Spike Lee Right on Race Tactics, Misses Big Picture

Spike Lee correctly identified a major weapon used against conservatives today by the left, but he did so through a self-interested lens.

The famed director recently had a chummy Q&A with Deadline.com, and the subject of Lee’s image as an angry auteur came up. Lee pounced on the subject, and in doing so stumbled upon a truth that applies far more to today’s conservatives than a filmmaker who gets plenty of favorable press.

DEADLINE: Every time I talk to you, I laugh a lot and walk away thinking, why do they peg him as the angry guy?

LEE: Here it is, seriously. When you want to negate someone’s message and work, you say things like, he’s a racist and hope they catch on and the work gets dismissed. It’s the very old trick they do in politics, and in art. It didn’t happen right away with me. When She’s Gotta Have It came out, I was the black Woody Allen. Spike Lee. The black Woody Allen. Then the next film, School Daze, came out, and it was, well, I don’t know about that black Woody Allen thing. And then Do The Right Thing came out, and, well, that was the last time I heard about the black Woody Allen. They had to let that shit go. And I’m saying that with all respect to Woody, a fellow New Yorker, and long time New York Knicks season ticket holder whose films I love. But Woody never said I was the black him, that was other people. I get it. The glasses. We’re both small. From Brooklyn.