Director Boots Riley Slams Spike Lee’s ‘BlacKkKlansman’ as ‘Made Up’

Boots Riley and Spike Lee (Credit: YouTube)

Boots Riley, the writer-director of Sorry to Bother You, attacked Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman Friday in a three-page essay on Twitter.

BlacKkKlansman is based on the true story of African-American police detective Ron Stallworth infiltrating a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.

But Riley calls the film a “made up story” that fails to paint an accurate picture of police brutality and racism in America.

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Riley starts out by saying Lee has been a “huge influence,” and is the reason he went to film school. Then he begins to criticize BlacKkKlansman.

“It’s a made up story in which the false parts of it to [sic] try to make a cop the protagonist in the fight against racist oppression. It’s being put while Black Lives Matter is a discussion, and this is not coincidental. There is a viewpoint behind it,” he says in his essay.

Riley justifies his criticism of a fellow African-American director by saying Lee “never held his tongue about what he thought of Tyler Perry films.”

In a follow-up tweet, Riley brings up news reports from earlier this week saying Lee was paid $219,000 by the NYPD in 2016, to work as a consultant on a promotional campaign to improve relations between the department and minority communities.

“Dammit. Spike was paid over $200k ‘by NYPD’. I left that out of the end,” Riley tweeted.

Riley is a rapper, screenwriter, director and self-described communist from Oakland.

In a May article, he told The New York Times he hopes “to help build a mass movement that can use withholding of labor as a strategy for social change.”

Read MoreSpike Lee Accuses Trump of Giving ‘Green Light for the Klan’

His directorial debut, Sorry to Bother You, focuses on labor inequality in Oakland and was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The surrealistic comedy opened on July 6, and has been praised by critics.

BlacKkKlansman, which addresses hate groups and police brutality, picked up the Grand Prix award in May at the Cannes Film Festival. The drama arrived in theaters on Aug. 10, and has been applauded by critics as the “perfect movie for the perfect time.”

48 thoughts on “Director Boots Riley Slams Spike Lee’s ‘BlacKkKlansman’ as ‘Made Up’

  1. Not really sure why either of these losers haven’t packed up and gone to tropical worker’s paradise, Cuba, yet…..rhetorical question, we all know why.

  2. If more people would do this and just say to hell with the libturds, more people could actually come out and say what they think, instead of being bullied by the left-loons.

  3. Typical leftist.

    Says a true story is a lie. I am no fan of Spike Lee (just because I think he is way overrated), but what Boots is really saying is: Don’t tell any true stories about cops doing anything positive or heroic. They are all evil. Please.

  4. To Boots ALL police are inherently racist. Sounds like he might be a fan of Elizabeth Warren who made a similar bloviation about all law enforcement being racist ‘front to back’. Either way both are thoroughly disposable as ignorant in the face of reality.

    1. “ALL police are inherently racist”

      So you’re saying black policemen are racist? And no police management want the department to be and appear non-racist? Thanks for clearing that up. BTW, are black police racist against whites, or blacks? And are they the Democrats who supported the KKK, Republicans, or both parties?

  5. Of course Spike added and embellished this “true story”…I remember it when it happened, wasnt that huge of a deal…Klan got punked by a Black dude on the phone, Duke fell for it. Now Spike makes it out to be like Po-Po are the bad guys—which in his eyes always are, until apparenlty they pay him 200k for his “ideas”…Fraud. Still trying to guilt Hollywood into Oscars just cuz he’s Black. What about Koreans, Indians, (dot or feathers), Slavics, etc…always with the color Black…

  6. >>> In a May article, he told The New York Times he hopes “to help build a mass movement that
    >>> can use withholding of labor as a strategy for social change.”

    This will never work because liberal black people don’t legally work in commercial ventures so there’s no labor to withhold. What’s the protest going to look like? All the drug dealers and prostitutes in downtown Oakland are going to say, “we’re not working today because we want social change?” What a joke. Both Lee and Riley can go suck it.

  7. I am a brown man Somewhere in Asia looking at the black man’s comedy. If it wasnt for ancestors of the black man in the USA , these nowadays black man will be drowning in the seas to get to Europe. Haha..!!!
    Black man of USA the worlds biggest loosers despite being born in the USA.

  8. I like the part about riley wanting to withhold labor to bring social change………….THAT i gotta see……… obamasons gonna have a work stoppage……..

    1. I guess “witholding labor to bring social change” means refusing to work, abandoning children and mothers and generally being a no-account.
      The “social change” being more welfare and free-stuff provided by people who work and produce.
      Unfortunately in this case the labor should have been withheld and the mouth should have been kept shut.

    2. Yep. First ya gotta START working before you can stop. And it might actually work now, now that more blacks are working than ever, thanks to Trump. Funny how you never hear about that from the MSM or the black ‘leaders’.

  9. So it appears that cultivating hatred for the police, spreading the bigoted idea that ALL cops are against black people is more important to this man than anything else? That says a lot.

