From the Rough: A Movie We Can All Embrace

I’ve been quiet for a while, but I wanted to show some love to a movie that I recently had the pleasure of screening.  It’s the heart-warming, refreshing, and true story of a men’s golf team at Tennessee State University that is coached and led by Catana Starks (played by Taraji P. Henson). LeToya Luckett, Michael Clark Duncan, and Tom Felton (for you Harry Potter fans) join Henson on the screen to show the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of a golf team that is forced to come together or risk falling apart. Each character must face past demons and fears to emerge from the rough on the golf course and in life.

A few things came to mind after I screened this movie. I was reminded of several movies with sports backdrops like Seabiscuit, The Blind Side, and Remember the Titans when I watched this film. It’s the classic underdog story with so many layers such that you get a good sense of every character and his or her story in the film. It was also refreshing to see another film centered around a historically black university. We’ve seen “Drumline” and “Stomp the Yard”, but this one provides another viewpoint of the HBCU experience.

Personally, I enjoyed the film, and the way that it brought pressing issues to the forefront. This movie finds a way to shed light on race, culture, gender, socio-economic status, love, defeat, and triumph and wrap it all into one movie about one team. I’m excited to see what happens with this movie once it is released to the public in the Fall.

Be sure to like “From the Rough” on Facebook and follow @gyremovies on Twitter.

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Are HBCU Grads Outdoing Non-HBCU Grads?

To preface primemeridian and I’s post asking if college is really worth it (please post it so I don’t look stupid) dropping soon, I thought I’d kick start the college discussion with an interesting article I stumbled across.  You can read it here.

According to a study done by Howard University and Morehouse College, HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) graduates do better financially than their black counterparts who graduate from traditionally white colleges and universities.  I found this interesting, but I can’t say that I’m overly surprised.  When many companies feel the need to add some color to their workforces, they look no further than an HBCU.  I don’t blame them either because HBCU’s are obvious hotbeds for black graduates.  I wish I would’ve seen more companies reach out to my school for black graduates while I was in undergrad, but why would they?  The semester I graduated, I think we had about 30-35 black graduates.  That seems bleak when you see that my alma mater has an enrollment of over 50,000 students.

This isn’t a PWI vs. HBCU debate, though, because both serve their purposes for black students.  My grandmother graduated from Prairie View A&M, and I stand on her shoulders, so I find the argument to be asinine.  Without our grandparents and ancestors being forced to create and attend their own colleges and universities, our generation wouldn’t be afforded the option of attending a PWI or HBCU.  It’s time for us to stop this rivalry between historically black schools and predominately white schools.  It’s nice to see a statistic reflecting the successes of black students.  I salute you all.

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