Spike Lee frowns on rap’s images
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Spike Lee says the value of education is being overshadowed by the images that gangsta rap glorifies.
“Young black kids didn’t grow up wanting to be a pimp or a stripper like they do now,” Lee said of his youth in Brooklyn.
He drew two standing ovations Wednesday night as a featured speaker at a conference on cultural diversity at Middle Tennessee State University. The 48-year-old filmmaker, who is working on a documentary about Hurricane Katrina, urged students to find a way to make being educated cool again.
“Back then, we were not called sellouts for using our brains. And being intelligent was not frowned upon,” Lee said.
He likened the images from some rap videos to the distorted view minstrel shows gave most of the world about American blacks in the 19th century.
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