Following the 2016 BET awards, one of our dear Morehouse brothers, Spike Lee, Class of 1979, has been called out after he acknowledged his alma mater, Morehouse College, while presenting Samuel Jackson with the BET Lifetime Achievement Award. This happened later in the show after Anthony Anderson acknowledged his alma mater, Howard University, when he introduced Howard alumna Taraji P. Henson, before she performed her "Lemonade" section for the BET Awards and read the nominees for another category.
When Samuel L. Jackson received his award, he gave a shout out to his alma mater, Morehouse College, and also to Spelman College as well, paying homage to his study with the Spelman College performing arts program. Jackson was the recipient of this year's Lifetime Achievement Award and Lee was honored to make sure that his Morehouse brother received the proper recognition for his accomplishments in Hollywood, as one of the highest paid black actors in Hollywood, although some disagree.
Big celebrities shouting out there HBCUs at the BET Awards is something that is almost customary for people like Tom Joyner who graduated from Tuskegee University, Terrence Howard who graduated from North Carolina A&T State University, Lala Anthony and Phylicia Rashad, who also graduated from Howard University, and Ricky Smiley who graduated from Alabama State University. Many were angry and took to Twitter protesting that they were excluded from that acknowledgment that Spike Lee and Samuel Jackson gave Spelman and Morehouse. However, I question if Spike Lee was wrong for this or if he even thought about it? More importantly, what exactly were people expecting for Lee to do?
The question is, should Lee have mentioned Clark Atlanta University (CAU), given that he did take many of his film classes there? My answer, it depends.
Certainly if Lee had been the recipient of ANY award at the BET Awards Show and had the opportunity to thank different people for getting him to where he is today then yes, it would be almost inappropriate to not mention the school where he learned his film making skill from HOWEVER, this was not the case. Lee, in fact, did not receive any award while at the 2016 BET Awards. Lee only seemed to be the selected person to give Jackson his award simply because they are a strong force in the Black entertainment world, they both attended the same college and graduated at the same time in the Class of '79. The issue is not that he did not recognize CAU as his alma mater, but that he did not recognize CAU at all and why would he? He simply stated that Samuel Jackson attended Morehouse with him and his purpose in this segment of the award show was to give his Morehouse brother an award, not give an acceptance speech thanking everybody who helped him get to a high enough place to be selected, to give an away an award away.
Some students at CAU believed that this Morehouse Alumni should have shouted out his CAU roots without actually taking into account that his entire purpose for being the presenter of the award was because he is a Morehouse graduate. Even though Taraji P. Henson transferred to Howard in '93 from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University after failing a precalculus class while studying engineering, it certainly accepted that she claims, loud and proud "HU" so, why can’t Spike Lee do the same ? After all isn't that the whole point of the AUC, to be allowed attend classes at different schools that may not be offered at your host school, while getting your degree from the school you are enrolled in?
I don't thing Spike Lee did the right thing but, he did his own thing and that is something that anybody can respect.
