Spike Lee rants about gentrification saying black culture in New York is being erased by white residents 'like the motherf****** Christopher Columbus syndrome'

The Brooklyn-raised director launched into an argument about the drawbacks of gentrification

Compared Fort Greene Park to the 'motherf*****' Wesminster Dog Show' because it is so clean

Lee was raised in Brooklyn but has lived in the Upper East Side since 2000



Spike Lee went on a long-winded rant against gentrification in New York City on Tuesday night when he was asked to argue against the development of poorer neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Harlem.

The director, who has focused on racial issues and gentrification in his films, blasted an audience member at the Pratt Institute who started defending the changes in the neighborhoods.

'Let me just kill you right now,' Lee said to the unidentified questioner.

'Have you seen Fort Greene Park in the morning? It’s like the mother*****’ Westminster Dog Show,' he said drawing a comparison to the high-brow competition that would seem out of place in the harder-edged streets of Brooklyn where he grew up.

His soapbox: Spike Lee argued that New York City is being gentrified at an alarming rate and it is no longer the same city that he grew up in

Lee pointed the finger at white New Yorkers who have moved into historically black neighborhoods and changed the environment, arguing that those changes have caused the areas to evolve into something completely different.

'Here’s the thing: I grew up here in Fort Greene. I grew up here in New York. It’s changed. And why does it take an influx of white New Yorkers in the south Bronx, in Harlem, in Bed Stuy, in Crown Heights for the facilities to get better?' he said.

'The garbage wasn’t picked up every mother*****’ day when I was living in 165 Washington Park. P.S. 20 was not good. P.S. 11. Rothschild 294. The police weren’t around.

'When you see white mothers pushing their babies in strollers, three o’clock in the morning on 125th Street, that must tell you something.'

Protecting a legacy: Lee complained that residents in Brooklyn and Harlem are now stopping events in public parks for fear of excessive noise of garbage

'Crystal ball': Lee said that a scene in his 1989 hit Do The Right Thing foreshadowed gentrification problems to come in Harlem

The entire 10-minute exchange was transcribed by New York Magazine, and it was clear that he knew it would cause a firestorm.

HOT TOPIC: SOME OF SPIKE LEE'S MOST POINTED JABS

'My father’s a great jazz musician. He bought a house in nineteen-motherf*****’-sixty-eight, and the motherf*****' people moved in last year and called the cops on my father. He’s not — he doesn’t even play electric bass! It’s acoustic! We bought the motherf*****’ house in nineteen-sixty-motherf*****’-eight and now you call the cops? In 2013? Get the f*** outta here! '

'You can’t just come in the neighborhood and start bogarting and say, like you’re motherf*****’ Columbus and kill off the Native Americans. Or what they do in Brazil, what they did to the indigenous people. You have to come with respect. There’s a code. There’s people. '

'I’m for democracy and letting everybody live but you gotta have some respect. You can’t just come in when people have a culture that’s been laid down for generations and you come in and now s*** gotta change because you’re here? Get the f*** outta here. Can’t do that!' 'The black American population in New York City is going down because of... reverse migration and what we have and - and its something that de Blasio's going to, I mean he can't get the snow off the ground but still- what we need is affordable housing for everybody.'



In spite of his outrage, Lee has moved to a cleaner, less noisy area himself as he has lived in the Upper East Side since 2000. He keeps connected to his Brooklyn roots by basing his company's headquarters in Fort Greene, however.

The topic was raised when a male audience member asked about a recent New York Times article that extolled the benefits of gentrification.

This was not the paper's first recent foray into the issue, as a series they ran about homelessness in the city pointed out that some of the worst-run shelters is located next to brownstone houses that now sell for multiple millions.

Lee said that gentrification is shown by more than just a heavier police presence on the streets but also by the dismissal of cultural customs.

'Then comes the mother*****’ Christopher Columbus Syndrome. You can’t discover this! We been here. You just can’t come and bogart.

'There were brothers playing mother*****’ African drums in Mount Morris Park for 40 years and now they can’t do it anymore because the new inhabitants said the drums are loud.'

He boasted that his critically-acclaimed film Do The Right Thing, which was released in 1989, predicted the gentrification debate like a 'crystal ball', citing a scene where a white man in Harlem is berated by his black neighbor after the man accidentally scuffs up his new Air Jordan sneakers.

Lee told a story about how a party in Fort Greene park was proposed in honor of Michael Jackson when the singer died but the plan got nixed after residents complained that there would be too much garbage.

Changing scene: Lee said that Fort Greene Park is cleaner than it has ever been

'Garbage? Have you seen Fort Greene Park in the morning? It’s like the mother*****’ Westminster Dog Show. There’s 20,000 dogs running around. Whoa. So we had to move it to Prospect Park!' Lee said.

'I mean, they just move in the neighborhood. You just can’t come in the neighborhood. I’m for democracy and letting everybody live but you gotta have some respect.