I don’t know if you caught the story about Spike Lee going off on gentrification at a recent speaking engagement, but that rant seemed to have landed his family in some trouble. His dad’s house in Brooklyn was vandalized with the words “Do The Right Thing” spray painted on the front stairs of the house. 
Arnold Lee ,Spike Lee’s half-brother who lives in the house says that Spike has the right to rant about gentrification but took issue with Spike Lee’s reference to the family’s Fort Greene home.
“Say what you want but leave the personal stuff out of it,” he told CNN Friday. “The moment you start going, ‘Well, I live here,’ and he doesn’t live here. You know he lives in Manhattan so … this is my dad’s house, and it’s kind of personal.”
One of my favorite quotes from Spike’s speech was
“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? The garbage wasn’t picked up every mother******* day when I was living in 165 Washington Park. … 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.”
On Wednesday, Lee told “Anderson Cooper 360” that he’s not against new people moving into areas that were once predominantly poor and predominantly African-American.
“My problem is that when you move into a neighborhood, have some respect for the history, for the culture,” Lee said.
Check out Spike’s words about how Brooklyn has changed and not for the good….
Rosie Perez agrees with Spike….
