Spike Lee's New "Crockumentary" on Katrina

Famed black filmmaker Spike Lee has filmed a documentary for HBO about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath entitled

"When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts." Being quite familiar with Mr. Lee's politics, I can't imagine that the film is a valentine to the Bush administration. As Star Parker discusses in her new article, Lee does anything but gives "props" to President Bush.What conclusion can one draw from watching Lee's film?

The conclusion that he had already reached before setting foot in the Big Easy, say Ms. Parker: "[That] poor blacks suffered and died as result of the indifference of a detached and racist Bush administration in general and President Bush in particular."Ms. Parker continues:

Since Lee already knew the truth, he didn't have much need to examine material such as "A Failure of Initiative," Congress' investigation into Katrina, which shows failure and breakdown at all levels of government _ local, state and federal. It also was of little interest to Lee that primary responsibility for disaster preparation and management is at the level of local and state government, not federal.


But New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin comes off in the production as just one cool dude. He shows up at regular intervals over the four-hour production, talking New Orleans jive and being one straightforward sincere guy who was trying to do his job.

No mention is made of the hurricane simulations and emergency evacuation plans that he totally ignored. No reference is made to the famous picture of the parking lot filled with flooded school buses that Nagin chose not to use to evacuate residents in poor areas.

Central to the Katrina story is the failure of the levees...
But who is responsible for ignoring the warnings over the years that the levees protecting New Orleans were inadequate? Bush? Of course not.

It was Louisiana's congressional delegation that was responsible to ensure that their constituents' interests were being represented and that funds were being appropriated to fix sub-standard levees. Speaking of irresponsible congressional representatives:William Jefferson, New Orleans' congressman for the last 16 years, has been under FBI investigation over the last year under bribery charges. However, Jefferson is a Democrat and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. To shine a light on his possible, and likely, neglect of representing his constituents' interests would have distracted from the single message that Bush was the evil genius behind this tragedy.

Of course, no mention is made of Jefferson's trip home, when he commandeered a National Guard truck in the middle of rescue efforts to take him to his house to retrieve personal property. As much as I have enjoyed Spike Lee's films, I have never liked his far-left, America-hating political worldview. I am particularly repulsed by his utter contempt for prominent black conservatives like U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In fact, Lee takes a cheap shot at Dr. Rice in the documentary, as Ms. Parker points out:

Given what Lee leaves out, it's particularly cheap and sick that he felt it relevant to include footage of Condoleezza Rice supposedly shopping for designer shoes at the time the disaster was sweeping New Orleans. As we know, Condi is our secretary of state, who has no responsibility for any of these matters. Ms. Parker sums it up nicely:

Perhaps most sad is that in four hours Lee has nothing positive to say about America and Americans. No mention is made of the $700 million from private citizens and churches that were committed in the first few days of the tragedy. No mention is made of the thousands of homes across the nation that welcomed evacuees. No mention is made of the tens of thousands who have successfully rebuilt their lives.

Spike Lee clearly has little affection for the country that gives him free expression and has made him wealthy. He has produced a self-indulgent, deceitful and exploitive film about a tragedy. His message will give poor blacks more reasons to feel powerless, to feel lost, to feel that others bear responsibility for their lives, to hate, and to stay poor. I think I'll pass on checking out this newest Spike Lee joint.