It's not that. He could have put up a list with mostly women, or mostly African films, people would mostly be okay with that. It's the perception of his giving in and revising in the face of dissent on something more or less personal.
Let's say he put up a list of favorite foods. Then someone notices there are no lamb dishes and he adds lamb to it. Or there is no vegetarian dish and adds vegetarian dishes.
It's not a big deal either way but people read "undue influence to change personal preferences"
The thing is, it's not a list of his personal "favourite" films, it's a list of "must watch" films.
The latter is a more authoritative statement, and moreover it is a list in which diversity of art is to be expected. So it's not unreasonable to suggest a lack of diversity in artists might indicate some oversights.
It's still his personal take on what that list looks like.
In any event, for me it's neither here nor there. He's free to put up a biased or unbiased list of his choosing or anyone else's. If I dont like his list I can add my favorites, maybe they'll all be Easter European and African with no western European or Asian films.
He has imprimatur. Sure, but in the end it's an unscientific list. It's a starting point, it has a local cultural bias. If he had grown up in HK would his list be the same? No, and that's okay.
You seem to be missing the point of me highlighting that Spike Lee himself asked for people to point out omissions "because of course there's going to be stuff I left out".
If there's no lamb dishes, I request reminders, someone points out a lamb dish, and I add lamb, it's not healthy or reasonable to propose that I am being unduly influenced by the lamb lobby.
It's within the realm of possibility, sure, but to bring it up reflects paranoia, scepticism towards lamb dishes, and possibly a persecution complex due to overexposure to lamb-related GitHub drama.
It is a big deal, by the way. It makes HackerNews look like ReturnOfKings.
Let's say he put up a list of favorite foods. Then someone notices there are no lamb dishes and he adds lamb to it. Or there is no vegetarian dish and adds vegetarian dishes.
It's not a big deal either way but people read "undue influence to change personal preferences"