish television was anti-American. ”
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…could also be said this way:
The WHITE MALE ownership of TV guide complained that Swiss television was anti-WHITENESS! Oh, boo-hoo …
So, aside from having more blacks in middle-class status, how far have we progressed as a collective since the 60’s/70’s?? Will the bottom rung always be our self-assigned place for many of us?
How do we regain our lost ground? One example, the pride and dignity we once seemed to have more of, and shared as a collective?
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This sounds like a great film. I heard Dr. Angela Davis speak in India a few years ago. She was fabulous, as always (if a little tired) and her discussion was on parallels between the black experience in the U.S. and the Dalit experience in South Asia.
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Someone should do a real documentary about Cointelpro for real. That was as close as fascist USA as at any time in history. Really scary stuff.
@bulanik:
Finn have always been the biggest minority in Sweden but they still do not have official status as anything. The swedish government did a nice little trick in western Tornio river valley were some finns have lived for centuries, at least much longer than any swedes. They granted a minority status for those people by naming them as Meän people (that is in western Tornio river valley dialect, finnish dialect, same as Us) and minority language status for their “own language” Meän kieli (Our language). This happened in this century, just few years ago, but they still did not grant it for finns or finnish. The whole Meän kieli and people are just one way to deny that finns live in Sweden. I have no clue why they do not want to admit this officially.
Swedish speaking minority in Finland have their own schools, universities, radio and tv stations, magazines and newspapers supported by our government despite the fact that they represent only few percent of the population, far smaller group than finns living in Sweden.
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On the subject of Swedish racism let us not forget the Clitoridectomy Cake earlier this year:
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This film is “anti-American” only if you assume that America should be by and for white people, that blacks are not truly American.
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@bulanik
I don’t know where you got that ID thing, but I don’t know anyone who has had that done to them. Neither have I or my friends,
Besides, you can dig out nasty things from all people can you not? Abagond supports anti-black so called people of colour who does more horrible things to black people today than Europeans and Americans do. No one said anything about that.
@Sam
Finns have national minority status. If the kids of Finnish descent wants their damn mother language teaching they are entitle to get that no matter what.
You keep lifting up Finland as the best-est place in the world. You should perhaps tell these people about a girl named Rebecca Holm. It IS better over here, people ain’t as liable to hit you because your black and openly racist. It’s way more political correct.
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@ Sarane
Where do I do that? Be specific.
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@abagond
People ate an offensive cake and smiled. So what?
Cakes are made to be eaten. And people often smile in awkward situations. Or when they’re eating something that tastes good. If you had a cake that looked and sounded like a baby it still would have ended up in everyones stomach. Give people a cake and they’ll eat it.
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@Bulanik–There is a book called An American Dilemna, written by a Gunnar Myrdal, which examined racism in american society, that was written in the 50’s I believe. So this doc wasn’t the 1st time a Swede took a seemingly objective/critical look at the role that racism plays in america.
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Yes I remember the clitoridectomy cake. That disgusting mess that artist I believe his name was Makode Linde. I remember seeing that this past summer. I was disgusted and disturbed. They say art is subjective. I wanted to give the artist the benefit of the doubt I thought he was try to say something about the horrendous practice of clitoridectomies on women in some African cultures. It was disturbing to me because the white people in the photograph had such gleeful smiles on their faces. It was disturbing to me, It let me see how dark skinned people of African descent are hated globally. This in 2012.
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Interesting,I know this is called colorism but I find it interesting how less melaniated /light skinned Angela Davis is and featured in a film by the Swedes of all people – whitest of the white people.
Albinism is albinism and in general it makes ugly and mean ,and it may be that because you are ugly – a condition you did not choose and have limited control over – you become mean – that is make choices to harm others – something you have complete control over.
As to the snipes of Sarane and Insert Name ,I bet they don’t follow through and instead fade back into the background.
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@serene:
“Finns have national minority status. If the kids of Finnish descent wants their damn mother language teaching they are entitle to get that no matter what.”
No, they do not damn. It is up to the local school authorities to decide weather to provide finnish education or not, and in many many cases they choose not to. They can argue that it will be too costly, or simply ignore it, like it has been done in many communes across Sweden for decades. Finnish was prescicely forbidden in schools in Sweden up to the 70’s. If a kid spoke finnish, he/she was in detention and or piunished other ways. This happened in 1970’s in Sweden. I know because my friends family immigrated there in 1976.
