As a member of the First sorority created by African American women at Howard University in 1908,Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, and a recent graduate of a Historically Black University (Clark Atlanta University which is the college that was used as the set for Stomp the Yard, Drumline, and School Daze)I must say the movie was exactly as I expected, an extremely exaggerated display of Greek-life and the HBCU experience. The hard work and dedication in being a member of a Greek-letter organization goes so far beyond stepping and strolling on the yard. My problem is I hope that the "teens" this movie attracts will be able to decipher between REALITY and what was displayed on the screen, because it is not very realistic that on any HBCU campus will you find a student with a landscaping work study, non Greek students at functions throwing up the signs of Greek Letter organizations (a huge no-no), or a first semester college freshman with NO academic history at the university pledging. Not to mention the entire process of being an interest in an BGLO that has been extremely distorted!!!! I advise those who are truly interested in the "greek experience" or life at an HBCU not rely on this movie as a guide, take it for what it is, your typical Predominantly Black Cast movie with a corny plot and a few hot dance movies. From discussing the movie with other college students or graduates, I have found that typically the Greeks from HBCUs and HBCU non Greeks think the movie is corny, but students and Greeks who did not attend HBCUs seemed to like it. I say to truly get the experience of the HBCU, you have to experience it for yourself and there is nothing in the world like it, and Stomp the Yard definitely did not capture that experience!!!! (School Daze twenty years later still has done what no other movie has done in capturing the HBCU experience)
Review of Stomp the Yard
Stomp the Yard
(2007)
Do not rely on this film as an accurate depiction of Greek life at an HBCU
20 January 2007