Thanks for the vocabulary word (I had to google it).
School Daze came out I was approx 14 years old. Although I was an Archonette with Zeta Phi Beta, I had no concept of the sorority/fraternity life that was protrayed in the movie. Maybe it's because I was already participating in a likeness of "greek" life through community service, meetings, and fellowship. We didn't see them stepping or wearing sweatshirts and I was apart of that group from 7th grade through high school. Those women were real to us and they are the ones who took the time to help mold us. I have family members in other sororities, and I never saw them display the type of behavior depicted in the movie either.
When I saw School Daze for the first time at the movies, it was purely for entertainment purposes. I didn't leave the movie thinking that what I saw was true to life. I remember being confused because Larry Fishburn was screaming "wake up" at the end, and I didn't understand why. I did take away the points I mentioned in my earlier post (excluding greek vs non greek). Even though I didn't recognize this element of the movie, I recognized that Larry's character was an individual who didn't think that blacks should "whiten" themselves to belong to a group.
I did not understand that what was happening in that movie was hazing. I just assumed that Half-Pint had a goal, so he had to do what he had to do to get in. I was more disturbed by Tisha Campbell's character being used by her boyfriend and Half-Pint.
As far as Spike Lee is concerned, I thought his movies held secret messages, and that he expected me to learn something by the end of the film. I'm not mad at him for trying to make a living because if his movies bomb then he has no platform to use to get his messages across.