SHORT TAKES : Spike Lee Laments Racism Rise

Spike Lee says the strides made during the civil rights movement are being eroded and that it’s his job as a filmmaker to portray “the present state of racism today.”

Lee, who addressed more than 1,200 people at the University of Iowa on Tuesday, said racial violence in the Howard Beach section of New York City compelled him to make his 1989 film “Do The Right Thing,” about racial tension and violence during a hot city summer.

“In a lot of ways this country is going backward instead of forward, especially with all the whole . . . affirmative action and all that stuff that people were dying for in the civil rights movement,” the black filmmaker said.

“I wanted to film about the present state of racism today. I knew I don’t have the answers, but that wasn’t my job,” Lee said. “My job was to hold the mirror up and let people know that this is the way it is and unless we all make an effort to do something about it, it’s going to get worse.”