Plus, when languages like kurdish have official minority status, finnish does not have it. If finns have an official minority status it is news to me since last time our president visited Sweden that issue came up shortly and swedes once again said they will look in to it. And if it so, then why your government claims that the finns living on the west banks of river Tornio are not finns but strange folk who speak their very own language, when it is in reality simply a local finnish dialect?
I think this is simply because for 700 years swedes occupied and used Finland, or the finnish tribes living in the present day Finlands area, as a place to fight their wars against the russians, as a place from which they could and did get soldiers to die for their empire etc. It was also the swedish race biologists by the way, who came up with the idea that finns are not europeans at all but mongols and there fore lesser folks in the racial scheme of things. 😀
“You keep lifting up Finland as the best place in the world.”
No I don’t. Finland has a lot of problems. We are very violent nation, suicidal and morose, we have racists and bigots, even in our parlament, and like one swede living in Finland once said on tv: Finland is country of hard attitudes. But compared to Sweden, we never conquered any other countries, nations or people. We sort of tried to do that during the war in east Carelia, but stopped short. Besides, almost all those folks had ran away, so that came out nothing.
I know it is very sore point to swedes and Sweden that your doctors and biologists were at helm of the so called scientific racism in late 1800’s but that is a historical fact. Swedish doctors and scientists created the race theories together with their german collegues and made the racism organised and appear like valid science. It was those same attitudes which made it possible for the swedes treat their own ethnic minorities like crap.
Like the finns, the saami are still being kicked around when ever it is useful for mining or any other big business. Same happens in Norway and Finland too, so you guys are in the Nordic brotherhood in that aspect.
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@Abagond
if you can’t use google to see what non black ‘people of colour’ that you invite into your website and coddle does against blacks it’s not my fault.
@Sam
http://www.manskligarattigheter.se/en/human-rights/what-rights-are-there/rights-of-national-minorities
it’s just a google click away. What? Kurisdish? It’s not even on the list. But even them are entitle to home language classes IF there’s enough of them AND there’s a possibility of getting a teacher. Finnish has never been a problem getting teaches.
And frankly I don’t care about some thing that happen in the 30s. It got shut down fairly quickly anyway. But hey, keep bringing it up.. I still know what immigrants say in Finland, that they prefer Sweden over Finland.
@Belkani
Clearly don’t know the ethnic relations. Jews are not getting big trouble form the ethnic swedes. It’s the Muslims who pushes them around, and so does the Jewish community say. Ask your boy Obama about that because he sent a guy to investigate that. The police don’t hassle much, actually it’s a very tame police which rarely takes a step out of their police cars.
Romani gets some because they are a large group of illegals coming to this country to beg and do other stuff. You can see them in the city streets all the time. But I doubt you know any.
No I just find it very interesting that people got blinders, even when other people kills. I’m not even talking about ‘black-on-black’. I don’t care about ‘black-on-black’. It’s funny whenever the topic is on ‘non-white’ people with a bad history or present it’s very carefully step around. Don’t want to mess with the Black American idea of people of color (Non-whites unity).
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Ahh, good ole national pride…
Interesting how so many people see criticism backed up with facts as a mean-spirited attack with the sole purpose to stain their national pride and glory. This is especially sad in the case of the United States, since it prides itself as the bastion of free speech.
Sweden…it’s a well-known fact (at least outside Sweden) that Sweden has not always been nice, but very, very naughty. To state these facts like Sam and Bulanik have does not imply that other countries, oh, I don’t know, for example Finland, would be squeaky clean when treating its minorities in the past or present. We Finns have definitely have had our share of bullying sami people and gypsies. Even jews.
Swedes do indeed like to claim that they are the the fairest and most equal of all. This might be, but it doesn’t mean that they or any other country would be 100% equal. I don’t think that’s even possible. What I know of the swedish public discourse when dealing these matters are that sometimes the need for political correctness hinders the good intention to wrestle said issues head-on. More time is spent discussion what vocabulary is allowed to be used rather than actually talking about those issues. That’s my impression, I no means claim to be an expert on all things swedish.
And yes, finns were openly down-trodden in Sweden back in the 60s and 70s, despite the fact that Finns have/have had one advantage over other minorities: it can be rather difficult or nearly impossible to tell a Swede and a Finn apart based on looks alone. And still the Finnish language isn’t properly treated as the biggest minority language in Sweden. If I remember correctly, there are at least 300 000 swedish citizens whose first language is finnish. The case of swedish-speaking Finns is the total opposite, since Swedes came here as invaders, and swedish was the language of the nobility and clergy, i.e. the ruling class. They have managed to keep their privileges over the centuries. Saying that, I don’t mean I’m against Swedes, swedish language or swedish-speaking Finns.
