New Spike Lee biography paints complex portrait

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"What becomes clear in Spike Lee: That's My Story and I'm Sticking to It is that Lee is a far more complex filmmaker than many realize. His public image veers between hothead - his portrayal of Mookie throwing a trash can through a pizzeria window in Do the Right Thing is indelibly etched in the nation's moviegoing memory."

Also see "'Gangsta' image clouds role of education", which says in part:

"When controversial filmmaker Spike Lee was growing up in Brooklyn, he said he aspired to be like the educated black men he saw reading books and going to college.

"Today the images in society glorified by gangsta rap — pimping and violence — are overtaking the role education should play, Lee said during a lecture at Middle Tennessee State University.
"Young black kids didn't grow up wanting to be a pimp or a stripper like they do now," Lee said of his own youth. "You might think I'm making generalizations, but I don't think I am. That's how serious this stuff is."

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