Movie director Spike Lee recently wore a jacket to the NBA All-Star game, an event commonly attended by Hollywood elite and other celebrities, demanding that reparations be issued for slavery. Lee was spotted in the politicized piece of apparel while sitting courtside at the Sunday game.
The statement on the back of Lee’s jacket read, “We want our 40 acres and a mule. Yes, reparations. No subterfuge.” For years, Lee has advocated that reparations be extended to black Americans over slavery, a concept he has interjected in some of his film productions.
Lee has been highly outspoken about his left-wing political opinion where, prior to the 2024 election, he lamented the prospect of President Donald Trump returning to power. During an interview with MSNBC in October 2024, Lee claimed it would “doomsday” if Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Host Ari Melber asked the director, “What does your work have to say about the choice in this election over these next 15 days?” Lee stated that he would vote for Harris in the following days. “Well, I’m voting my sister, the vice president. She used the language, the word forward, not backwards,” he initially said.
Speaking about Trump, he continued, “This guy, I don’t call him by his name, I say Agent Orange and the stuff that he is saying, he’s not being shy, he is saying exactly what he wants to do if he becomes the next President of the United States. He said there should be no more elections.”
Lee further criticized Trump and his supporters, claiming it would be a crisis if they got their way. “I don’t know how people can be true Americans and just go along with that path, it would be a doomsday. I’m not the only one that says this possibly could be the most important presidential election in history of this country.
The director emphasized, “That’s how dire this is. It’s not a joke, it’s not funny, this is like life and death.” Lee added, “So I urge people not likely to vote get with the program now. Let’s move this country forward, forward, not backwards.” See a photo of Spike Lee’s jacket at the NBA All-Star game below:
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In the pre-election interview, Lee also addressed the historically high support President Trump received from black males, applauding former President Barrack Obama who urged the demographic to support Harris. “I gotta give credit to President Obama because he’s been going really hard on the brothers — some might think too hard, but I don’t think so. We gotta wake up and don’t go for the okie doke, the flim-flam — can’t do that,” Lee said.
“It’s sad but true, some of my brothers have been drinking that Kool-Aid and I just hope that they get their minds straight, get their minds right, in time for this election,” Lee added. “If they’re conscious, if they’re aware, there’s nothing that this other guy can do that’s going to put us — not just Black folks — but Americans, in a better position going forward.”
Featured image credit: Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spike_Lee_Cannes_2018_(cropped).jpg