WAKE UP!!!!

Guess what!!

I FINALLY saw School Daze! I told you I was going to do it...

So...I'm not going to lie...I got a kick out of watching School Daze. I am a fan of musicals and I thought Spike Lee's portrayal of the lives of students at Historically Black Colleges was very interesting and influential.

As I was watching the film, I just thought that Spike Lee was going to tell the story of fraternities and sororities and other "groups" on HBCU campuses. I was some what surprised to see that he structured the ending "Wake Up!!" scene. For those that forgot, this scene had Lawrence Fisbourne's character ringing a large bell while shouting at the top of his lounges for his fellow students to "Wake Up!"

I thought it was very interesting that Spike Lee chose to portray this message after he painted the image of what goes on on many HBCU campuses year after year. The "Wake Up!" mentality is depicted as the thought processes that African Americans, not only on college campuses, but across the country need to wake up and realize that black people as a whole need to better themselves. African Americans need to stop settling for less than what is possible for them to achieve and reach and aspire for advancement.


Even though this movie came out in 1988, there are still African American people across the world that still have what can be referred to as having a "local" mentality. This generalized mentality is one in which "locals" feel that if they come from a small town full of people who do not pursue more than the minimum. These people are often born, raised, work and continue their lives day to day with little notion to get out of their small town and pursue dreams that are bigger than what their community can offer them.


On Hampton University's campus, many students refer to the people who do not go to our school as locals. Hampton University students refer to these people as locals because they portray an attitude that reflects the mentality of them feeling that Hampton University students "feel" that they are better than what they are. When discussing these "locals" many Hampton University students talk about them in a demeaning way. Students talk about the way they talk, act and dress and I can see how locals may feel that we think we are better than them because we often make comments that show such a mentality...although that may not be how we mean to come off as.

When Lawrence Fishbourn's characters and his friends went to KFC and were met with some scruffier looking, trash talking men who grew up and reside in that area. The "locals" were talking down to Fishbourne's character and his friends, calling them niggers and telling them that they think they are better than the locals just because they are pursuing an education.

I feel School Daze did a great job of pointing out nuances within the black community. This allows viewers to see how crazy some of the way people's mentalities are. Hopefully people, not only black people, will realize how necessary it is for change to take place so that the children our black community is raising will not continue this “local” mentality.