Spike Lee responds to accusations from Donald Trump that his Oscar speech was 'racist'

It was a baffling gambit from President Donald Trump to accuse Spike Lee of being ‘racist’ in his speech at the Oscars on Sunday night.

The commander in chief tweeted: “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!”

Lee, who scooped his first Oscar for co-writing BlacKkKlansman, didn’t even mention Trump in his acceptance, merely calling for people to be ‘on the right side of history’ and to make the moral choice between love versus hate’ in 2020, when the next US presidential election will take place.

So ‘racist hit’ is a bit of a reach, and Lee reckons so too.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Lee shrugged: “Well, it’s okee-doke, you know. 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.

“But no one’s going for that.”

Lee hit headlines on Sunday night, after BlacKkKlansman lost out to Green Book in the Best Picture category, a movie which has been accused of perpetuating the ‘white saviour’ trope.

He was reportedly ‘visibly upset’ by the win, was ‘waving his arms in disgust’, and tried to storm out of the auditorium before being stopped at the door.

He later said of the choice ‘the ref made a bad call’.

Lee added in the press room that ‘I’m snakebit, every time somebody’s driving somebody I lose’, referring to when Do The Right Thing lost out to Driving Miss Daisy in the 80s.

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