And of course it’s often easier to criticize other countries than your own. Or let others do it for or with you. But sometimes an outsider’s view is required to form a balanced view with maximum objectivity.
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@Legion
Yes, I know what an effigy is. But the thing is, unlike a human-skin lampshade it’s not actually a person.
If given a cake people will usually eat it despite whatever appearance it may hold. Now if the people who ate the cake were the same people who made it their might be a concern. Because then there would have actually been some intended symbolism to their actions.
Instead they just ate the cake they were given. Chances are they would have eaten almost any cake they were given so long as it tasted good.
Of course that statement would have to be verified but I really don’t feel like feeding people a bunch of different cakes to see what they will or won’t eat.
But in my experience, what people will eat when given to them has little to do with anything. I suppose their eating of the cake is probably indicative of their not possessing any strong emotional connection to the issue as the cake represented it.
But that’s something very different from symbolically eating a human and perhaps worse in some ways if you want to think of it that way. It was eating the cake entirely without any symbolism whatsoever, for no other reason than they were hungry and just wanted cake. And I suppose that could indicate that they’re more concerned for their appetite than any of the apparent symbolism they believe their actions could hold.
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@hannu: hear hear…
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@sarane:
“Romani gets some because they are a large group of illegals coming to this country to beg and do other stuff. You can see them in the city streets all the time. But I doubt you know any.”
Aah, the ignorance. You are talking about the romanian ja bulgarian romanis. But you guys have had romanis at least 500 years. How do I know this? well, it was when you were colonising Finland when the first romani/gypsies arrived in this land and many of your original romanis are actually finnish gypsies or families living in both countries. And they have been around some 500 years. Embarassing, right?
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I’ve heard good things about this film. I need to see it!
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[…] The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (abagond.wordpress.com) […]
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[…] The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (abagond.wordpress.com) […]
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@Bulanik
I never stated it was a normal trip to the bakery.
But to me those Chocolate hands you posted elicit far more concern from my mind. It strikes me as a more deliberate and therefore disturbing example of symbolism.
However if people entirely unconnected to and unfamiliar with these chocolate hands were to eat them I would find no moral failing.
Of course that doesn’t seem to be the case though I haven’t researched it myself. But if things are as they were presented than I find the continued production of Chocolate hands to be in more than simply bad taste.
@Legion
I see the creation of a Clitoridectomy Cake as a dehumanizing act. You don’t make a cake unless you expect it to be eaten.
And yes, the cake was produced by a human and eaten by other humans. All of which are likely of Swedish culture. But as far as I can tell the individuals who ate it had no part in the design and did not specifically purchase it for said design or even pick it out.
Now if these people had purchased this cake knowing full well the design…
Well, then I would would take issue. Who the hell buys a cake that looks like a horribly racist caricature?
Basically, I can see very little fault in these things being eaten. What I can see fault in is these things being purchased and produced.
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@Bulanik
Not at all.
If it did I wouldn’t call it a horribly racist caricature. But as far as I know no one actually bought the cake. But then again I do not know all of the details. Really, it would help a lot to know exactly what was behind that cake even being there…
But honestly, if someone had a cake set up with a cake knife in such a way that it seemed like it was expected to be eaten… I might eat any cake whatever the design. It doesn’t seem like it was set up as an art display.
And yes, I understand why the cake itself and the production thereof is hurtful and offensive and I personally would probably have to take a moment or two longer than usual before deciding to eat it.
And of course my approval isn’t necessary. I just don’t think that the eating of the cake by itself is a symbolic act. The creation of it certainly was and if those who ate it had been planning to eat a black woman cake… Well then it would be an act entirely filled with disturbing symbolism.
In this case I don’t see the eating of the cake as having had much symbolism. Well, unless those who ate it fully understood everything it was supposed to represent…
But mostly my only point was that it wasn’t really symbolic cannibalism if the intent wasn’t to symbolically eat a human.
There’s important issues involved here but they have nothing to do with cannibalism.
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Honestly, I don’t know. But if it was set up to include screaming…
Well, wouldn’t it be required to be eaten for the performance to be properly displayed?
But really, the other matters that I am sidestepping are mostly just the ones I didn’t find much reason to argue with.
