“My advice to you is, try and find out what it is that you love,” said Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee in his slow, and evidently thoughtful speech on Thursday, Feb. 10. in Burt Kahn Court. Black Student Union sponsored Lee as the keynote speaker of February, Black History Month, “the shortest month of the year,” he said with a smile.
Lee spoke with conviction, as if the audience members were his own children. He discussed his upbringing, African American culture, and his stance on the youth of today, but his overriding message was the benefit of education and what you choose to do with it.
He first encouraged those graduating in May to apply to graduate school and wait out the recession. Then he recommended a certain frame of mind to prepare those entering the working world.
Humbly, Lee suggested steering clear of the greed that often accompanies choosing a career, to take advantage of the liberal arts education at our fingertips, find what makes you happy and run with it. “Every human being has talent and has creativity,” he said. “But if you’re not exposed, that gift that you have lays dormant.”
For the last 15 years, Lee has been offering this theory to his graduate film class at NYU, where his Grandmother, Zimmie Shelton once put him through graduate school. He received his undergraduate degree in Mass Communications at Morehouse College, from which Martin Luther King Jr. graduated 31 years prior.
Having been confused about his career aspirations, Lee attributes the discovery of his talents to a video camera he received for Christmas and one professor, Herbert Eichelberger. One term, Eichelberger encouraged Lee to take raw footage from the summer before and make a documentary out of it.
“He would stay three or four hours extra so I could stay and edit this film,” Lee said. “I did it on a humble.” In anticipation of a question he must often be asked, he declared frankly, “Film chose me.”
Looking back, Lee recognizes that too many students succumb to parental pressure and choose a major that is not in their hearts. While he expressed gratitude for his parent’s generosity and love, he said, “Parents kill more dreams than anybody.”
Lee used the word “heartbreaking” to describe the attitude that young African Americans have toward academic success. Too many associate smart with white and take a different route in fear of ridicule, he said. “At that age, peer pressure is a mother f*cker.”
The peculiar institution of slavery, as he prefers to describe it, lasted because slaves weren’t given access to an education; they weren’t permitted to read or write without horrifying consequences.
Lee has written three children’s books with his wife and he admits to slipping his support of education, whenever possible, into his movies. “There is no color; There is no race,” he said. “Education is for all.”
Photo Credit: Mallory Dixon