'Wake Up, South Carolina!' Endorsing Sanders, Spike Lee Slams Rigged System

With just days ahead of the Democratic primary in South Carolina on Saturday, filmmaker Spike Lee is the latest high-profile celebrity to come out and urge potential black voters to throw their support behind Bernie Sanders—the only candidate, he argues, who has an agenda capable of disrupting the “rigged” system that constantly undermines the nation’s poor, the working class, and the politically disempowered.

“Bernie takes no money from corporations. Nada. That means he is not on the take.” —Spike Lee”Wake up! Wake up, South Carolina!” declares Lee in a radio spot now playing across the state. “This is your dude, Spike Lee. And I know that you know that the system is rigged! And for too long we’ve given our votes to corporate puppets. Sold the okie doke. Ninety-nine percent of Americans were hurt by the Great Recession of 2008, and many are still recovering… And that’s why I am officially endorsing my brother, Bernie Sanders.”

Lee continues: “Bernie takes no money from corporations. Nada. That means he is not on the take. And when Bernie gets to the White House… He will do the right thing. How can we be sure? Bernie was at the March on Washington with Dr King. He was arrested in Chicago for a protest of segregation in public schools. He has fought for wealth and education equality throughout his career. No flipping, no flopping. Enough talk, time for action.”

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While Hillary Clinton continues to dominate the latest polls out of South Carolina, the Sanders campaign hopes that a better-than-expected result in the state, fueled by an insurgent swing of black voters, could signal that his “political revolution” still has unrecognized power to unseat the status quo as the primary race continues towards Super Tuesday on March 1 and the convention in July.

Evidenced by a new wave of campaign ads themed along racial justice lines and featuring prominent black surrogates, both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns have been courting black voters in South Carolina and across the country. As the Guardian notes on Tuesday, “African Americans account for more than half of South Carolina’s Democratic primary electorate.”