Filmmaker and director Spike Lee delivered a passionate and often incisive speech at Johns Hopkins University’s commencement ceremony on Wednesday, 2016, blasting Republican candidate Donald Trump and urging graduates to “build bridges of love” and not “walls of hate.”
Spike Lee, whose works include Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, and She’s Gotta Have It — all critically acclaimed examinations of race tensions in America — spoke vocally about ongoing threats to justice (police violence, racial profiling, incarceration) and encouraged students to “Wake Up!”
“Wake up from your sleep. Wake up from your comatose. Wake up from the slumber that keeps your eyes shut to inequalities and injustices,” he began. “Let’s leave our lofty Ivory towers of institutions and get down to the people…. As the sisters and brothers say in the block: ‘Get Woke!’ ”
“We are at a very crucial moment in history in these United States of America,” he said. “And the way I’m looking at it today, to tell you the truth, things are looking dicey.”
“I wish you could be graduating into a world of peace, light, and love, but that’s not the case,” he added. “After you leave here today, it’s going to be real life, and real life is no joke.”
Lee encouraged graduates to stay on “the straight and narrow,” adding “it’s up to the graduating classes of 2016 to make a better world for the 99 percent.”
“The United States of America is a very diverse nation.. This is one of the many things that makes it great, despite the legacy of the genocide of its native people and slavery.”
“The United States Census Bureau — and not Spike Lee! — says 5 years from now white children will be a minority, and by 2049 white folks will be wholly outnumbered by non-whites.”
“This is happening, people, here and now. It’s time to start embracing it, not fight it.”
Throwing a direct jab at Republican candidate Donald Trump, he continued:
“No matter how one might wish it be otherwise, we are not making America great again by going back to Eisenhower, Jim Crow, firehoses, German shepherds, and “Leave It To Beaver.’’ Not happening.
Now’s the time to seize the day, take advantage of this unique moment in history, and build bridges amongst us. Talking about gender, race, religion, and nations, not walls. Let us build bridges of love, versus walls of hate.
“Standing here, I’m amongst some of the greatest minds in the world here at Johns Hopkins University, people who are a lot smarter than me. So I ask: can somebody please educate me? Me, somebody from the public school education in the Republic of Brooklyn, New York?”
“Can somebody please explain to me how you can tell Mexico to build a 25-foot wall on the borders? On top of that, have the audacity to tell them: ‘Mexico, you foot the bill, too? W-T-F?!’ ”
Reiterating his unwavering support for President Barack Obama, he confessed having “recurring nightmares” that “Donald Trump has become the 45th president of the United States of America.”
“He gets mad at somebody, and we’re all gonna go! BOOM! Two more booms! BOOM! BOOM! Dear God, save us. But we gotta get woke. We gotta wake up.”
Lee ended his speech with a reading of the Prince song “Baltimore,” released last year following the death of Freddie Gray, finishing on the refrain: “If there ain’t no justice then there ain’t no peace.”
He concluded: “Thank you. Go with God. Black Lives Matter.”
