(CNN) Spike Lee hopes his new movie, "BlacKkKlansman," inspires Americans not to vote President Donald Trump into office for a second term.

"I hope that (viewers would) be motivated to register to vote. The midterms are coming up, then this guy in the White House is going to run again, and what we're going through is demonstrated, I think, is full evidence (of) what happens when you don't vote, when you don't take part in the process," Lee told CNN recently.

"I know a lot of people who say, 'F politics, they're all crooks, whatever.' But to me, that says, 'defeatist attitude,'" he said, "and we just have to be smarter on who we vote."

Lee's latest film, which opens Friday in theaters, tells the true story of Ron Stallworth, the first African-American detective in the Colorado Springs police force in the 1970s. It chronicles how Stallworth, played by John David Washington , manages to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.

Lee's film credits over three decades include other movies that have tackled US race relations -- "Do the Right Thing," "Malcolm X," "Jungle Fever," "Bamboozled." He said he believes racism is just as prevalent in 2018 as it was when he started making movies -- and only getting worse.

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