John Singleton Ramble

I recently remembered the movie Four Brothers and thought “I think John Singleton directed that.” I thought that was a racist thought I had, like “ah jeez Edith if Spike Lee didn’t direct it than John Singleton must’ve. That’s the only other colored fella the Hebrews allowed on dem lots.” Turns out my inner Archie Bunker was right.

Maybe I should rewatch Four Brothers. I haven’t seen since its theatrical run when I was 10-11. Yeah that’s what I was watching as a kid, I was already too mature for Dan Schneider’s foot fetish programming.

Recently The Criterion Collection experienced some controversy when somebody pointed out they only had four black filmmakers in their vault. I wouldn’t even know where to begin when speaking about white Film Twitter pretending to be angry about that for 8-12 hours before concluding their evening with some pretentious snobbery on The Criterion Channel. Instead I’ll just steamroll over it and say if they ever put one of John Singleton’s films in The Criterion Collection, I hope it’s Higher Learning.

I really like that kind of “everything including the kitchen sink” movie. By that I mean, everything John Singleton wanted to comment on is in that one movie. To go back to Spike Lee, it reminds me of Jungle Fever because holy fuck, talk about a movie that includes every issue weighing on a man’s mind. It’s incredible Spike Lee continued to be prolific after saying so much in Jungle Fever.

Higher Learning is one of the few things you can really say was ahead of its time. At one point Ice Cube asks Omar Epps, whose character is an athlete, whether or not he’d stand for the National Anthem before a meet. Then there’s the part with mass shooter Michael Rapaport having a cop played by the dad from Halloween VI being way more compassionate towards him than he’s ever been to any black student.

That’s really proven to be factual with Dylann Roof. That dude had a Call of Duty kill streak in a church, the cops casually pulled him out alive, zero physical force, THEN they were like “here’s a Burger King kids meal! What toy did you get? Ah a Maggie Simpson bookmark? Darn, I know it looks like a stinker but wait till you see the prison library. That’s gonna come in handy!”

Let’s end this on Boyz N The Hood. I can’t tell you how many times I watched that in middle school. I really put my brain through some hell watching Cuba Gooding Jr harrassed by cops and angrily shadow boxing. I don’t think I can even get into Ricky without my lower lip trembling.

What I’m trying to tell you is…I’ve earned the right to say the N word.

It’s fitting to reference Shaun King because I’ve heard him say Boyz N The Hood is his favorite movie. What’s up with that guy? From what little I know, his gimmick is “what if Anthony Michael Hall’s black guy impression from Weird Science and The Breakfast Club was a sjw?”

I know he’s sticking to the “my whore mom cheated on my dad with a black man” story, but I’m thinking Rachel Dolezal has more legitimacy at a cookout.

That concludes our John Singleton chat. Hopefully that legend in a better place. It’s gotta be better than 2020.