Higher Learning

Spoiler Alert: If you have not watched Higher Learning, you may want to wait to read this post.

The first time I watched Higher Learning was in high school. I was at a friend’s house and we rented it from a video store. Video stores….brick and mortar buildings filled with rows and rows of movies and over-priced candy. And if you went on Tuesdays, it was $0.99 to rent any movie! Otherwise, the new releases cost more.

I remember being confused while watching the movie; not quite understanding some of the scenes and language. I was also terrified of going to college.  My parents, never ones to actually monitor what I was watching at any age, assured me that nothing was going to happen in college the way it did in the movie.

I didn’t watch the movie again until I got to college.  I came across it in a bin of used movies and picked it up thinking that it was a good movie. While not as traumatizing as American History X, Higher Learning still had an effect on me. Watching it in college with my roommates was a very different experience. Things that didn’t make sense years earlier, were suddenly clear and in focus.  And my parents were wrong. Shootings, hate, binge drinking, fighting, rape, and sexual assault did happen on college campuses.  They didn’t happen to me, but I was affected nonetheless and often was called upon to support others.  As an RA, this movie was pulled out again and again for movie nights and discussions before it was packed away.

Here we are again, dusting the movie off and watching it with the intent to dissect different identities of the characters as they evolved in the movie. Watching the movie now I see the people and the situations very differently.  As a student affairs professional, I wince at all of the liability issues present in most of the scenes. As a person who is becoming better educated about race and power, I am enraged at the behavior of the campus police officers. There is not one scene where the police officers actually do their job appropriately.  One place where my original feelings have not changed involves Michael Rapaport’s character Remy.

Every time I see this movie, I cry over Remy. My compassion grows for him each time I watch his self-destruction. Like so many of our students, Remy came from an abusive home. He had dreams of becoming an architect or engineer. He experienced culture shock, moving from a small town in the mid-west to a sprawling urban campus in California. Remy just wanted to belong. He wanted friends and to be understood.  I want to reach into the screen and shake people when they walk away from him or ignore him.  I remind my own student staff constantly that all it takes is one smile, one kind word, or one friendly greeting to make a person’s day. That has never been truer than in Remy’s case.  It makes me sad, that there are some students who have no self-confidence, and are one bad experience away from committing suicide. Remy was smart. He probably suffered from a learning disability or social anxiety. He was easy prey for the wrong group and in some ways, exactly who the white supremacists seek out. Remy was lonely and impressionable, quick to blindly trust in anyone who would believe in him and nurture him. Remy was not full of hate the way the ring leader of the group was. He was not manipulative or controlling. He was hurting. And unfortunately, he only saw one way out of it. I bawl like a baby every time I watch Remy and hear him say, “I’m sorry. I only wanted to build stuff”.  That scene affects me so much, that I can’t watch other work Michael Rapaport has done without tearing up and thinking of Remy. He was a kid who never got to actualize his full potential and become a positive, contributing member of society.

In contrast, Ice Cube’s character Fudge cracks me up. When we meet him in the movie, he already has a very deep sense of self. One would hope so after being on campus for six or more years! Fudge is comfortable in his own skin and has a strong identity. He understands the systems that “control” him on campus and in this country.  What I find interesting about his character, is that he doesn’t try to educate everyone else on race, history, privilege or power. He’s not organizing book clubs or movie nights. He doesn’t hold weekly discussions or push people to study ethnic programs. Fudge mocks people. His sarcasm, whether subtle or overt, is effortless.  He gets away with saying the unthinkable. And when he chooses to call people out, his words are swift and strong. No one questions him.  Every interaction Fudge has with the police is filmed in such a way as to bring comic relief to the harsh subject matter, but each scene still rings with truth. When being followed by the police and asked for his ID, Fudge whips out a flashlight and asks for their badge numbers. When called a gang member outside of the fraternity house and again asked for ID, Fudge retorts that they (the police and students) know he is a student. How could they not? He’s been there quite a while. When gathered after Remy pulls a gun on his roommate and Malik, the police ask them to disperse. Fudge refuses, saying if the White students can stand together so can they (the Black students).  Irony was never so funny as when you learned that Fudge’s last name is White. Because Fudge is so complete in his identity, it is fitting that he graduates at the end.

