Recently, Spike Lee made a speech about the gentrification of certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn, such as Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Greene, Cobble Hill, Park Slope, etc. In a nut shell, his claim was that now that white people are moving into these neighborhoods, the neighborhoods are getting better- garbage is getting picked up, public schools are getting better, and there is more police activity- when they should've been getting better even without any white people moving in. Spike Lee expressed his views in this speech, but this isn't the only time that he has expressed his views on racial issues. In his movie, Do The Right Thing, Spike Lee played Mookie, an employee, in a primarily Italian-owned restaurant, in Bedford-Stuyvesant. This is one of the most controversial films that Spike Lee has ever directed. In this film, Lee dances delicately on the topic of racial inequality, such as a scene in the movie, where Buggin' Out- a character in the movie- points out that there aren't any African-Americans on the walls of Sal's Pizzeria. When the movie first released, critics said that the plot would only cause trouble, and that people would misconceive it, and overall it was a bad idea. Others said that it was those people who were misconceiving the movie, and that Spike Lee was only trying to bring attention to the topic. Spike often displayed his views on certain topics such as in movies like Malcolm X , and Do the Right Thing.
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