Posted on 12/02/2003 1:23:36 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:11:08 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Filmmaker Spike Lee told an audience at Brown University on Monday that popular music portrays blacks in a negative light.
Lee, known for directing films that include "Malcolm X" and the documentary "4 Little Girls," spoke to an audience of more than 400 students for about 90 minutes.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
THE FRUIT OF FAILURE
I am of a generation that has largely failed that role, that turned ''judgment'' into a four-letter word. The fruit of that failure lies before us: an era of a historical young people who traffic in stereotypes that would not be out of place in a Ku Klux Klan meeting.
And I'm supposed to be angry at David Chang? I'm not. He's just a good capitalist, just regurgitating what he has been taught in hopes of turning a buck. My anger is not for the student, but for his teachers. And not just my anger, but my sorrow, too.
I'm not losing sleep worrying about what David Chang thinks of black people. I'm more concerned with what black people think of themselves.***
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In his column, "Off the Vine," which appears on the front page, Clayborne has taken on the journalism fight of his life:
"Young black men have . . . bought into what apparently is a universal "dumbing down' syndrome where it's in style to be stupid -- with rap lyrics like "Where are my niggas at?' more memorable than their ABCs. Now, give or take a few token whites, our prison system is filled to capacity with young black men -- young men who will leave behind a trail of fatherless babies, single mothers and the untold carnage from the crimes they've committed.
"I was astonished recently when I read a study about a city's school system where out of nearly 6,000 African-American males in its high school, only 135 earned a B average or higher. Yet, we black people seem paralyzed to act, to mobilize -- to be outraged! We have failed miserably in addressing, for lack of a better description, "self-destruction of the black man.' Today . . . women head 70 percent of black households! Now you tell me, how are young black boys going to learn how to be men? Folks, what we have . . . is a national crisis -- demanding the highest attention of civic, business and government leaders. Source
Finaly, something we can agree on. :D
Whoever you are, you must be one short dude to pull this off!
BTW, I've known blacks that had an enormous grasp of proper grammar, take this man for example who once said:
"F--- Jesse Jackson!"
Most eloquent speech I've ever heard. Concise and poignant too.
Short and sweet.
Tupac told the troof, keepin it real. Just axe Michael Eric Dyson, the REVEREND Michael Eric Dyson and the ress of the African American Studies posse.
This message will only be received loud and clear when it's delivered by blacks - at home, in school, in print, on the air, etc. The only people against this message, are those who make money from it or gain power though division.
In fact, most older African descended people (I know a few Jamaicans, cant call them AfricanAmericans..) agree with Spike. I'll tell ya what, most blacks that I know are pretty socially conservative, almost talk like Republicans about the matter.
"It's much more dangerous now, and the reason I say that is this: when I was growing up, we looked up to guys who were great athletes, guys who knew how to talk to ladies, and third but not least, guys that were intelligent," Lee told the DePauw crowd. "Now somehow between then and today, the whole value system has been upended, what's down is up, what's up is down. Because amongst many African-American youth today, if you strive to become educated and get your grades and speak correct English and be able to speak a sentence without profanity, then you are ridiculed and ostracized as being a 'white boy' or 'white girl' or 'sellout', an 'oreo', which is crazy. But if you're on the corner, drinkin' a 40, smokin' a blunt, holding your privates, then you're keepin' it real. And that is pathological, that is genocide."
Lee says those negative behaviors are influenced by popular music, music videos and films. He cited best-selling rapper 50 Cent as the highest-profile recent offender, "the reason why he's huge is because he's been shot 12 times... How more legitimate can you get? He got shot and lived to rap about it. This whole mythology and fascination with gangsta culture... look at the title of the CD, Get Rich or Die Tryin'. That's crazy. That is the motto of many of these young black kids." Lee says the CD's booklet displays pictures of guns, "and this whole fascination of drug stuff. It is crazy, insane. He's on the cover of Rolling Stone this week, and at the end of the article his mother comes in the dressing room proud as a peacock showing everybody who'll look the custom made bulletproof vest she made for his 5-year-old son. Bulletproof vest for a 5-year-old kid and that's supposed to be hip, something we should strive for. That's some b.s., I'm sorry," Lee said to applause.
Spike Lee urged students to dream and pursue careers doing things they love, not chase careers because they come with the promise of a hefty salary. When asked what young people who are interested in becoming filmmakers should focus on, Lee responded, "writing." He added, One of the reasons I wanted to teach [he's a professor at NYU and has taught at Harvard] is because students are at a disadvantage when they're being taught something by instructors or teachers that are only teaching from theory. It's very important that film students are taught by people who've made a film, by someone who has written a script, who's written a TV show, who has sat in a room with executives -- other than that, it's just theory. Not to say that you can't learn from them, but I think there's great value in students' understanding when they have a teacher who has a film in a theatre now."
Between the afternoon media briefing and the evening Ubben Lecture, Lee attended a forum where he spent an hour talking with, and taking questions from, DePauw students. He also had dinner with a group of students, faculty and alumni at the Union Building.
The Ubben Lecture Series has brought distinguished individuals to the DePauw University campus since 1986, including former British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, General Colin Powell, Ross Perot and, earlier this school year, Mike Krzyzewski, Harry Belafonte and ice cream entrepreneurs Ben & Jerry. ***
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