The protagonists of the movie are Omar Epp’s character Malik Williams, and Kristy Swanson’s character Kristen Connor.  I could write for days on them! So much material! In the interest of keeping it simple, let’s look at them both briefly.  Malik and Kristen meet in an elevator where Kristen grabs her purse close for fear he may try to rob her. In the end, they meet at the statue where Malik’s girlfriend Deja died.  In the middle, a whole lot happens! In an effort to do as I promised and try to keep it brief, let’s use Chickering’s 7 vectors of Identity Development (http://studentdevelopmenttheory.wordpress.com/chickerings-seven-vectors/)

to frame their individual growth in the movie.  

Vector 1 Developing competence

Kristen may have been book smart, but she had a ways to go for learning how to be competent in social settings and when interacting with peers. She seemed to be strong when she left her friends at a party because she didn’t want drink, but she left alone and was walking alone at night. She was smart to ask Billy to use a condom, but when he continued and raped her, she was not emotionally competent enough to report it or see a doctor.

Malik was smart enough to get into college, but let his ego get in the way of track practice the first day. His naivety at being a star almost cost him his scholarship. Further, he had problems in the classroom and his first papers were horrid.  

Vector 2 Managing Emotions

Malik never fully mastered managing his emotions. He was quick to anger, never taking time to just breathe and evaluate the situation he was in. He acted in impulse. This may have been a result of his upbringing. He did become better at expressing himself in his classwork.

Kristen’s sexual assault rendered her almost powerless. She was at a loss for how to move forward in relationships, but she sought out friendships and joined clubs.

Vector 3 Moving through autonomy to interdependence

I found that Kristen struggled with this more than Malik. Malik seemed to build relationships fairly easily. Kristen really struggled with her sexual identity. I tend to think even if the assault had not occurred; she may have still experimented and tried a same sex relationship.  This was not resolved to me. If anything, Kristen became selfish and was dating two people at the same time without telling the other.  She put herself and her partners at risk for STDs and STIs.

Vector 4 Developing mature interpersonal relationships

Kristen came to see how she could appreciate people who are different from her. I don’t believe Malik reached that place. He never really tried to get to know Remy or mediate their relationship.  Kristen took it upon herself to try to do something, anything. Her involvement in the peace rally and the take back the night rally pushed her to step outside her comfort zone and reach out to people.  Malik couldn’t bring himself to even open up to his roommate. He did confront him on keeping their room clean and keeping music down when sleeping. They worked out their differences, and got along, but when his roommate approached him about why Malik was moving out, Malik only gave vague answers about needing to be with his people.

Vector 5 Establishing Identity

I’m not sure either Kristen or Malik ever achieved vector 5. I think they were well on their way, but were set back by Remy’s actions.

Vector 6 Developing Purpose

Kristen seemed to develop a purpose. She wanted to help people, heal their campus, and bring people together.  Speaking out as a victim of assault and taking a stand on violence gave her a sense of purpose. Malik on the other hand, could not see past the immediate issues of racism he encountered daily. The instances did not serve as a motivation to develop a purpose, but more served as reasons to feel his violent responses were justified. His professor was reaching through to him, making him see how he could use these experiences. His girlfriend tried to talk to him as well, encouraging him to use his talent to get ahead and stop worrying about what other thought of him.

Vector 7 Developing Integrity

At the very end, when Malik is running down the quad/sidewalk, I think he found his integrity. He had contemplated dropping out of school, but this one shot of him running says to me, he decided to stay in school.  Malik also encouraged Kristen to not feel guilt about organizing the peace rally, saying that you can’t blame yourself for other’s actions. Kristen on the other hand, was feeling guilty and remorseful. She believed the shooting was her fault, instead of accepting that it was beyond her control.