  10. “Riley justifies his criticism of a fellow African-American director…”

    This is a clear indication of the problem. The author of this screed believes- as do many of her fellow countryman – that a black person is a traitor if he/she doesn’t automatically support a black celebrity…. WOW ….. personal thinking is not to be allowed.

    Spike is a fraud, but Riley appears to be just another Leftist influenced loudmouth trying to impose ‘blame whitey’ for everything….personal responsibility means nothing.

    1. Sam, I was thinking the exact same thing. Criticism of a black by a black is supposed to be justified? Would this question ever enter someone’s mind if these guys were any other skin color? Are black people not offended and appalled by this type of perspective?

  11. Redneck bots didn’t go to services today but prayed that Spike become as dumb as they are. You go boys.

  12. What is it with the goofy glasses the AA directors seem to wear? I guess they are chasing the “signature” look.

  13. As Cheiftan Spike realized his rule was being challenged by a member of his own tribe, his glasses began to fog and his headdress became damp with the sweat of fear. Was this the moment his benevolence would be destroyed by a tribal purist? Would his throne be besieged and his legacy cast aside? As the brave warrior, Riley, danced at an ever increasingly fevered pitch, the rest of the council looked on nervously, unsure of how the cheif would react. Would Spike call for Riley‘s head in order to squash his rebellious action, or would Spike‘s years of experience as ruler be enough to calm tensions. After all, the treasure from the tribe across the mountains was the real reason for the turmoil in the village. Tune in next week when Queen Beyoncé weighs in with her own dance.

  14. Black people owned slaves, black women owned plantations and slaves, these a parts of history nobody will never admit, because it shows true history and woman’s libs and blacks wouldn’t have anything to cry about

  15. Spike Lee has in one moment taking this country’s transportation, selling, using, hanging, murdering, progress of the smallest gain of any in history to year 0.

  16. Will somebody please produce a documentary of the several thousand black confederate soldiers, those black free southern slavers such as Ellison from South Carolina and the crimes of Thaddeus Stevens, Generals Sherman and Sheridan against the southern civilians: which motivated Bedford Forest to form the KKK. And that Forest disbanded the organization once he realized it was infiltrated by Marxist elements to reign havoc and further divide the people.? Thank you.

  17. Spike Lee sucks. I mean…racism isn’t the same as creativity! Plus…can a black guy make a movie and NOT be critically acclaimed and awarded with various honors? It’s basically a shoo in.

  18. Please. Each race-driven, race-baiting Spike Lee film is always characterized as “the perfect movie for the perfect time”…
    as long as the “perfect time” means an era of racial division and turmoil actually INSTIGATED by Left-wing race-baiting. Spike Lee creates race-baiting films in order to cultivate an environment in which his films are praised. It’s self-perpetuating propaganda.

  19. Spike Lee’s movie was full of lies. There was no bomb, there was no jewish cop that infiltrated the KKK. Nobody ever got arrested in that KKK. The black cop never infiltrated anything he just talked to them on the phone and donated money to them and became an honorary member without ever meeting them. Read the original book that this movie is based on or watch David Dukes interview with JF on youtube. Sad that they’re trying to sell this as a true story. Guess money is good with race baiting.

  20. So Spike the Shrimp didn’t hate white people enough to suit this racist clown, eh?
    No wonder we’re living in the Golden Age of Not Watching.
    MAGA

  21. Always fun to see lefties try to out lefty other lefties…

    No supporter of Lee’s politics, but the movie was good. At least until the forced ending, where he wedged in the Charlottesville tragedy. And the meme about Trump and Duke basically being buddies. While somehow forgetting to mention of the smiling, handshaking photo session with Obama and Farrakhan. Weird.

    But it would seem that Boots didn’t bother to actually see the film. The Ron Stallworth character and the Patrice Dumas character, played wonderfully by John David Washington and Laura Harrier have basically this exact conversation. She only refers to the cops as “pigs” and Stallworth takes offense and asks her if she thinks all cops are racist. And what about black cops. So while parts of the movie are made up, the bigger point of the very topic Boots is bringing up is discussed. Its not as if Spike is avoiding the conversation altogether. He, unlike Boots, is actually trying to have a conversation. At least before going off the rails to the left. Which was to be expected.

    Its a movie worth seeing. Whether you agree with Lee or Riley. (ugh… I cant believe I’m defending Spike Lee. What has the world come to…)

  22. Hey Bootsie. Here are your REAL facts to deal with:

    • 7,881 blacks were killed in 2016.

    • Who is killing these black victims? Other blacks.

    • In 2016, the police fatally shot 233 blacks, only 16 of which were “unarmed.” The rest were armed and dangerous. According to whom? According to your friendly paper, the Washington Post.

    • In 2016, a police officer was 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male was to be killed by a police officer.

    • Over the last 5 years there has been a 53 percent increase in gun murders of officers — committed vastly and disproportionately by black males.

    • Black males have made up 42 percent of all cop-killers over the last decade, though they are only 6 percent of the population.

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