The internet loves a good fight. It somehow validates all the hours we spend arguing with insane people in text, trying to push aside the nagging feeling that we’re just as crazy as they are. Drama is rampant on the internet; when it spills into real life, it’s just that much better.

For this reason, the internet has been carefully monitoring the feud between filmmakers Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood, who arguably could not be more different. Lee, famous for his films about race relations, recently criticized Clint Eastwood’s two WWII films - Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima - for overlooking the contributions of black soldiers. Eastwood reacted about as well as can be expected, saying that Lee should “shut his face.” Predictably, Lee took this as a racial slur, reminding Eastwood that “they’re not on a plantation.” From a man whose production company is called 40 Acres and a Mule, this reaction is anything but surprising.

There are a lot of different ways to look at this situation. It’s a volatile topic, and everyone has their own feelings about who is right and who is wrong. To avoid tilting it too far one way or the other, let’s examine some of the facts of the case.

1. Of the roughly 16 million people who served in the military in World War II, 1.2 million were African-American.

2. The main focus of Clint Eastwood’s films is on the flag-raising soldiers in Iwo Jima, none of whom were black.

3. Spike Lee’s upcoming World War II film, Miracle at Santa Ana, focuses on the African-American soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Division.

My thoughts: It seems like Eastwood’s films and Lee’s films can coexist peacefully. They cover different events. Because of the institutional racism of the military in the ’40s, there weren’t many black soldiers - the ones who did manage to overcome the prejudice made significant contributions to the war effort. When making a film about a specific group of soldiers who happen to be white, portraying black soldiers doesn’t need to be a priority. When you make a film about a black infantry, then that’s a different story. I can’t help but feel like every discussion like this takes us one step backwards, further away from the society Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of.

On one side, people are saying that Lee’s just drumming up publicity for Miracle at Santa Anna. On the other, many believe that Eastwood never gave proper consideration to the fact that there were black soldiers in WWII.

I don’t know either man’s motivation, but it sure is fun to watch them fight.

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