With the recent happenings leading me to research topics like the Black Liberation Army, the Weather Underground Organization, and some of the people and events surrounding the Vietnam War, my mind was primed for the release of Spike Lee’s latest Netflix joint, Da 5 Bloods.

Da 5 Bloods follows a group of war veterans who revisit Vietnam to recover the minds, bodies, souls, and gold that they left behind during their military tour.

It is a well-done, signature Spike Lee flick with an amazing cast of legends (Detective Freamon from The Wire!) and someone who I believe is at the start of a spectacular career, Jonathan Majors. (If you haven’t seen The Last Black Man in San Francisco, you should peep that ASAP. It’s on Amazon Prime.) But I’m not here to review the movie; I’d like to discuss something that stood out to me in a flashback scene when “Da Bloods” learn about Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. In that moment, the men realize that their people are back in America protesting and dying for their own rights while they are away in Vietnam fighting a war for a country that barely recognizes their citizenship. This got me thinkin’…

Black men have been removed from their family units since being shipped to The Americas. (And maybe even beyond that.) This isolation has been used as a tactic by oppressors for centuries to extract the male presence and security they provide, thus hindering the unification of Black people.

Men were sold away from their families to different slave owners. Men were lured away from their families with the promise of freedom and a better life if they fought in American wars. Men are currently being locked away in prisons, stripped from not only their families but society. All of these have caused generations of strife within the Black family unit.

How can progress be made for Black people when men, the so-called protectors, are being drawn away from their families? Their tribes? Their villages?

This thought made me think of the current situation with the NBA. The league is set to resume playing games by the end of July, but some players have recently spoken out about how returning could become a distraction from the “Black Lives Matter” protests and general awakening going on right now. While I agree with that stance, I recognize a deeper, underlying problem at work.  The NBA’s plan is to literally isolate these men from their families and put them into a “bubble” to go to (metaphorical) war with each other… At such a crucial time in this country and after history has repeatedly shown us that this isolation is counterproductive to Black unity, are we really entertaining the idea that these athletes will have more of an impact on society by being separated from their families and communities to play some basketball?

This example may be on a smaller scale, but the isolation concept is eerily similar to that of the slavery, war, and prison industries. Why is it really important that the NBA and other sports return this year? It is almost certainly not centered around the fight for Black people to be treated as humans by the systems in which we are intertwined, and it is definitely not at the benefit of keeping the families of some of our most prominent Black figures unified during this tumultuous time.

The realization made by the war veterans in Da 5 Bloods about their isolation and, ultimately, their disconnect and helplessness with domestic Black issues is poignant because we then see how their choice (or coercion) to join the Vietnam War effects their lives and families in the following decades. (SEMI-SPOILER ALERT BUT NOT REALLY: Many of their relationships are strained and/or broken.)

While this is not the sole focus of the film, the commentary about the men going to war for their oppressors highlights, to me, that unifying our Black families should be high on the priority list if we ever want a fighting chance out here. Black families and communities must resist the constant dismantling being forced upon us and remain together to heal, grow, and build for the future. Women cannot do it alone.

Black men participating in the NBA or NFL may appear to be relatively harmless ventures, but like slavery and war and prisons, these sports leagues are designed for the economic advancement of their capitalist owners and contribute to the separation and further destruction of the Black family unit. I hope the players choose to stay home…

Anywho, this is just one of many things I took away from Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, and I highly recommend giving it a watch! Peace.