What makes an American a patriot? Spike Lee has some answers
NEW YORK (AP) — Spike Lee was just 10 when Muhammad Ali, in 1967, refused to be drafted into the Vietnam War. It wasn’t his fight, Ali said then. The Vietnamese “never lynched me.”
Ali’s stand, and the subsequent vitriol that came his way, made an enormous impression on Lee. His latest film, “Da 5 Bloods,” opens with footage of Ali’s speech.
“Everyone is all lovey-dovey with Muhammad Ali now that he’s dead,” says Lee. “But at one time, Muhammad Ali was the most hated man in America.”