Filmmaker and civil rights activist Spike Lee urged students to follow their true desires and stressed the importance of education in a speech honoring Black History Month at ASU Gammage Thursday night.
“I take education very seriously,” Lee said. “I know the difference a teacher makes because my mother was a teacher, my father teaches jazz-bass.”
Lee said he was a "C+" student in his first two years at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Then, he went back to Brooklyn, N.Y. in the summer of 1977 and borrowed his friend’s camera.
Lee took his footage back to Morehouse where his mass communication teacher took an interest in his work and encouraged him to pursue a career in film.
He urged students to learn as much as they could from their professors because they can be great mentors.
“The impact of a great teacher on your life is immeasurable,” Lee said. “Many times, many instances, it was time for (him) to go home to be with his wife and kids. He would stay in the film lab three or four hours extra so I could cut it.”
He said the media culture today creates a system where ignorance is revered and intelligence is ridiculed, especially in the black community.
He said the ridicule would never happen when he was growing up and respected anyone that rises above the norm in today’s culture.
“We did not ostracize you because you were smart,” Lee said. “It’s different now. Nowadays, there is a good chance that if you do get straight A’s, you will get ridiculed. Education is the key. I applaud anyone that stands up to ridicule and keeps pursuing their academics.”
Lee said he thought parents are the biggest dream killers today, and students are pressured to study majors based on money.
He told students to study what they love even if it is not profitable.
African American studies professor Stanlie James said students should have done to see such an important speaker.
“He has been a very important filmmaker not just in the black community, but as a black person that has broken into the arena of producing and directing black films,” James said.
The Undergraduate Student Government hosted Lee’s presentation.
USG Vice President of Services and Asian studies senior Kaitlin O’Neil said she hopes the students had an open mind going into the show.
“We try to do a big speaker at least once a year,” O’Neil said. “We try to bring speakers that students would be interested in and could also learn something from.”
Reach the reporter at ehubbard@asu.edu
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