This story originally ran in the Daily Mississippian, Ole Miss' student newspaper.
Filmmaker Spike Lee spoke to a capacity audience at the Gertrude Ford Center for Performing Arts at Ole Miss last week, addressing a variety of issues from the Confederate Battle Flag to the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans.
Lee said Mississippi has to distance itself from its state flag. Mississippi has to get rid of the flag as the state's emblem and stop using history as an excuse to keep the flag, he said. He compared the flag to a swastika.
"I don't buy that history angle with the flag. To some people, that flag and a swastika say the same things," Lee said. "Try walking around waving a swastika and see what happens. Watch the reaction you get."
Lee was also passionate about the mind-set of black youth in today's society. In particular, Lee talked about what he called an "infatuation with gangster bullsh*t" and how intelligent young blacks are falling to peer pressure to be something deemed "black."
"Intelligent minds feel they have to dumb themselves down so not to be called a sellout," Lee said. "If you think that way, then you are committing genocide. Young black people need to understand that their ancestors died for the right to read and learn."
Lee talked about the lack of work ethic he sees in young people. "There is no such thing as an overnight success: You have to work hard to create opportunities," he said.
He traced his background and talked about what he thought was missing from films as a child growing up in Brooklyn—the lack of blacks in prominent movie roles sparked his interest. He said he wanted to tell the stories he saw growing up. Lee knew that film was what he wanted to do with his life, he said.
"Making films is something that I love so much, I would do it for free," Lee said.
Lee credits his family for supporting his dream of being a filmmaker. His family paid his way through New York University film school.
"So often parents kill more dreams than anybody," Lee said. "Young people have to have support to be what they want to be in life or else they end up working a job that they hate."
Lee is now working in New Orleans on a documentary about the victims of Hurricane Katrina. He describes the documentary, "When the Levees Broke," as more difficult to make than "4 Little Girls," one of his critically acclaimed documentaries.
"This documentary is difficult because of the anger you see in the people's faces and the rage you hear in their voice(s). It's a very emotional piece," Lee said. "The lower Ninth Ward, where we were shooting, looked as though a nuclear bomb went off in it."
Some who attended found the lecture thought-provoking.
"It was great to hear him talk about the work ethic needed to be successful," said Murrell Godfrey, professor of chemistry at Ole Miss. "So many of our young people expect to get what they want out of life without putting forth the effort needed to achieve their goals."
After the lecture, Lee spoke to a few students backstage in the Ford Center. He gave the students a chance to ask questions in a more intimate setting. The session lasted about 15 minutes and gave the students a chance to express their feelings, especially about how popular media depict people of color.
Though television has made progress in this area, some programs still "portray blacks in a dehumanizing way," Lee said.
He specifically targeted rapper Flava Flav's TV show, "Flavor of Love," that airs on VH1.
"That's just horrible," he said of the show.
Lee then talked about the goals he sets when making a film and how he wants to be viewed as a filmmaker.
"I try to make intelligent thought-provoking films-—the kind of films that I would want to go see," Lee said.
"Film found me, I didn't find film."
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