I don’t remember what director Spike Lee did or said that turned me off (it was something), but I was once a big fan.
I was an undergrad at an historically black college when the best movie he ever made, School Daze, came out. My school was one of several selected to screen the film before it hit theaters.
Set at a fictional, historically black college (filmed at Morris Brown College in Atlanta), School Daze was about color consciousness among blacks (light skin vs. dark skin, “good” hair vs. “bad” hair, etc.) in general and at black schools in particular. Although dramatically enhanced, most of the scenes rang true.
When Lee says something I like, I ought to acknowledge it. From the Tennessean:
“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.”
…“We do not all think and talk alike, and I’ve been struggling to get that message through Hollywood,” Lee said. “And I will continue to bring that message.”
Spike Lee is a die-hard New York Knicks fan, and as a formerly addicted Knicks/John Starks fan myself, I share his impeccable taste in sports teams. 
By the way, TURN OFF THAT IDIOT BOX!!!
Update: I forgot to mention the best part of the article:
Many of hip-hop’s heroes amount to minstrel performers in Lee’s opinion. The pimping and gangsta personas are what sells right now, Lee said, and rappers may not be wearing blackface, but they are presenting an image of what it means to be black like minstrel shows of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Emphasis added)
I second that.
