By Mark Schulman
Assistant Editor

The Distinguished Speaker Series celebrated Black History Month by presenting Spike Lee in GPAC on Feb. 2. Spike ignored the podium to get up close and personal with over 1,700 audience members.

Wearing a New York Yankees cap, dark-rimmed glasses, extravagant diamond earrings and casual clothes, the 46-year-old renowned filmmaker tackled many controversial aspects of American life. Politics, the negative influences of today’s pop culture and the importance of education to young African-Americans all were brought to light.

The actor/producer/writer/director’s career skyrocketed after his debut film “She’s Gotta Have It.” Other movies, better known as “Spike Lee Joints,” are “Do the Right Thing,” “Jungle Fever,” “Malcolm X” and “25th Hour.”

Lee criticized the democratic process of the last presidential election and encouraged all young Americans to register and vote because “one vote does matter.” He also condemned the American presence in the Middle East.

“Remember Bin Laden?” Lee said.

The rhetorical question led him to the point that the U.S. seems to pick on other countries and that we have a “list” of certain countries that we bully.

“When we couldn’t find Bin Laden, they diverted the non-attentive public and went to their book of bad guys,” Lee said. “There’s no more Russia so [the United States] went through the book and [said] ‘let’s go get this guy, Saddam. He [George W. Bush] tried to kill my father [George Bush, Sr.].’”

Lee said he believes Americans are in the Middle East because of oil. He also said that we have not been involved with North Korea’s nuclear program because they have no oil [for the United States] and we have “all of the rice we need.”

“We need to question everything,” Lee said, “because we are very gullible and are more concerned with ‘American Idol,’ ‘Survivor’…” etc.

Lee said he despises reality shows and how the media promote propaganda, especially in music videos.

“You have to educate yourself,” Lee said.

Today’s youth should educate themselves about the struggle of African-Americans and base their values on that knowledge and not base their value system on MTV or BET, he said.

“Their [young people] value system passes through music videos and it’s killin’ us,” Lee said.

Lee grew up in Brooklyn and respected athletes, guys that could talk to girls and the smart kids. Those people would get the respect that they earned.

“Now that has all changed,” he said. “Today across America among young African-Americans, if you are smart and speak correct English, and not hanging out on the corner drinking a forty, smoking a blunt, a lot of times you are ridiculed, ostracized and called white boy or white girl.

“We’re equating intelligence with being white and ignorant being black, that’s crazy,” Lee said.

Lee’s first film, “She’s Gotta Have It” ushered in the so-called ‘new black wave of cinema’ in 1986 and since then there are more African-Americans working in front of and behind the camera.

Lee said that African-American cinema is mostly “broad comedies, hip-hop-drug-things,” and he encouraged people to go outside that box.

Racial jokes that put down African-American culture in African-American films do not sit well with Lee. He focused on the film “Barbershop” when tasteless humor was aimed at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks during the Civil Rights Movement. Ironically, the younger members of the GPAC audience erupted with laughter when Lee repeated the jokes from the film.

He reprimanded the audiences’ ignorance and reminded them of water hoses, dogs and bombs targeting African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement.

“How can we, as African-Americans, laugh at these jokes?” Lee said. “We do these things to ourselves.”

Lee said his grandmother saved her money to make it possible for him to graduate from Morehouse College. He attributes at least part of his success to education.

Lee’s presentation ended the 2003-2004 Distinguished Speaker Series.