Word+Image, essay by Jack Worsley

Jack Worsley, 20031119 Word and Image - Spike Lee.

“Chi-rak”, Spike Lee, 2015. (1) In the image above, The denotation is a political protest, with connotations of corruption, taking a stand, and radical change. It has signifiers such as the American flag, next to a political banner, and a group of black women, the signified from this suggests corruption, racism, and a lack of equality in America. These signs are symbolic, as these thoughts are purely culturally and conventionally specific, these thoughts would not be thought without the media, and personal experiences within the western culture that we are exposed to.

It could be argued that the political banner is also an indexical sign, as it is only there because of the lack of equality, meaning that the signifier is caused by the signified. All of these things tie into what Spike Lee wants us to see, as we can tell from other projects from Spike Lee, the depiction of race, and the issues that are present in America around race is something that Lee almost always has a focus towards, as can be seen by the quote ‘Race relations today are a direct response to having a black president’(2), this was no different.

The black women, on top of what appears to be a political building, suggested by the aged white texture, and the flagpole in front, suggest power, the women are in control, however, this concept is quickly disproven, by the political banner, reading “No peace”, and the fact that it is the nighttime, with the women wearing camouflage clothing. The camouflage clothing suggests stealth and rebellion, and now because of these signs, we can now come to an assumption that the women were not meant to be up there, they had got there by any means necessary, to protest, to make change.

(1) - Writer/Author N/A, Chi-rak, film-grab. https://film-grab.com/2017/03/10/chi-raq/ (accessed 14 March 2021) (2) - Catherine Shoard, Spike Lee: 'Race relations today are a direct response to having a black president', Fri 12 Jun 2020 06.00 BST, The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jun/12/spike-lee-race-relations-today-are-a-direct-response-to-having-a-black-presi dent (accessed 14 March 2021)

“BlackKkKlansmen”, Spike Lee, 2018. (3) we get to see a spliced image, both sharing one main commonality, a phone call, the telephones both being from the same era is a signifier, and suggests that they are on the call to each other.

By looking at other signifiers, such as the symbolic sign that is the Neo Nazi flag on the right, and the black man and police uniform on the left, a picture can start to be painted about what is happening here, we can do this as the Neo Nazi flag has a connotation of racism and white supremacy, where as the police uniform has connotations of justice, and the black man on the phone call to a white supremacist suggests that an operation is currently happening.

It is clearly signified that the man on the right has ties to racism, meaning that he would take a disliking to the man on the other end of the phone call, and now, the police uniform and the confused and shocked expressions on the subjects on the left begin to make sense, everyone around the man on the phone call is in disbelief, yet they stand close, they are aware of the situation, they respect it, yet they almost cannot believe it. After taking in this information, we could come to the conclusion that the man on the right is deceived, which contradicts the symbolic sign of the books, as books in an office signifies knowledge.

These things are suggested by the indexical signs that are the confused facial expressions, and that his peers are standing near, observing. With all of this knowledge, we can now come to the theory that an investigation into racism may be happening, this can be further suggested by the relaxed sitting position, yet almost scared facial expression that the man on the right has suggests that he doesn’t know how to feel, or what to do.

(3) - Writer/Author N/A, BlacKkKlansman, film-grab. https://film-grab.com/2019/01/01/blackkklansman/ (accessed 14 March 2021)

“Chi-rak”, Spike Lee, 2015. (1) This time we get an atmosphere that is completely different from the last still that we looked at.

Here, death is the denotation, the concept of death is signified, through signifiers that are the interior of a hearse, and a coffin. The thought of death here is a thought that we get through symbolic signs, a hearse and coffin signify death to use because of cultural conventions, however, as well as these symbolic signs, present are also indexical signs, the facial expressions show real pain, emotion, and hope, these things are all combined and present because of the signified, which is death.

The age range throughout the crowd of people shows that this person will be missed by generations, and although in this frame we don’t get any idea of who the person is, we can begin to paint a picture of a caring person, possibly a grandparent, there is a possibility that the young girl is the deceased’s grandchild, and on the polar opposite, this could be a young person, the older gentleman could be his grandfather, the young girl could be his sister, it is unclear, but what we do learn is that it was a person close to his community.

(1) - - Writer/Author N/A, Chi-rak, film-grab. https://film-grab.com/2017/03/10/chi-raq/ (accessed 14 March 2021)

Here is an image of Martin Luther King Jr. One of the most important figures in black history, assassinated by a racist, this goes to show exactly why activism is a necessity, even such an important figure is still a victim of racism. We can see that this is an important event, as we can see a photographer in the background, it would be uncommon to have a photographer at this kind of event, nevermind multiple photographers. In this project, The cross represents Christ, and life after death, we know this through recognizing the sign is related to Christianity, this is conventional and culturally specific, a symbolic sign. Through the men in the photograph, we see a range of generations, people from the generation that paved the way for black activism, and people that will go on to make change, and be a part of the generation that will continue to make change.

I used this image to conclude my writing on Spike Lee, as this feels like a real world event that lies closely to the work of Spike Lee, backed up by Spike an extract from an article in People.com, ‘Lee can still recall exactly where he was when he learned Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.’(4) Through what we know about Lee’s feelings on the event, as well as seeing the mourners in the photograph, we know that the all of the black community had been affected by the death of Martin Luther King Jr. (4) - Claudia Harmata , Spike Lee Recalls Sitting on His 'Stoop' in Brooklyn When Martin Luther King Jr. Was Assassinated, January 19, 2021 12:23 PM, People. https://people.com/movies/spike-lee-recalls-sitting-on-his-stoop-in-brooklyn/#:~:text=Spike%20Lee%20can%20still%20recall,was%2 0assassinated.&text=%22April%204%2C%201968%2C%20I,on%20my%20stoop%20%E2%80%94%20not%20porch! (accessed 14 March 2021)

Bibliography Writer/Author N/A, Chi-rak, film-grab. https://film-grab.com/2017/03/10/chi-raq/ (accessed 14 March 2021) Shoard Catherine, Spike Lee: 'Race relations today are a direct response to having a black president', The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jun/12/spike-lee-race-relations-today-are-a-direct-respon se-to-having-a-black-president Fri 12 Jun 2020 06.00 BST, (accessed 14 March 2021) Writer/Author N/A, BlacKkKlansman, film-grab. https://film-grab.com/2019/01/01/blackkklansman/ (accessed 14 March 2021) Harmata Claudia, Spike Lee Recalls Sitting on His 'Stoop' in Brooklyn When Martin Luther King Jr. Was Assassinated, People. https://people.com/movies/spike-lee-recalls-sitting-on-his-stoop-in-brooklyn/#:~:text=Spike%20L ee%20can%20still%20recall,was%20assassinated.&text=%22April%204%2C%201968%2C%2 0I,on%20my%20stoop%20%E2%80%94%20not%20porch! January 19, 2021 12:23 PM (accessed 14 March 2021)