School Daze: 20 Years Later

So the family took a trip this weekend to celebrate my brother Daron "Snacks" Harris 23rd B-day. He was taking a nod from his big brother and throwing a rock'em sock'em party to celebrate (more on this later).

Everything was going great...great turnout. People came in there all white consistent with the theme. It was all good - until a fight broke out at the end. I am not going to get into the details because I don't like to perpetuate or celebrate violence. But the whole thing reminded me of some of my times in college when we would go to war with "the locals" of perceived disrespect. There was tension -almost like latent racism - just always there - under the surface - where it felt like they hated us for moving up or acting better than them - and we returned the favor for them being stagnant and embarrassing or contrary to our upwardly mobile views. What was really interesting was in reality how similar we were to each other.

But as usual - most people can't see the forest for the trees. Here it is they are complaining about you coming in and taking opportunities from them when on the flip you are there on a scholarship because your parents couldn't afford to send you to school out of pocket. Or you are working on work-study job for some pocket change.
Crazy isn't it - beefing over money that neither one of you has - we'll at least yet.
The truth is most of the kids that do graduate are probably on the next bus out of town - so what jobs are they really taking in the community? Again - not seeing the bigger picture. I get on the students because they are supposed to "know better" but a lot of them come from tough neighborhoods where backing down isn't always the #1 preference. So with respect to that - I understand that its tough to not get defensive when somebody comes at you.

All of it made me think about this scene from School Daze that really illustrates this point. If you watch the whole thing - it will show you actually several divisions - the poor vs the middle class , and the militant vs. the main-stream (a whole other blog). But anyway - the experience moved me so I thought I would share the nostalgia - enjoy.