Rediscovering 'The Spook Who Sat By The Door'

Speaker 1: 00:00 Author David Walker will have the black Panther party, a graphic novel released on January 19th. He reminds us that today's black lives matter movement is a manifestation of anger and frustration that has been brewing for centuries KPBS arts reporter. Beth Armando asked him to suggest a film to watch that might provide insights into the current black lives matter movement. The film is the spook who sat by the door and it also ties into the legacy of the black Panthers. Speaker 2: 00:30 David, I wanted to talk to you now because I feel like with the protests that have been coming up, films can give people a really good context for what's going on and a better understanding of what these protests mean in a larger picture. It's interesting to me that there haven't been really that many films that address the black Panthers as kind of the actual centerpiece of the film. Why do you think that? Speaker 3: 01:05 Well, I think the reason there hasn't been that many films dealing with the black Panthers, it's, it's pretty complex. I think part of it is that a lot of people still see them as being very controversial. And I think that that it's more, that they're misunderstood than controversial. And I think that it comes down to the fact that if you were to write a story, if you're writing a, I guess for lack of a better term, a traditional narrative of the black Panther party that cast them in the role of the good guys, well then the bad guys or the United States government and, and it's, and we're talking about a level of corruption on a governmental level, both federal state, and municipal that is kind of mind boggling when you really think about it. It's not as mind-boggling now because we're seeing some of these things play out on the, on the news on a daily basis, the, the acts of police brutality, the coverups that are going on, the lack of transparency, all this was going on in, you know, in the sixties. Speaker 3: 02:05 And, and before that. And since then, but I think that in terms of popular entertainment, it's difficult for a lot of people to get down with. How do we show that? I don't think there's a problem with it. I would love to do it, but I, I honestly think that that's part of it. I think that part of the problem, dealing with things like systemic racism is that it forces people to take a look at their own culpability. It's not just systemic racism. It's also, uh, sexism and homophobia and all the other forms of oppression. Once you acknowledge it, you have to look at your own culpability. And, and sometimes that culpability is, is merely inaction or apathy. And, and nobody wants to, nobody wants to face that Speaker 2: 02:50 One film that kind of addresses the idea of the black Panthers and a film that has been just unfairly is the spook who sat by the door. And this is a film. Most people may know the director, but not as a director. Ivan Dixon was very well-known for being on Hogan's heroes. And he directed this movie based on the Sam Greenlee book. Tell me a little bit about the film in terms of what you think makes it important. Speaker 3: 03:21 You know, the plot in a nutshell is about the first black agent and the CIA he's hired as a sort of token gesture. And after several years working for the CIA, he leaves to take a job as a social worker in Chicago. But what he's really doing is he's forming his own like black militant army with the goal of overthrowing the U S government and starting to sort of rebel army. It's one of my favorite books of all time. It's one of my favorite movies of all time. Some people are terrified by it. Some people are offended by this, this notion of this need to overthrow the government. And I think that part of what's so fascinating to me about this movie, the story in general is that it addresses the level of frustration and anger and, um, and all these pent up feelings that a lot of black folks have in that, no matter how hard you try, nothing really gets done. Speaker 3: 04:24 You know, it's, it's you see a lot of people posting stuff online now it's like, okay, well, you know, Martin Luther King preached non-violence and, and he got killed for it. And Malcolm X preached preach self-defense even if it meant violence and he got killed for it. And what do you want from us as black folks that we have to do in order for you to realize that we want freedom? You know, we want equality and, and this movie is all about that. There's a quote, Martin Luther King has a quote that says something to the effect of, you know, a riot is the cry of the unheard or something like that. And that's a lot of what that at its core, that's what the movie is about. The movie is about that. Okay, well, you haven't given us what we've politely asked for. What's guaranteed to us, supposedly in the constitution, and now we're going to make you give it to us one way or the other. You're either going to have to kill us, or you're going to have to give it to us. Speaker 4: 05:19 Hang on brothers and sisters, liberation is near and just a few minutes at precisely three o'clock. We will demolish the lavish offices of the mayor of white Chicago, because we don't have them back. Even if they do kind of vote several times to elect him every four years, remember brothers, his spider lies about an assassination attempt on the mayor, which will appear in the white press. That this time we blew the mayor's office at night, when he was at home to announce the beginning of our war of liberation, I dedicate this program to the national God, but we're fresh out of hillbilly music. And according to the press and television, God spends all his time playing basketball with the kids and helping old ladies cross the street. But we know better don't we, we know about that 14 year old