By SHIRLEY LI
Spike Lee’s first competitive Oscar win (for co-writing BlacKkKlansman) on Sunday night resulted in cheers, a standing ovation, and a jubilant leap into longtime friend and collaborator Samuel L. Jackson’s arms on stage at the Dolby Theatre.
Inside the White House, though, his achievement led to the opposite reaction. On Monday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted that Lee’s speech was “a racist hit on your President.”
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
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, who has done more for African Americans (Criminal Justice Reform, Lowest Unemployment numbers in History, Tax Cuts,etc.) than almost any other Pres!
It’s a reaction Lee found unsurprising. When EW asked the writer-director on Monday morning whether he’d seen the tweet, he nodded, then sighed. “Well, it’s okee-doke, you know,” he said with a shrug. “They change the narrative.”
“They did the same thing with the African-American players who were kneeling, trying to make it into an anti-American thing, an anti-patriotic thing, and an anti-military thing,” he explained. “But no one’s going for that.”
Instead of dwelling on it, Lee’s looking forward to working on his next film. As he told fans with an update on Instagram, he’s heading to Thailand to shoot the Chadwick Boseman starrer Da 5 Bloods. “BlacKkKlansman, that’s over,” he says in the post. “Like Jay Z says, onto the next.”
Related links:
- Spike Lee wins his first Oscar for co-writing BlacKkKlansman
- Spike Lee pays tribute to Do the Right Thing on Oscars red carpet
- See all the winners at the 2019 Oscars
