Life Lessons from Higher Learning

Back in January, I had the delight of watching the film Higher Learning through my free subscription to Pluto TV. Every time the film airs on TV, I always miss the beginning. Like Spike Lee, John Singleton was no stranger to directing controversial films. In my opinion, Higher Learning is one of them yet genius and creative at the same time. I know race and ethnic issues are once again hot topics in America today. Recently, I read a response to my comment on a YouTube video of a trailer for Higher Learning and someone said it was ahead of its time. Maybe it was. I think the goal of the film was to highlight the political and ethnic issues of the 90s. From what I heard, some people said the colleges they attended were nothing like the fictional Columbus University in the film. However, we can agree that many colleges have been involved in political and societal issues since the Civil Rights and Vietnam War era of the 1960s.

In the film Higher Learning, you see racial and ethnic tension between the students early on. You would've thought many of these students were pissed off ethnocentric, cliquish high school students who didn't want to associate with those who looked or thought differently from themselves. It's the type of school you drop out of because most of the students can't get along with each other. They have all these petty issues instead of focusing on getting their degree. Which brings me to the discussion of the main characters. What do you get when you have a black man from a low-income neighborhood on an athletic scholarship, a white woman whose an advocate for women's rights and a loner white guy who leaned towards joining a neo Nazi group? A huge firestorm. That being said, Omar Epps, Kristy Swanson and Michael Rapaport all did a phenomenal job playing their characters Malik Williams, Kristen Connor and Remy respectively. There were also supporting characters such as Ice Cube, Tyra Banks and Laurence Fishburne who all played as Fudge White, Professor Phipps and Deja respectively.

Throughout the film, Professor Phipps tried to be the voice of reason among his students. Despite being a sociology professor, he seemed to be conservative. I guess John Singleton was trying to highlight how some Caribbean blacks and Black Africans think differently from African Americans. In my experience, I do find some blacks from the Caribbean and from African countries to be more conservative than many African Americans. Similar people but different ideas. Getting back to Phipps, the same thing he told Malik throughout the film is pretty the same thing he'd tell any of the students regardless of their race...even Remy. One scene that stood out to me was how he said the world will not cater to you because of the color of your skin. He's not completely wrong about this. However, Phipps said this from a conservative standpoint. The other issue throughout the film is how Remy in particular felt like no one noticed him and was a loner. He tried to be friends with different people and most likely felt like an outsider even before he entered college. Sadly, he found kinship with Scott Moss, played by Cole Hauser, the leader of a white supremacist group on campus.

Malik also felt like because of his skin color he won't have many employment opportunities as someone whose white or non-black. In his case, he grew up in poverty and was likely raised mostly by his mother during his childhood. Deja, who was Malik's girlfriend, also tried to be the voice of reason in her own way. Although she expressed to him how she dealt with what's now known as micro aggressions from her dorm roommates, she tried not to let it bother her. Like Malik, she was also on an athletic scholarship and ran track for Columbus. Without giving too many spoilers, Higher Learning doesn't end on a good note. Most of these dramatic films don't. It makes me thankful the internet has advanced tremendously in the last 25 years. Since this film was released, you are now able to take college classes online and spend the full or part of the semester off campus. If I was a biracial woman who attended a school like Columbus in the 90s, no way in hell I would've gotten my degree from that school even if I had a scholarship. I would've dropped out within a year.