In this case the only thing I really care to defend is the cake being eaten. You may not have brought up the matter of symbolic cannibalism but others did and I found that a bit odd. And those who cut the cake had no cultural connection to the act it could be said to represent.
If anything the issue here could be said to be the complete lack of symbolic thought to their actions and their treatment of it as nothing more than a big goofy cake with sound effects on the side.
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@Bulanik
I am aware of that. The way some people were interpreting the eating of the cake seemed odd to me. You are quite right that cutting is an entirely different matter.
What strikes me as odd about that is more about why they decided to cut off slices in that particular region. Was the knife already placed there or was a slice already removed? Because honestly, given such a cake I would rather take a slice off the stomach.
Perhaps I should have watched the video earlier but now that I have it confirmed many of the basics I already knew. The cake seemed… Well, displayed in a very “goofy” manner. It seemed almost like it wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.
The general concept of cutting and eating the cake seems… Well, innocent enough. But some little details just seem a bit more wrong then I had initially assumed.
It’s too goofy of a portrayal of something that should be serious and the people cutting slices from it don’t seem to be experiencing the appropriate amount of unease that should have directed them to eating other parts of the cake first.
It just doesn’t seem like they’re eating the cake properly or maybe it’s just that they aren’t eating the cake in the manner I would find fully acceptable. It’s probably just my opinion but when I imagine eating something like that it seems like the way to go about it would be to avoid the symbolism and start cutting elsewhere rather than entirely ignoring it and cutting it in such a manner.
One thing I would say is that if these people claim to have any real emotional connection to the issue of Clitoridectomies… Well, they’re probably lying. But that was already my assumption in the beginning.
I consider intent to be very important in many actions and the intent and behavior here of the people eating the cake doesn’t seem to quite… Show enough of any sort of aversion to anything.
Eh, I suppose I should have watched it earlier but now that I have and have thought about it… Well, the lack of any slight sign of real discomfort or unease makes the whole thing seem much worse to me than if they had shown some reaction.
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@Bulanik
It strikes me as “goofy” because that seems how it’s designed. A lot of those things you described are “jokes” of some kind. Yes, they’re revolting jokes meant to dehumanize but they’re still “jokes”.
Something designed to display its subject as something not meant to be taken seriously.
In this case the cake design looks cartoonish to me. It looks exaggeratedly “goofy” like some silly idiot character. I didn’t call it “Goofy” to imply that it isn’t grotesque or insulting but rather to state the sort of insult I perceived it to be. As you said, it’s Black people as a joke.
Maybe “goofy” doesn’t fully express it but “goofy” is at least one aspect of what it is.
And yes, I’ve noticed on the internet at least that there are some people who seem to be… Incapable of actually seeing what black people look like. That seems to be the right way to put it.
To be honest I actually see a lot of extreme racist behavior as almost fascinating, like some sort of bizarre work of fiction with an odd narrative set in a fantasy world. It’s just strange the sorts of stories these people will tell and how incapable they are of properly perceiving reality.
And by that I mean I know of at least one rather bizarre website that claims that Black people are Homo Erectus and uses side by side comparisons that look nothing alike.
Of course I have no doubt that those behaviors are also much more widespread in their less extreme forms but it’s the extreme forms that really confuse me. I mean, I can expect people to be best at differentiating between those who they’re most familiar with and less so with those that they have less experience. But to be honest, Black People have no real resemblance with that which they’re often stereotyped to supposedly resemble. That can’t just be blamed on a difficulty distinguishing between unfamiliar facial types. As far as I can figure the only thing that makes sense is that these people are living in some sort of fantasy.
Well, I suppose that’s a bit off-topic. Ah well.
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Off topic but that cake… I detect a hint of misogyny also from the part of the artist. I mean, yes, it is a black person BUT still: it is a woman. The woman is served to white cannibals and screams when they devour her, from the bottom up. And also, why make her appearance like that?
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@sam
Well to be perfectly honest I would assume the design was intended either to be silly or was some sort of statement on racism.
Though as far as I’m aware the issue of clitoridectomies isn’t a racial one…
So you do have a point, why was the issue of race or racism brought into this matter?
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This was a damn fine movie. Thank you for the recommendation/mention. I was puzzled when they said Medgar Evers was killed in 68; I’m pleased to know I was correct in noticing that error. I’d never heard Stokely Carmichael talk before — he’s a great orator. Angela Davis, however, was the best. She reminded me of my mother and my aunties. Powerful, beautiful, terrific.
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