I was willing to ignore any insinuations about this years Spiderman movie being subconsciously racist and give the movie a chance; mainly because my 6 year-old son is fascinated by the comic book character and was awaiting number 3, even saving his hard-earned garbage-run dollars toward that Friday's premier. I admit, I too wanted to see Spidey at work expecting a positive message to be sent to all 4 of my school-age kids. But as I watched, endowed with my gift from God - to see things as they really are - my spirit was vexed as the plot unfolded and my English Lit/poetry critic awaken.

The gist of the movie, the moral of the story, the message sent to the intended audience, the bottom line was this: White suburban youth must not emulate Black rappers because they will become possessed by some evil force and basically burn in hell. Let me explain.

First, the Black suit was a representation of an evil spirit that when possessed by, one will love how they feel yet they feel really evil, a sorta powerful evil. They are cool, hip, and smooth with the ladies, as was Peter Parker when he was himself yet as Spidey he was a vengeful, spiteful bully when he was overtaken by the Black suit. Eventually however, it led to him losing his love, M.J., after he slapped her down in the night club, and the forces of evil were broken by public humiliation and shame.

Another interesting tidbit about the Black suit - or the power it possessed - was that each time Spidey felt the power coming on, the camera would somehow, someway, take a still shot of someone Black. I swear to God it did. For instance, Peter Parker took a picture of M.J in a crowd full of people in one scene, and the next second when he prepared to take another picture, the lens somehow, someway, focused in on a Black guy. Take notice of that when you see the film.

The second incident is when He and M.J were in a restaurant and they had an argument. Long story short, she got up and left and he went after her but stopped short. He turned back toward the table and as the music played a feeling of remorse began to come over him. which brought the Black suit feeling, and again, the camera focused on a Black couple sitting at the table behind him.

The third happened when he was talking to his buddy Harry in a restaurant and he told Peter that he and M.J. were seeing each other. Well this news crushed Peter and he got up and left the table almost in tears. Anger came over him in the street and he turned to look back at Harry, who was smiling, which crushed poor Peter even more. But when Peter took a second look, Harry was gone and the camera, once again, focused on a Black guy standing at the bar. Weird huh. Well it gets better.

Now each of these times the camera focused on someone Black, there was a reference to the evil powers of the Black suit, or Peter was overtaken with feelings of frustration, anger or remorse. Call me paranoid but this actually happens and if you take notice you will see. He said himself. "This feels real good," when he tried the suit out for the first time and in time, he learned to use the suit when he wanted to get revenge. Ponder that one. Now what feels good yet is really bad for you? Sin. Thus the Black suit represented anything sinful.

Also, anytime he interacted with someone close to him such as his girlfriend or friend or the coworker Eddie Brock who was after his job at the newspaper, he would say hurtful and mean things to them to hurt them or completely destroy their sense of joy or confidence. This happened 3 or 4 times during the movie either when he was in or out of the suit.

The power had taken hold of him when he was not in the Spidey costume, at his home, and job. The suit and the attitude that came with the suit gave the shy-town boy Peter Parker some balls, so to speak, but they were evil balls.

Now comes the obviously hypocritical part on the part of the white producers. There were villains in the story, 3 in fact, the guy who killed Peter's uncle in the first Spiderman, Harry his friend and son of his enemy, and the young guy who wanted Peter's job at the newspaper. The killer was transformed into some sort of sandman with superpowers, Harry inherited his father’s evil machine, and the young guy ironically inherited the Black suit after Spidey repents in church and throw off the Black suit, unleashing it from his person.

And though these evil villains are supposed to be, in fact, evil, the most evil was the Black suit, regardless of what crimes of mischief the villains committed. For instance, it was revealed that the sandman killed Peter's uncle because he was just trying to get money for his sick little girl. So in the mist of an armed robbery, he mistakenly - mistakenly I repeat - shoots the uncle and kills him, Well Peter is pissed and goes to get the Black suit to drum up the balls to get revenge.

The sandman Escapes from jail, is on the run from the police, destroys city property in his tyrannical fits, and possibly kills others after the cars he throws lands in public places, yet at the end of the movie Peter forgives him because he explains that he was just trying to help his little girl live and did not mean to kill his uncle. So the sandman disintegrates into thin air and escapes conviction, jail time, death row, the swat team, or anything else the US justice system would do to someone who commits robbery and murder.

Nevertheless, the message sent says that one can be white trash and get away with murder if they did the crime for a good reason, but if one is Black, they are sinful, abusive, ruthless, and vengeful as well as possess a power to influence a decent person to commit vile acts. So where do I get the Suburban white boy emulation of Black rappers from? I put two and two together.

Suburban white children are in crises today because of rap music. They imitate Black rappers and many white parents have lost control of their children because of their Black behavior. They will not make a big story about it on the news because they are too ashamed. They cannot reach these children because these children have taken on an attitude they do not understand and cannot handle, the supposed Black mentality, so they attempt to reach them through images, subliminal messaging, and propaganda-laced stereotyping.

Now after the movie, I kindly explained to my 4 Black children what the movie was about and they accepted it and went their ways. And now they know a little bit more about the world they live and the reality they face. And they are not being taught racist theory simply because they saw it for themselves in a character they used to admirer. As for me, I am convinced that we as Blacks are winning the conscious war against whites but the power to employ imagery that influences social norms, we have yet to gain.

© May 2007 by CR Hamilton