WASHINGTON: Spike Lee, the actor and director for decades who has made poignant feature films about African-Americans, endorsed Bernie Sanders for president Tuesday, urging voters to “wake up” to the candidate’s battle for financial equality.

“I know that you know the system is rigged,” Lee says in a new radio ad unveiled in south Carolina, where Sanders squares off with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in their primary Saturday.

“For too long we’ve given our votes to corporate puppets ... Ninety-nine percent of Americans were hurt by the great recession of 2008, and many are still recovering. And that’s why I’m officially endorsing my brother Bernie Sanders,” he said. “Bernie takes no money from corporations. Nada. Which means he is not on the take. And when Bernie gets in the White House, he will do the right thing,” the Oscar-nominated Lee said, in a reference to his 1989 movie “Do the Right Thing.”