Higher Learning Movie Analysis

The movie, Higher Learning, is a film that includes people that have different backgrounds, but yet have the same struggles, whether it is with racism, academics, financial issues. It does a well job of expressing how stressing a situation can be when a student has to deal with the problems of racism while having to also balance school, relationships. Throughout the whole movie there are many examples of the issues the characters have to deal with, but the issues regarding race/ethnicity are presented throughout the movie through stereotypes, hate crimes, and policing of different races.

The movie follows the lives of three students as they go through their first year at Columbus University. These students are faced with issues of race, sexual

In the beginning of the movie, a situation occurs, which leads a group of African Americans to enter a fraternity party to find a guy to teach him a lesson. The cops are called and when they arrive guys associated with the fraternity, point to the African Americans and accuse them of being “gang members”. The leader of the group is offended and clarifies that they too go to school there. Gabbidon and Green (2012) mention how there are still prejudice and discrimination of entire groups (9). In another scene, two African Americans are walking down the street when they are stopped by two officers. Although they were not doing anything, the cops thought they looked suspicious and wanted to stop and check if they were actual students although he already knew they were. Gabbidon and Greene (2012) mention that there has been research that middle class blacks are more likely to experience suspicion and mistreatment

In the beginning of the movie Malik attends a party that is hosted by African Americans, Remy tells some officers to shut it down because he cannot study. So when the officers come by, the host points out that there is another party going down and to make sure to shut it down, but the officer does not do much to do that. There is another scene where Remy has Malik and his roommate at gunpoint. He packs his stuff and runs off, as Malik chases after him, he encounters two police officers as the are walking up the stairs. Although Malik is not doing anything wrong, they grab him and take him away, he is fighting with them and trying to explain that they should be worried about Remy, but they do not listen. They finally listen when the roommate tells them that they have the wrong guy. he ran away and as the black guy chased after him he encountered some police officers walking up the stairs, although he was not doing anything but just running the wanted to take him away, he tried to tell them that there was a guy with a gun, but they did not listen until the other white guy told them that they had the wrong guy. Gabbidon and Green (2012) further discuss this as racial profiling (9). Another instance is towards the end of the movie when the guy runs to go get revenge towards the shooter, the cops find the black guy beating up the white guy