Filmmaker Spike Lee says black parents should do the right thing and steer their kids toward better role models rather than "gangsta" rappers and modern-day minstrels.

Lee told listeners at the Black Expo Saturday that violent images from rappers such as 50 Cent are damaging the next generation.

"Forget about the beat," he said. "Let's talk about the lyrical content."

Lee, a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, said blacks should realize as their slave ancestors did that knowledge leads to freedom.

He lamented that young black scholars sometimes are ridiculed as fakes who are "acting white. ‘.‘.‘. But if you're on a corner, holding a 40, smoking a blunt and holding your privates, then you're real."

He also criticized the popular film "Barbershop," in which a comic character lobs some disparaging remarks about civil rights icons, including Rosa Parks. That film showed there still are "minstrels" around, Lee said, even though they don't wear white-face makeup as performers did decades ago.

"I cannot laugh at a joke about Rosa Parks," he said to scattered applause. "I'm sorry, but that's not funny."

SUPPORT URGED FOR BLACK BUSINESSES

Lee supported the expo's theme: celebrating black business entrepreneurs.

A resourceful, Oscar-nominated director of 16 films, Lee said blacks must strive to be more than just consumers. "If you are the boss, if you own the business, then you call the shots," he said.

Lee said that too often, a "slave mentality" inhibits blacks from trusting each other in money matters. They should look to other blacks for services when they seek bankers, lawyers, architects and interior designers, he said.

"We have to get out of that mentality because that money trickles down," he said.

He urged his audience to boycott any business that displays the Confederate flag, comparing it to the Nazi swastika.

"The rest of the world is in 2003," he said. "I don't know what's happening in South Carolina."

The Revs. Willie and Lynn Sims, from North Augusta, were enthusiastic about Lee's 30-minute talk. Willie Sims said, however, that many blacks in South Carolina have concerns that outrank the Confederate flag.

"I don't have a problem with the flag," he said. "What makes people prejudiced is what's in their hearts."

His wife loved Lee's condemnation of the rapper 50 Cent: "That's some horrible stuff."

Ricky Dent, 42, of Columbia, said Lee seemed to sidestep the fact that he, too, has made movies with violence and vulgarity. "It's kind of, 'do as I say and not as I do,'‘" Dent said.

South Carolina State University graduate Rodney Brown, 36, of Columbia, said he appreciated Lee's remarks on education. "I think people have heard that a lot of times, but it means more when it comes from someone like that."

PLENTY TO SEE AND DO

The expo, which expected to draw as many as 20,000, had the Carolina Center jumping all day.

At a display by Atlanta-based Bovanti Cosmetics, six make-up artists worked on a steady stream of women.

Stewart Darby, a physicians assistant with Eau Clair Cooperative Health Centers, was busy doing diabetes screenings and blood pressure checks.

Anthony Nelson, 43, questioned mystery author Charles Campbell about "Billy Zane," the self-published book he was selling for $17.95 a copy.

"You don't give away the ending too early, do you?" he asked Campbell, who assured him he would be guessing till the book's end.

You could buy clothing from African dashikis to suits from Lourie's. You could sign an organ donor card, register to vote or see a real estate agent.

And for about an hour, you could spot a presidential candidate - the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The New York Democrat bustled among the expo exhibits shaking eager hands, posing for photos and signing autographs. Then he spent some time at the Truth-Hamer Initiative booth, an effort to target a million underprivileged women and register them to vote.

"I think it's important to be here," Sharpton said, adding his presence emphasized his commitment to winning South Carolina and to voter registration.

Sharpton was to open his first state office, in Florence, later Saturday evening.