Spike Lee Reflects On Police Brutality, Systemic Racism Since ‘Do The Right Thing’ On Jimmy Fallon

"My brother, the world has changed," Spike Lee started his conversation with Jimmy Fallon on Monday night's edition of The Tonight Show. Though the Da 5 Bloods filmmaker was referring in the moment to the fact that he and the late-night host were speaking over video chat rather than at The Tonight Show's 30 Rock studios, he could have just as easily been discussing the protests over racist police brutality and systemic racism that have swept the U.S.

Lady Gaga is speaking out against police brutality in a powerful message to this year's graduating class.

As protests continue around the globe in response to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers, some popular Sesame Street characters joined CNN’s Van Jones and Erica Hill and a group of experts to address the problem of racism and discuss how to fight against it.

Similar to other celebrities in the entertainment industry, Spike Lee, the 63-year-old director, is feeling heavy about the death of George Floyd while in police custody in addition to the subsequent protests regarding police brutality. During a recent conversation with Entertainment Tonight’s Nischelle Turner, in the middle of promoting his new film, Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee shared his thoughts on the Black Lives Matter protests.

Just like many around the nation, Spike Lee is feeling the heaviness over the recent death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests against brutality.

Spike Lee is feeling the heaviness over the recent death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests against brutality.The 63-year-old director is known for speaking up for what he believes in, and stepped out to participate in a protest and vigil for Floyd in New York City this week.

Spike Lee has compared the latest Black Lives Matter protests to the civil rights movements that took place in the 1960s.Following the death of African-American man George Floyd at the hands of a white cop in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 25 May, calls for an end to racial injustice have intensified worldwide. Accordingly, director Spike has responded by creating a new short film.

Shortly after the video was released of George Floyd being killed by a police officer and protests began to rise up around the US, Spike Lee released a short clip editing together the videos of Floyd and Eric Garner being killed alongside a similar scene in the director’s own “Do The Right Thing,” asking the question, “When will history stop repeating itself?” In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Lee talked about the connection between his 1989 acclaimed film and the recent racist

"He's trying to be a dictator"

After a 20-year old clip of Saturday Night Live resurfaced on social media last week that featured Jimmy Fallon in blackface, the comedian has issued a formal apology on air and he claims that he is “not a racist.” Fallon opened up Monday’s episode of The Tonight Show by promising his fans “a different kind of show” to address the controversy. The clip was from a 2000 episode of SNL that saw Fallon in blackface while impersonating his fellow comedian and SNL alum, Chris Rock.

Jimmy Fallon is not done apologizing for the mistakes of his past.

Jimmy Fallon spoke out about a resurfaced Saturday Night Live skit featuring him in blackface during Monday's episode of The Tonight Show. The sketch, which first aired in 2000 and reappeared online last week, showed the late-night host wearing blackface while impersonating Chris Rock.

Jimmy Fallon opened “The Tonight Show” with a very different kind of monologue on Monday, one that was self-reflective and somber.

By Rebecca Rubin

The killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor are the most recent in a long history of horrific systemic racism and police brutality against Black people in the United States. Black communities have been at the forefront of so many major American musical movements, including jazz, rock’n’roll, hip-hop, soul, and house.

«Will history stop repeating itself?» Spike Lee asks as much at the start of a minute-and-a-half-long short film he shared on Twitter, which splices clips from his 1989 film,, with footage of the police killings of Eric Garner in 2014 and George Floyd in May.

NEW YORK -- It's not the first time that Spike Lee's “Do the Right Thing” has been freshly urgent, but Lee's 1989 film has again found blistering relevance in the wake of George Floyd's death.