"Black people have been dying for this country, and we still don't have our full rights."
Spike Lee spoke with Brut about the George Floyd protests, police brutality, and the history of black G.I.s deployed to Vietnam, the subject of his new film "Da 5 Bloods."
Spike Lee spoke with Brut about the George Floyd protests, police brutality, and the history of black G.I.s deployed to Vietnam, the subject of his new film "Da 5 Bloods."
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Short filmTranscript
00:00My ancestors were stolen from Mother Africa in the year 1619,
00:08the first slave ship, and brought to Jamestown, Virginia.
00:14The first person to die in the first American war,
00:20the American Revolutionary War, was a black man.
00:23His name is Crispus Attucks.
00:25A lot of people don't know that history.
00:27And it proves the point that black people have been dying for this country.
00:35And we still don't have our full rights.
00:39Every war, we fought for this country.
00:42Black G.I., is it fair to serve more than the white Americans that sent you here?
00:59This film addresses what's happening today in the streets.
01:12I've seen so many young kids with parents holding their hand.
01:28Parents are making a decision that their children need to see what is happening in the United States of America.
01:38And they want their children to be a witness.
01:41And they're explaining, they're not just putting out there at the same time,
01:45learning, education is happening.
01:47Because the kids are saying, Mommy, Daddy, what's happening?
01:50And these parents are explaining to their very young children what is happening,
01:57why they're out there, and why they brought them along too.
02:02It gives me more hope that the large amount of my young white brothers and sisters out there who are joining us,
02:11they're black and brown sisters.
02:14It's really a mosaic.
02:20It's not just black and brown people out there marching.
02:24And in many cities, the black and brown people are the minority.
02:32The fictional murder of Radar Heimbold was based upon the real murder of a graffiti artist, Michael Stewart.
02:47And then I wrote Do the Right Thing in 1989, 88.
02:51It came out in 89.
02:53And then many years later, I see Errol Gardner, and now, most recently, King Floyd.
02:59So, it's sad.