Hollywood director Spike Lee slammed President Donald Trump for being “on the wrong side of history” and lashed out at rapper Kanye West for his comments on slavery.
During an interview with the Hollywood Reporter about his upcoming crime drama, BlacKkKlansman, the Do the Right Thing director criticized President Trump for “dog whistle stuff” that has given white supremacists the opportunity to come out strong for their hateful beliefs.
“They get the signal. That’s what happened in Charlottesville,” Lee said of the white nationalist groups that descended upon the Virginia college town in August of 2017.
Calling Trump “Agent Orange,” Lee said that the president’s comments after the riots in Charlottesville will be his epitaph.
“Agent Orange refused to repudiate the Klan, the alt-right and the Nazis. ‘There’s good people on both sides.’ That’s going to be on his gravestone,” Lee said. “He’s on the wrong side of history.”
The director also shook his head over recent comments by rap star Kanye West.
“I pray for my brother. I pray for my brother. I pray for him,” Lee insisted.
With a note to his Instagram account, Lee criticized West over his recent comments about slavery.
“‘SLAVERY…A CHOICE’ My Brother, OUR Ancestors Did Not Choose To Be Stolen From Mother Africa. OUR Ancestors Did Not Choose To Be Ripped Of Our Religion,Language,Culture. OUR Ancestors Did Not Choose To Be Murdered, Lynched,Castrated,Raped,Burnt At The Stake,Families Sold Apart. OUR Ancestors Built This Country (On Land Stolen From The Native Americans)From The Ground Up Under The Institution Of SLAVERY,” Lee wrote on his post.
“Where Is This Brother In The Picture Next To Me I Would Not Be Surprised If OUR Ancestors Are Not Pleased With Your Uneducated Comments. P.S. Your Retraction Does Not Undue The Harm You Cause To Our Beloved ANCESTORS. WAKE UP,” the director concluded.
Speaking of his new film, Lee says that the sort of racism depicted in BlacKkKlansman — about the real-life African-American detective who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in 1978 — is “going on today,” even though the book he based the film on is over forty years old. “It’s Not a Relic of the Past — This is Happening Today,” Lee exclaimed.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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