Flavor Flav may have worked with him numerous times, but that does keep Spike Lee from referring to “The Flavor of Love” as “buffoonery” during “An Evening with Spike Lee: America Through My Lens.”
“Why is being educated perceived as acting white, while being ignorant is perceived as acting black?” asked Lee. “The media promotes these stereotypes and continuously reinforces them.”
Challenging preconceptions and breaking barriers are nothing new to the filmmaker, born Shelton “Spike” Lee. Before he walked on stage at ETSU’s Memorial Center Tuesday evening, large screens positioned on each side of the stage played a montage of clips from his films.
Lee began his speech by recalling his early life and the beginning of his film career.?
“Growing up, my dream was to play second base for the New York Mets,” Lee said to the ETSU audience. “But genetics conspired (against me).”
After being given a Super 8 camera for Christmas, Spike grew increasingly interested in filmmaking. “I didn’t chose film, film chose me,” he told the audience Tuesday night.
He got into New York University Film School due mostly to his submitted applicant film. “If you’re going to be a filmmaker, get started making films,” he said. “If you’re going to be a writer, then write. You jut can’t sit on your ass and talk about what you are going to do.”
Lee now teaches at the same film school he once attended.
“When going around the country, I see some former classmates that are unhappy and it’s usually because they chose a profession they did not love,” said Lee to the crowd of about 1,100. “Parents kill more dreams than anybody. I’m not saying that to be mean. They just have a easier time understanding going to school for a specific job, rather than art.”
After his speech, Lee decided against taking the pre-approved questions for the question and answer session. He asked the audience to vote on whether they wanted him to take questions directly from the audience or “the rigged and sanitized” questions that were pre-approved.Following the crowd’s approval of the suggested change, he began taking questions from the forming line behind the microphone in the front row.
Asked if the disproportionate number of minority children in the foster care system is a sign of institutionalized racism, he said he thought it was. “Prisons are a billion dollar industry. A lot of people make a lot of money locking up young black men,” he said.
Lee was asked by one audience member about the line between making a statement and the exploitation of women and excessive violence, and if he felt as though he had crossed this line during his career. When pressed for an example, a sexually explicit scene from the 1998 film “He Got Game” was cited, where top high school basketball players receive various morally questionable offers by unethical college recruiters.
“While we were shooting that, Ray Allen, Rick Fox and all the other NBA guys (who where in the film) were trading stories about how things like that had happened to them,” he said. “It’s all about money at Division One schools, and they will do whatever it takes to get the students they are after. That wasn’t anything I made up or an exaggeration.”
The increased amount of racially based attacks against presidential candidate Barrack Obama were brought up by an audience member. Lee said such tactics were signs of desperation from the Clinton campaign, and said, “It’s not as if they just found out any of what they are saying. She just expected to be the winner all along, and is getting more desperate as Obama keeps winning.”
?”The Flavor of Love” was brought up by a student who started his question off by saying that he missed the new episode to attend. The agitation was furthered, as the student antagonized Spike by raising the issue of the poorly-performing New York Knicks.
Lee took the opportunity to denounce an article by ESPN, and claimed that he never made derogatory comments to Lebron James.
Coming from Kentucky just for the event, one person mentioned the problems faced in his region with coal strip mining and the connection with the levees breaking in New Orleans. He asked Lee about poorer communities facing negative environmental repercussions due to exploitation.
“Sooner or later, in order to stop destroying the planet we live on, we’re going to have to stop doing everything for the dollar,” said Lee.
“It went well, he did a good job of interacting with the crowd, but there should have been a bigger student turnout,” said freshman Alan Prigmore.
The attendance was similar in size to the porn debate, featuring Ron Jeremy, that was held last month.
“I was happy with the community interest,” said Travis Lockner, SGA senator. “To see so many non-students from the surrounding area showed there’s growing awareness of issues in the region.”
Elvin Brown, associate director of recruitment for King College, commended ETSU for bringing controversial speakers to the area.
“I think this is a monumental step for East Tennessee, to have an icon of this stature known for speaking on race issues to come here,” said Brown. “I commend the people who put it together.

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