Carl Dix - Diving Into Controversy

Diving Into Controversy

During Jesse Jackson's bids for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, Dix took the stance that "Revolution, Not Elections, Is the Way Out of This Madness." He authored articles on both of these campaigns that were published in the Revolutionary Worker newspaper and later published as pamphlets. Dix toured college campuses as an "anti-candidate" during the 1984 presidential elections, campaigning "against the notion that anything fundamentally good for oppressed people could be accomplished thru the electoral arena."

In 1985, Dix organized the "Draw The Line" statement in response to the City of Philadelphia's bombing of the MOVE house in which 11 people, five of them children, were killed. This statement condemned Philadelphia’s Black mayor for his role in that bombing. It was published in the Black-owned Philadelphia Tribune and in other publications on the first anniversary of this bombing, with over 100 signatories. Dix supported Ramona Africa, the sole adult survivor of the bombing who was the only person sent to jail in the aftermath of the bombing. Dix also calls for the release of journalist and former Black Panther, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has spent 3 decades on death row in Pennsylvania.

When the first President Bush and his Drug Czar, Bill Bennett, launched a "War On Drugs" in 1989, Dix issued a statement titled, "The War on Drugs is a War on The People!"

Dix wrote "Thoughts on The Color Purple", a review defending the movie and book of that name. In his review, Dix took on those who said "The Color Purple" spread negative stereotypes of Black men. Alice Walker, the author of The Color Purple, wrote: "One shining example of criticism by a black man with love is the review of The Color Purple, the movie, by Carl Dix that appeared in the Revolutionary Worker."

In 2009, a similar controversy surfaced around the movie, "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire." Dix co-wrote with Annie Day, "The Controversy over PRECIOUS: The Demonization of Black Men? Or, Shining a Light on the Squandered Potential of 'Precious Girls Everywhere' and Why Everyone Should Want That Realized." The article criticized African-American essayist and poet, Ishmael Reed, who was critical of the book and movie, contending that, "Reed erases the brutal and undeniable reality of what it means to walk the earth as a woman."