I believe you’re off on this one. There are many statements made by you that inaccurately portray what Spike Lee said about Tyler Perry. I won’t critique them all, but here are a few:

–”Spike really ought to focus on making his own pictures better instead of ripping on another Black man trying to get over.”

Spike complimented Tyler and pointed out his right to make his movies & TV shows, he stated that Perry’s “very smart” and understands his audience; however, for Spike, the imagery was “troubling”. To me, that’s not “ripping on” or dogging out Mr. Perry.

You give an advantage in this argument to Tyler Perry over Spike Lee by comparing the amount of money that their respective movies have grossed; however, that comparison is completely irrelevant to the point that Spike was making about what he sees as images of “coonery and bufoonery” in Perry’s movies.

–”Spike has every right to say Perry makes crappy movies”

–”Let’s see what Perry does with “For Colored Girls…” before damning him as a hopeless hack.”

Spike never said that Perry makes crappy movies, nor has he described him as a hopeless hack.

–”There’s plenty of room for another Black filmmaker even if it’s one you don’t like.”

Didn’t Mr. Lee point this out when he said “As African-Americans, we’re not one monolithic group, so there is room for all of that.”

The bottom line, in my opinion, is that Spike Lee was not trying to trash Tyler Perry. That’s more of a juicy media headline. I believe that Mr. Lee made a legitimate point when he stated that there is some troubling imagery in Mr. Perry’s movies.

As an aside, you criticize “She’s Gotta Have It” as being amateurish; however, wasn’t Spike Lee basically an amateur when he made that film? Isn’t that to be expected?