US President Donald Trump has accused film director Spike Lee of racially attacking him during his Oscars acceptance speech.

After winning the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for BlacKkKlansman, Lee referred to “our ancestors from Mother Africa” and said the 2020 presidential election would present a “moral choice between love versus hate”.

Lee was also sporting a large piece of jewellery on his left hand which read: “Love.”

Mr Trump said Lee had launched a “racist hit on your president”.

He also claimed he had done “more for African Americans than almost any other pres”, citing criminal justice reform, low unemployment and tax cuts.

In his speech, Lee said: “Our ancestors were stolen from Mother Africa and bought to Jamestown, Virginia, enslaved.

“Before the world tonight, I give praise to our ancestors who have built this country into what it is today along with the genocide of its native people.

“We all connect with our ancestors.”

Lee added: “The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let’s all mobilise. Let’s all be on the right side of history.

“Make the moral choice between love versus hate. Let’s do the right thing! You know I had to get that in there” – a reference to his 1989 hit movie Do The Right Thing.

Mr Trump did not say precisely what it was about Lee’s speech that he considered racist.

He tweeted: “Be nice if Spike Lee could read his notes, or better yet not have to use notes at all, when doing his racist hit on your president, who has done more for African Americans (criminal justice reform, lowest unemployment numbers in history, tax cuts, etc.) than almost any other pres!”

Lee’s gong is his first competitive Oscar, after receiving an honorary one in 2015.

BlacKkKlansman, set in Colorado Springs in the 1970s, follows an African-American detective as he tries to infiltrate and expose the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.

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