Donald Trump has complained about a “racist hit” he said Spike Lee carried out on him at the Oscars.
The film-maker, 61, won his first competitive Academy Award, best adapted screenplay, for his film BlacKkKlansman, which was also nominated for best picture. Lee received an honorary Oscar in 2015.
In his acceptance speech, which he read from a sheet of notes, Lee referred to February being Black History Month and discussed slavery and its legacy, particularly within his own family. His great-grandmother, he said, was a slave.
Lee said: “Before the world tonight I give praise to our ancestors who built this country into what it is today along with the genocide of its native people. If we all connect with our ancestors we will have love, wisdom and regain our humanity. It will be a powerful moment.
“The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let’s all mobilise, let’s all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate.”
He concluded by referring to one of his most famous films: “Let’s do the right thing! You know I had to get that in there.”
At a subsequent press conference, Lee was asked if his film had changed America. He responded by discussing the white nationalist rally and march in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, during which Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old counterprotester, was killed by a car driven by an extremist.
Lee included footage of the attack in BlacKkKlansman. Trump infamously said there had been “very fine people, on both sides” of the protests.
“That car drove down that one street in Virginia,” Lee said, “and the president of the United States did not reject, refute [or] did not denounce the Klan, ‘alt-right’ and neo-Nazis. This film, whether we won best picture or not, this film will stand the test of time being on the right side of history.”
Around dawn on Monday, from the White House, Trump duly responded with a nasty personal jab.
He wrote: “Be nice if Spike Lee could read his notes or better yet not have to use notes at all when doing his racist hit on your president.”
He also claimed he had “done more for African Americans (Criminal Justice Reform, Lowest Unemployment numbers in History, Tax Cuts, etc) than almost any other Pres[ident]!”
Trump regularly claims to have done great things for African Americans, among whom unemployment has indeed hit historic lows – while fluctuating month to month. But such claims ignore stark economic disparities affecting African Americans and the economic record of the Obama administration.
In December, Trump signed into law sentencing reform backed by both parties. Most advocates suggest there is much more to do, including reforming the treatment of the current prison population.
On Sunday night, Lee also indicated his disappointment that Green Book, which has been criticised for its approach to its story of race relations in the south in the 1960s, won best picture. He reportedly tried to leave the theatre when the award was announced, then turned his back on the stage.
“The ref made a bad call,” he said later.
