The Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee spoke with MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid about his new film Netflix For five Bloods, the long history of racism and brutality in America, and his hopes for the protests after the death of George Floyd . A lot of work feels like it is about the relationship between the blacks in America, and the extent of violence is an important part of this report. Is that a conscious thing? I do not think you want that, but if you want to tell the story of who we are, just the fact that there were stolen from Africa mother and brought here through the Middle Passage, and no one knows how many people do not even our ancestors. And now we are 401 years later, in 1619, the first slave ship went to Virginia. So our whole existence from one day up to now has been become one of the violence that is brought against us. And the more I think about it, we trauma. We as a people have a trauma, and we do not deal with the trauma. One of the things I do, love for Da 5 Bloods is that this story is to fight the history of trauma, the idea of a country that does not love you and where the rewards you get when you come home and uniform off is police brutality. Vietnam was very special. If you are black, white or brown, and you’re a Vietnam veteran, then you hated when you came back because my- I spat, “Baby Killer” -all that stuff. But it was also the first war in American history, where you have a black voice opposition actually had was strong? The film is a prologue and epilogue. A prologue is Muhammad Ali. Epilogue Dr. Martin Luther King. Both boys were against the war, when it was not popular. Muhammad Ali was stripped of his title. lost early years of his athleticism. Dr. King was prevented from LBJ if MLK came against the war. You will find yourself in your film together, and if so, which of these types are most like you? None. The Vietnam War was the first war that was in the American living room TV. So many of these memories I have. In the film I remember sitting on my porch in Brooklyn, and I hear a voice, a woman’s voice, crying hysterically. And it is my mother. She screams bloody murder. No pun intended. “They killed Dr. King! They killed Dr. King! This MF-ers killed Dr. King!” I remember like it was yesterday. I remember the news that night and see 120 cities in America in flames. I feel like we are living once again this time, you just described? Yes Yes Yes. This makes me confident. Because these young brothers and sisters white. They have taken to the streets. And to say no to things their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents before they said. No one is born racist. This movie I think it was particularly appropriate because we deal with George Floyd. When the murder happened when he saw that death on the tape, was that through your head? I thought of Eric Garner, Radio Raheem, a fictional character in C led me the right thing. Which led me to Michael Stewart, the radio is based on murder. And then after that, all the other people of color who, then our brother in Georgia. Our sister in Louisville, Breonna. And I’m not trying to be funny or a flip-statement: I can not keep up with the name. You believe with all black liberation you have seen is ultimately possible in America? Well, the struggle continues. Let’s go for it to continue to fight until we get it. Watch the full interview with TIME 100 interview time.com/spike-talks~~V~~singular~~3rd Picture copyright
The struggle continues ‘. Spike Lee talks to Joy-Ann Reid about his new movie and the history of blacks
