![Post image for My Righteous Mind [VIDEO]…](http://zora-alice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/zoraalice-icon.png){kind=icon}
I am not a movie person. I mean, I am not that person that needs to see every new major film, indie flic or Sundance documentary the exact day it comes to the theater, debate the camera framing for two hours with my fellow film junkies and then proceed to post a 1,000 word article on the artistic disconnect of said film. Remember, I’m a book worm.
However, there are certain films that move me in such a way that I have memorized the script ( I’m quite serious), quote lines on a daily basis, and cry on cue at the same scenes every time I watch the film ( read: Sixteen Candles, Do the Right Thing, Love and Basketball). Like most people, I find that there are certain films that simply speak to a moment in my life and I fall in love with the film’s artistic articulation of that moment ( see I can talk fancy film language if I want too). The Great Debater’s is such a film.
In the clip below, Professor Melvin. B Tolson, played by Denzel Washington tells his students about Willie Lynch a vicious slave master in the West Indies. It was Lynch who emphasized the strong body, weak mind philosophy that characterized the slave system. Washington explains that as a result of the this cruel legacy, the role of the professor, especially in the disheartening times of Jim Crow and the segregated South, was to help the student find, take back, and keep his/her righteous mind. Such a message may seem antiquated to living in a world where brown skin lives inside the White House but that line gets me each time.
An education is a powerful tool and my mind is a terrible thing to waste. Perhaps I am on a bit of a high as I prepare to graduate from college this evening. I have had the social debates over the necessity of higher education numerous times but I always decide that nothing in the world can compare with the self growth that one experiences in a collegiate setting. And as a black women I will smile even harder as I receive my degree.
I have found my righteous mind.
