February 2, 1995
When I first heard of John Singleton's third film "Higher Learning," I was ecstatic. Unlike most films about college, it didn't wrap up casual sex and beer bashes into a silly comedy with a trite ending. This film was about campus diversity, interpersonal relations and how hard it is to understand others when you are just beginning to discover yourself. This film was going to portray what college has been like for me.
But it didn't.
The film depicts two freshmen's first semester at fictitious "Columbus University." Although they are different: Malik is a black man and Kristy is a white woman, they have many of the same difficulties. Both have unexpected financial problems: Kristy's father was laid off from his job and cannot afford her tuition; Malik's scholarship turns out to be partial instead of the full grant he expected. Both have trouble formulating analytical essays for their political science class. Both quickly make friends with others of their own race, although the school places them in dorm rooms with roommates of another color.
A third character, Remmy, a white man, doesn't make friends as easily. After several weeks at school, he meets a group of skinheads who invite him into their group, accepting him as a "brother." Soon, he shaves his head and adapts the mentality of his new friends.
The film builds up to a bitter, sensationally fatal climax, occasionally pausing to consider issues of acquaintance rape, questioning one's own sexuality, alcohol abuse, preferential treatment and academics. But in trying to deal with so many issues, it simplifies the problems.
Unfortunately the race issue in the film remains very black and white. Other races are only mentioned in passing with labels such as "Chinatown" and "South of the Border" as a character explains how "everybody sticks to their own."
Singleton is right. Everbody does stick to their own. That's evident here. But campus race relations are so much more complex than the picture the film paints. In the six years I've been here, I've seen students in each other's faces yelling about racism, public policy, symbolism and history that go beyond just black and white. Sometimes that verbal argument becomes a physical one, and then rarely does any understanding result. The argument subsides, but the feelings remain.
I came to SF State for several reasons. Of the foremost was diversity. I didn't want to go to school in a white, middle class neighborhood like the one I grew up in. I wanted to meet people of all kinds of cultures, colors and identities. I wanted to learn about others.
Here I met people who I could talk to about race. I could ask them what it was like to be Palestinian or Latino or Asian or African American, because I don't know and I don't usually understand when I do. If it weren't for this campus, I wouldn't have such friends where, despite differences, we find common interests.
The last image Singleton leaves the audience is the word "unlearn," typewritten in red on a black screen. Unlearn the racism. Unlearn the cultural elitism.
We do need to unlearn. Maybe we aren't supposed to understand. It's not black and white. We need to learn how to explain instead of yell, and we need to learn how to listen.