girl, the trigger happy Gasman shot last night. And the people that beat up in a black business, they just don't put the film in a context in terms of when it was coming out. Speaker 3: 06:20 It's interesting because like I said, the movie came out in 73 and you know, this is 73 is, is sort of the peak year of the blaxploitation movement. There. A lot of films coming out that were being marketed directly to a black audience. And a lot of these were films that in a lot of ways, almost pacified the audience, they were, they were sort of these revenge fantasies more than they were a call to action. And, and especially by 73, had it, it had become that way. And the spook who sat by the door isn't really like those other movies. It's, it's not, it does feel more like a call to arms than any, Speaker 4: 06:56 Anything else. This is not about hate white folks. It's about love and freedom enough to die or kill for it. If necessary, then you're going to need more than heat to sustain you when this thing begins. Speaker 3: 07:10 And part of the reason the FBI worked to suppress it was, you know, there was always this fear of the quote unquote race war, and it was always this fear that something would instigate black people to finally rise up and take arms and declare war against the white man. And that's been this fear, this, this white fear in America since before America was America, when it was still, you know, part of the British colonies. And I think that that, that terrifies people so much, and especially when it's placed in a context of, Oh yeah, they're justified if people it's interesting. Cause people forget that if you look at say star Wars, star Wars is a movie about rebellion. You know, it's a, it's a movie about a group of rebels rising up against an oppressive state and an oppressive system. And we, in some regards we glorify the rebels, but then in other times we vilified and it all depends on how the narrative serves our ideological needs. And, and I think that the fear of, of a movie like spooky sat by the doors, it doesn't feed the needs of the power structure. It, it calls the power structure to tasks and it says, uh, yeah, we need to burn it down. Speaker 4: 08:28 Well, it's interesting too, because a lot of the early scenes in the CIA, it really attacks the CIA for this tokenism Speaker 5: 08:37 That concludes our oral examination. And let me congratulate you on being the first Negro officer in the central intelligence agency, we've programmed your aptitudes into our computer personnel system. You have to be on you top secret reproduction center, section chief he's in the third running Speaker 3: 08:56 The Xerox machine and, and, and Dan Freeman, that's the character's name is he plays that part so well, he plays that docile. Um, and, and, you know, spook is a term for CIA agents. It's, it's an old slang term. And so the title, you know, basically is he, at some point, Dan was moved from the copy room up to the front room of the CIA so that when people would come in senators and Congress, people would come in, the first thing they would see is a black person, right? And so he became the spook who sat by the door and it's, and it's just fascinating because there's things that, you know, as, as he's building the army and as he's, they're planning their attacks, there's things that he says Speaker 4: 09:42 A black man with a mop tray or broom in his hand and go anywhere in this country and a smiling black man is invisible because no, Speaker 3: 09:53 What are the questions you, if you, you know, if you're a janitor and it's just fascinating because there's so many things that are said that are kind of be sort of painful truths. And one of the things that happens in the movie, and I think this is really interesting is as there, as the government is trying to figure out who's behind these, these acts of terrorism, they assume that it's, it must be communist infiltrators, right? That, that it has to be the commies doing it because there's because black people aren't organized enough. They're not smart enough to do this Speaker 4: 10:27 Since it's the most sophisticated underground movement in the Western hemisphere, the work of an expert and expertise is white. Man's monopoly, Ryan Dawes. I am an expert. I spent five years into becoming an expert. Speaker 3: 10:42 And it recalls in 68, the Connor commission, which was put together by president Johnson, issued the Kerner commission report on, on racial unrest in the U S and it essentially spelled out everything that we see happening right now today in contemporary 20, 20 America. And initially Johnson, president Johnson discounted all of it. And he, and he thought that somehow the communists were involved in this realization that America was a racially unjust nation. And what the spook, who sat by the door gets at is that America will look for any sort of excuse to not have to look directly at racism, racial oppression, down to the cause of it. And down to the reaction of it, you know, it's like, we really couldn't have done this. So someone else must have done this. And your responses is unwarranted because so therefore you must be being agitated by, by whether it's communists or, or someone else. And that film really touches upon things that are being said. Now, you know, the movie came out in 73, so it's, you know, over 40 years old and it's still relevant. It's, there's, there's nothing in that movie that you can't look on the news and see happening right now. All right. Well, I want to thank you very much. Thank you. It was good talking to you. Stay safe and healthy and be well. Speaker 1: 12:14 That was author David Walker. Speaking with Beth Armando. You can listen to her full interview with additional film recommendations on her cinema junkie podcast available at kpbs.org/cinema junkie.