It's been a little over a month since Spike Lee started a firestorm with his comments about gentrification in Brooklyn at Pratt Institute, but the sensitive subject remains an issue. While many agree with Lee's views, others have been rubbed the wrong way, with some even alleging that Lee's criticism is meaningless because he doesn't even live in Brooklyn anymore.
The latter is an issue that New York Times film critic A.O. Scott raised in a recent response penned to Lee. Scott basically said that gentrification is as much a result of Lee's success as it is the middle class whites who have moved into these neighborhoods.
Furthermore, Scott argued that everyone essentially benefits from gentrification, and that what is happening in Brooklyn is a reaction to Manhattan's elitism. That, in turn, makes it a class issue and not race issue. Spike Lee wasn't going to take being called out in the Times lying down (come on, he's from Brooklyn), so he responded to Scott in a letter on WhoSay because he didn't want the Times "editing, rearranging [his] words, [and] thoughts," or even ignoring an actual response letter.
Lee takes Scott to task, saying that if he's a hypocrite, then so is Jay-Z:
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Furthermore, he argues that, let Scott tell it, he should have never made several of his films because didn't live in the neighborhoods where they took place:
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Lee closes the letter by telling Scott that you never truly leave the place where you grew up because it's grafted to your personality. It makes you who you are, and it's something you never lose, regardless of where you end up:
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Hear that? That's the sound of a gavel.
[via WhoSay]
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