Being a lecturer at New York University, Spike Lee lived up to expectations as social commentator as well as artistic visionary at a press conference following the recent release of his new film, Inside Man. “The film affords the ability to push social commentary in the genre of a bank heist film,” he said. “In reading the script I always look at ways where I can slip stuff in.”

At one point in the film, police mistake a freed Sikh hostage for a Moslem, and brutally abuse him. Lee said that he told the actor playing the hostage to “…think about all the times you get on a plane, go to airports and you’re pulled out of the line and they say ‘random search’ and use that line. Random my ass! Think of everything, all the slights you’ve had to go through since 9/11, so that’s what that film is based upon.”

Lee continued to talk about racism in the US. “In New York city - let me expand - in America, Americans don’t know the difference between somebody that’s Arab and somebody that’s Sikh,” he said. “They call them ‘towel heads’. If you’ve got a turban on your head you’re related to Bin Laden. You’re in the fuckin’ Taliban. You’re a terrorist.”[Link]