Spike Lee: "Gangsta Culture is Madness"

Thank you Spike Lee for speaking out yesterday. My post wondering about the effects of hip hop culture on blacks has 11 comments.

Malcolm X director Spike Lee has blasted hip-hop culture for making pimps and strippers role models to young African-Americans. The film-maker, 48, made the comments during a questions and answer session with students from the University of Mississippi Thursday night. Lee said, "When I was growing up, I didn’t know any guys who wanted to be a pimp. I didn’t know any girls who wanted to be a stripper. "We looked up to those who were smart. These days if you speak one sentence without being profane, then you’re not black. If you’re not in the corner smoking a joint, drinking a 40, holding your privates, you’re not ghetto, you’re not from the streets, you’re not gangsta. "Thinking like that, that’s genocide. The infatuation with being a gangsta is madness."