RUSH: Spike Lee, Tuesday night in Brooklyn at the Pratt Institute, he spoke in honor of African-American History Month.
LEE: I grew up here in New York. It’s changed. And why does it take influx of white New Yorkers into South Bronx and Harlem and Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights for the facilities to get better?
AUDIENCE: (smattering of applause)
LEE: The garbage wasn’t picked up every mother-f(bleep)ing day when I lived at 165 Washington Park. When you see white mothers push their babies in strollers, three o’clock in the morning at 125th Street, that must tell you something.
AUDIENCE: (smattering of laughter)
LEE: And then comes the motherf(bleep)ing Christopher Columbus syndrome! You can’t discover this. We’ve been here!
AUDIENCE: (laughter)
LEE: You just can’t come and bogart it!
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: Okay, I didn’t realize I had three of these. I thought I only had one, and the one I wanted… In this bite he said, “Why do we have to have white people move in our neighborhoods for the neighborhood to improve? Who says that? Why is that the case? Why do we need white people to move into Harlem for Harlem to get better?” and you heard the MF slur word in there all over the place. But really, the bite that I wanted to play was, Spike Lee lives on the Upper East Side, and he’s sick and tired of white people moving into his neighborhood.
He doesn’t like it. Upper East Side? Spike, you need to be on the Upper West Side over by Zabar’s. Upper East Side? What are you doing on the Upper East Side? But, anyway, that’s where he is, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and he’s upset that white people are moving into his neighborhood, and I just wanted to share that bite with you, but… Which one is it here? (muttering) He’s stuck on Humphrey Bogart. This is not it.
One more. Grab sound bite seven. This is Fred Coleman. Fred Coleman is an “ESPN: The N-word” radio host talking about the N-word being banned in the NFL.
You’ve gotta hear this one…
COLEMAN: Why have you not talked to players? Why have you not talked to coaches? Wait a minute, why haven’t you asked us —
MAN: Mmm-hmm.
COLEMAN: — and we’re the ones representing your product? We’re the reason why you’re Roger Goodell; you made, what, $44 million in 2012? People aren’t going to NFL games to see Roger Goodell in the stands. They’re going to see the players. Why has the NFL not done their homework and really talked to more people before coming out with something like this.
RUSH: The resentment is really starting to build in the ranks of the NFL. What Coleman is saying here is (summarized), “What is this white commissioner doing telling us what we can and can’t say? We’re the product! People are coming out to watch us, not listen to us. They’re coming out to watch us, and he didn’t even talk to us about it? He’s just gonna decree from on high? Well, screw that!”
Call Spike Lee, Freddie.