{"id":6034,"date":"2022-04-04T16:27:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T20:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=6034"},"modified":"2022-04-11T18:42:15","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T22:42:15","slug":"a-messiah-wont-save-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2022\/04\/a-messiah-wont-save-us\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u201cmessiah\u201d won\u2019t save us"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Movie poster for Judas and the Black Messiah. Image<\/a> by Unification France.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span>here\u2019s a film I’ve wanted to talk about since it appeared on HBO Max last year. That night, I lay on the carpet of my three bedroom Humboldt park home, with a space heater at my feet, snuggled under a blanket, as the snow of Chicago\u2019s February winter came as a blizzard. I was giddy. As a revolutionary socialist, I had become familiar with the phenomenon that was (and still is) Chairman Fred Hampton Sr. I knew, with my comfy joggers on and a baked sweet potato in front of me, that history was happening on screen. Socialism\u2014that idea that in years past had been taboo in the mainstream\u2014now found comfort in the minds, the souls, and the tongues of my generation. So much so that the ground had been set to have a film that spoke of socialism as the necessary alternative: Judas and the Black Messiah.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m taken aback that this film made it through the barriers of the Hollywood film system. But, there\u2019s something more. Socialism is an all-encompassing framework to assert values and to fight for workers owning the workplace; community ownership by the community; ownership of our bodies, also ourselves; and the majority of the people owning the means of production. In other words, as Chairman Fred would say, \u201call power to the people.\u201d But a word like socialism can be twisted, bent, and interpreted in such a way that the meaning becomes obsolete. This film, though, attains its power from what we see, hear, and feel from the narrative. In that way, filmmakers\u2014Shaka King, Will Berson, and the Lucas Brothers (Kenny and Keith Lucas)\u2014use Hampton to uncover an ideology that is love in motion. Socialism is the tangible, concrete realization of the late Michael Brooks\u2019 dictum<\/a>: be ruthless towards systems, with empathy and compassion for each other.<\/p>\n

Synopsis<\/h4>\n

Let\u2019s start here: After a failed car-jacking attempt and arrest by the police, William O\u2019Neal (played by Lakeith Stanfield) is offered a plea deal from the FBI. His job is to serve as an informant, with the task of infiltrating the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and gathering intelligence on Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya). His infiltration of the party leads to deep personal conflict as he juggles the responsibilities entrusted to him by the FBI and the moral conundrum of betraying the Black Panther Party. Throughout, we are shown the work of the party, and more importantly to this film, the messianic nature of Chairman Fred. The film crescendos with O\u2019Neal\u2019s ultimate betrayal of the Party: the FBI murders the Black Messiah using information provided by O\u2019Neal.<\/p>\n

Individualism v. Solidarity<\/h4>\n

This film presents an ideological clash of sorts: individualism vs. solidarity with the community. As early as the second scene, we find O’Neal, robbing someone of their car. He\u2019s shown in a film noir brown trench coat and a fedora. He\u2019s cunning, somewhat skilled, but the film also shows a level of incompetence\u2014ie. having his disguise busted at a bar and barely escaping, only to then be detained by the police. O\u2019Neal, in many ways, is a person, quintessentially born of the U.S. experience, who is pushed to their financial limits and sees robbing and stealing from people as his only recourse. This is an individual who is a participant in a system that robs resources such as public funds for jobs, for schools and textbooks, for mental and physical health, for clean and affordable homes. Also, this \u201cquintessential American\u201d is a part of a system that steals history and dignity from Black poor and working people, exposes them to harassment and murder by cops, and veils the broader economic structure that exploits oppressed people of their labor. In this crucible, the individual who is exploited by that system might respond by robbing and stealing from the community to which he, she, or they belong. O\u2019 Neal is a symbol of this archetype. He does not see those Black men at the bar as human beings who are autonomous and worthy of hanging out in a venue without being harassed. He sees these men as objects who hold the key to his material needs. Here, our film narrative, the portrayal of a kind of individualism, takes shape.<\/p>\n