School Daze Spike Lee Analysis

The second movie that I am analyzing is Spike Lee ‘School Daze,’ which came out in theaters in 1988 and was filmed on Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse Campus. In the beginning of the film, just like ‘She’s Gotta Have It,’ there are pictures and the song being played is “I’m building me a home,” through out the first three minutes of the film. From what I have seen I believe that Spike Lee is introducing the film to us. It is showing where African Americans came from and our growth through time. The song is for how ‘home’ for college students is the institution they choose to go to. We as students are building a new home at the college that we are attending. The first picture I believe was shown was slave ships. Seeing this and hearing this made me realize that the movie was about black people. It was pictures of black leaders in our history such as Booker T. Washington and Malcolm X. Everything that was shown in the first 3 minutes as what we are taught in Historically Black Colleges. Reading what Toni Cade Bambara wrote about the beginning of the film showed me that I wasn’t the only one who noticed what Spike Lee was trying to say. She states that, ‘The viewer is
It’s crazy that this movie had came out the year I was born and I still can say that that is still how black people act in our community. Light skinned and long hair is still looked upon as more beautiful then dark skinned and kinky hair. It is even in our rap lyrics today. In Lil Wayne ‘Right Above It’ lyrics he states, “Uh, how do he say what’s never said? Beautiful black woman, I bet that bitch look better red.” Spike Lee was trying to show black people that we need to stop with all of this bias hatred amongst each other because we all are still Black people and you do not hear white people hating or thinking they are better then one another by their complexions and their hair