Spike Lee Tells Black and Latino NAU Students to “Wake Up”

Spike Lee, film director and prolific NBA pest, was in Flagstaff last week, where he spoke to students at Northern Arizona University about education and race.

Lee, who is responsible for “joints” like Get on the Bus, Do the Right Thing, and Bamboozled, told students that Latino and African-American students needed to “wake up” and break the stigma that getting an education often has in poor minority communities.

Sounds like the plot of every “hood” movie Spike’s ever made.

Lee was the guest speaker for NAU’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day hosted by the Martin-Springer Institute, where he spoke for 40 minutes about himself, the state of race relations in America, and offered advice.

“We have young black kids and some Hispanic kids — smart kids — who fail class on purpose or who act dumb on purpose. In their misguided minds, if you speak correct English … you are acting white, you are a sellout, you are an Oreo,” Lee says. “But if you are on the corner, smoking a joint and drinking a 40 with you pants below your ass holding your privates — you a gangster.”