On Tuesday night, Spike Lee came to Saint Louis University to speak in front of a packed house as the keynote speaker for Black History Month.
The filmmaker, writer, actor, producer and educator known for directing such influential and controversial films as Malcolm X, Do The Right Thing and Inside Man came out to a standing ovation before he began his presentation. After a brief introduction, he started the night by showing Act III of his award-winning documentary When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, which deals with the levees breaking in New Orleans and the aftermath of the disastrous events.
After showing the documentary, which lasted a little more than an hour, Lee took the stage and gave his thoughts on many subjects including politics, the media and their influence, African-American education and Hurricane Katrina.
Lee gave his thoughts on Katrina with no restraint, and said that he wondered why, “when there was a tsunami in Sri Lanka, we were there in 24 hours,” but when crisis hit home in New Orleans, it “took the government five days to get there.” He said that this is what disturbed him most about the Katrina situation. He also talked about the criticism he received for including scenes in his documentary in which people swear that they heard explosions when the levees broke. Lee said that he didn’t want to ignore the thoughts of the people most affected by the crisis and that he “wouldn’t put it past the government to do such a thing.”
He also implored people to do what they can to help out with the Katrina disaster, saying that the problem is far from fixed and that it may take as long as 10 years for New Orleans to get back to where it was pre-Katrina. He advocated people taking service trips to New Orleans and other areas hit by the hurricane and said that it would be a good way to spend a spring break or part of summer vacation.
Lee also talked about the apparent governmental control over American media. He said that he has to watch the BBC to get the real story on both the Hurricane Katrina situation and the war in Iraq. He said that in the American media you don’t get to see the bodies of the people we’ve lost because the media try to downplay deaths resulting from both the hurricane and the war. He condemned the media’s coverage of the cost of the war, saying that the lives of our soldiers are really what matter most.
Lee then spoke about African Americans in the media, predominately in music and film. He said that even though actors and actresses such as Denzel Washington, Halle Berry and Forest Whitaker are winning Oscars and there are more black actors than ever before, Hollywood is still an industry run by whites. He talked about the “gatekeepers” of the media, who decide what gets made and that, in his meetings with Hollywood executives, the only people in the studios who are not white “are the security guards.” With the United States being as diverse as it is, he asked why there were so few people of color in the industry, focusing mainly on Hispanic Americans, saying that they’re the largest minority and will soon be the majority, yet they have no representation in Hollywood.
Lee focused on so-called “gangsta rap,” blaming it for a lot of the problems with African-American society. He said that it sends youth the wrong message and often degrades women and African Americans in general. “50 Cent says he’s ‘gonna get rich or die tryin’; is that the message we want to send out?” Lee said that he doesn’t advocate the boycotting of any specific artists, but he did warn that, as a society, Americans “vote with their wallet .” and when people buy into the image, they’re also supporting it.
After Lee finished his speech, he had a Q&A session and fielded several questions. He tackled such topics as being a black filmmaker, his continuing efforts to raise awareness about the situation in New Orleans and the controversial “N word.”
Dominique Gonzales, president of the Black Student Alliance, was pleased with the event, saying that she felt it went very well. “I, as well as the BSA executive board and adviser, Donna Bess, are very pleased that everybody enjoyed the event. I am glad that I was able to be a part of bringing such a great speaker to campus.”
She went on to say that Spike Lee’s presentation went along with the theme of “Remembering the past, empowering the present and changing the future” and how black history is American history. “I feel that every person living in the United States should appreciate the diverse history of the United States and continue to change the future for the better,” Gonzales said.
