“When they murder white babies and things don’t change, saving Black lives is way out of range” (Bassett, Chi-Raq, 00:22:21-00:22:29).

“Because we are we. No matter what our problems are, we deserve respect” (Parris, Chi-Raq, 01:15:43-01:15:50).

 

Wielding the weapon of verse,

Miss Helen (Angela Bassett) speaks the painful truth,

that this country has and continues to do nothing to protect its youth.

This reimagined Aristophanes classic

weaponizes the tool of a strong writer,

and Helen’s word pattern sets inside Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris) a fire.

Long gone are the women of Chi-Raq from Plato’s Cave,

Lee’s audiences, too, are full of sorrow and rage.

Miss Helen’s rhyme had left a fatal blow, striking all minds.

Now with open eyes,

One gang fight and stray bullet after another,

Lysistrata couldn’t bear to see another mourning mother.

Helen referenced Sandy Hook in 2012 while living Chi-Raq in ‘15,

now in 2022, has there been a change to what we see?

Uvalde mourning a loss while policymakers sit cross,

pointing to a 240-year-old document.

Black Lives Matter was another burning light,

calling on us to leave the dark comfort in exchange for what’s right.

No knocks were challenged and E. Lee was removed,

yet we clash over “freedom” and “choice” against safety and childhood.

Isn’t that ironic?

As Lee makes clear,

education and mental health need to be prioritized,

but with learning loss and high-stakes tests, it’s impossible to visualize.

Racism is at the roots of our school system,

with tests based on eugenics sorting kids into groups,

we need a greater, more difficult change is all that this proves.

Like Hannah-Jones and Ladson-Billings described, a debt is due.

Money and resources need to be relocated

and teaching methods that were formed to tell white kids they are superior can’t be employed in our country’s schools any longer.

The financial debt owed is only the beginning

of a much larger reform Helen and Lysistrata were brewing.

Lysistrata hits the nail on the head

by dropping the hammer in quote two with the words she said.

Nobody is less deserving of respect when they struggle,

isn’t that what makes people human:

making mistakes and asking for help when in trouble?

Yet as Chi-Raq made clear just with the title,

communities like South Chicago are disregarded, ignored,

painted as helpless, a minefield to avoid.

But past the senseless violence

passed on through the generations that carried on and excelled without silence, are real people.

Families. Friends. Neighbors. Children.

While politicians follow the money and power,

communities are burying one another.

As audiences chuckle at the women’s oath,

and the General attached to a Civil War cannon by handcuffs,

there’s little humor in that the only way

to show gang members they’ve had enough

is for the women to deny the men of the city

until the killing stops.

But even then,

desperation fuels the end

more than out of a respect for women

or the majority of the community.

The film doesn’t end in mutiny,

but when does the mutiny end in today’s communities?

The lethal blows aren’t only being delivered down the barrel of a gun.

Men don’t only have a physical grasp, but a more dangerous one.

Voices silenced, invalidated but persistent,

they go as far as to shame women’s choices

while their crusade for “religious freedom”

threatens others’ very existence.

Seven years later,

Lysistrata’s verse remains unanswered.

 

Works Cited

Chi-Raq. Directed by Spike Lee, performances by Angela Bassett and Teyonah Parris, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, 2015.