Thursday, February 24, 2011

Black History Month Heroes: U.N. Jefferson in "Revenge of the Nerds"

U.N. Jefferson laying down the law in Revenge of the Nerds
Popular culture (movies, magazines, television, commercials and the media) work overtime to create the enduring image of Black machismo -- the idea of overwhelming Black coolness, indeed hyper-masculinity and dominance. 

Conversely anything "white" is obviously square, antiquated even and Black people represent the hip, the new, the now, and the fresh.

All ideas have a genesis and we at Stuff Black People Don't Like have tracked down one of the ultimate Black Fictional Heroes in cinema history who helped usher in the current epoch of Black Run America (BRA) and the perceived notion of Black hegemony that emasculates so many people.

The movie? Revenge of the Nerds.

The Black Fictional Hero? U.N. Jefferson.

In that film, the fictional Adams College appears to be a highly ranked, elite institution of higher learning. The football team and the jocks of the school are all white. They run the campus, stand dominant over the party scene, the fraternity scene and represent the quintessential Alpha Male to a T.

A number of nerds on campus find the constant pranks and humiliation they experience too much to take and decide to wage war on the archetype of cool as personified by the Alpha White male jock. They turn to the most obvious form of salvation; a Black fraternity:
Best friends and nerds Lewis Skolnick (Robert Carradine) and Gilbert Lowe (Anthony Edwards) enroll in Adams College to study computer science. The Alpha Betas, a fraternity to which many members of the school's football team belong, carelessly burn down their own house and seize the freshmen dorm for themselves. The college allows the displaced freshmen, living in the gymnasium, to join fraternities or move to other housing. Lewis, Gilbert, and other outcasts who cannot join a fraternity renovate a dilapidated home to serve as their own fraternity house.


The Alpha Betas and their associated sorority, the Pi Delta Pis, harass the nerds. The nerds appeal to the Greek Council, but its president Stan Gable (Ted McGinley), the leader of the Alpha Betas, rejects their complaints as the nerds are not a part of any fraternity. The nerds attempt to join a national fraternity, but all but one reject them. They meet U.N. Jefferson (Bernie Casey), the head of the black fraternity Lambda Lambda Lambda (Tri-Lambs). Although Jefferson notes that the applicants are nerds, due to the Tri-Lambs' rules, they receive probationary membership.

The nerds prepare a party and invite Jefferson, but the party is nearly ruined before it starts when the Pi Delta Pis, after promising to be their dates, do not appear. However, thanks to the Omega Mus - a sorority consisting largely of overweight or geeky women - and a supply of marijuana, the party is successful. The Alpha Betas and Pis unleash pigs in the nerds' house, then taunt and moon them; Jefferson sees firsthand the harassment the nerds face.

The nerds seek revenge; they perform a panty raid on the Pi Delta Pi house, using the distraction to install video cameras to spy on the women while they undress. The nerds sneak into the football team's locker room and put a powerful liniment on the players' jock straps, resulting in a painful and humiliating football practice. The nerds' ingenuity impresses Jefferson, who officially makes them the Adams College chapter of Lambda Lambda Lambda...

The angry Alpha Betas vandalize the Tri-Lambs' house. Gilbert attempts to denounce the act at the homecoming pep rally, but the Alpha Betas attack him, and turn on the school's dean when he tries to intervene. The assault is stopped when U.N. Jefferson and a group of angry Tri-Lambs from other chapters arrive on the scene. Gilbert makes an inspiring speech about how it feels to be mistreated just for being different, and Lewis invites anyone who has "ever felt stepped on, left out, picked on, put down" to come and join them. Betty and many members of the assembled crowd, whether nerds or not, do so. The Tri-Lambs get the Alpha Beta house until theirs is repaired, while the Alpha Betas must live in the gymnasium. The film ends with the nerds celebrating their victory, accompanied by "We Are the Champions".

A national Black fraternity decides to colonize at Adams College with a bunch white nerds (and one ostentatiously homosexual Black male), though the main nerd does make a crack that they will have the highest GPA's of any of the Black Tri-Lamb chapters.

One Black writer in dissecting Revenge of the Nerds wrote this:
In Revenge of the Nerds, the nerds join a (previously) all-black national fraternity; the head of the fraternity organization becomes sympathetic to the nerds when he witnesses anti-nerd discrimination (the jocks drive pigs through the nerd’s house). The subtext is that Black people are our experts on discrimination, so if a Black character recognizes something as discrimination — even if the incident has nothing to do with race — the presumably mostly White audience should accept that it’s discrimination, too. (In the end, the nerds defeat John Goodman and the jocks because the nerds’ Scary Black Frat Friends come and physically protect the nerds, intimidating the white jocks.)
At the end of the movie, the white nerds indeed take over the school thanks to their fraternal Tri-Lamb Black brothers who show up to intimidate the white athletes of Adams College. Led by U.N. Jefferson who points a finger of doom at the white athletes, the entire student body of Adams College turns their backs upon the former heroes and joins in a wild celebration with the nerds and Blacks of Tri-Lamb.

The white athletes of Adams College look upon the Black Tri-Lamb's that U.N. Jefferson brought as if they represent living and breathing Gods. It is one of the strangest scenes in film; virile individuals completely turned to jelly because of an angry Black finger.

Adams College flipped overnight, the nerds taking over thanks to Black muscle and Jefferson's guidance. In real life,white members of Black fraternities is, well, incredibly rare:
Originally founded as a haven for African-American college students against the backdrop of American racism, the national policies of today's nine predominantly Black fraternities and sororities are color-blind. Norma White, president of the nation's oldest Black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA), told one reporter that diversity is a sign of the times. With honorary members such as Eleanor Roosevelt and members of all hues, she says AKA can no longer refer to itself as all-Black organization. White says the organization remains a sorority founded for and by Black women, but now it s interracial. That s a reality many Black organizations are facing.

People may be noticing White members more often, says Cassandra Black, National President of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc., but they're nothing new. "Our organizations, every one of them, have had some sort of White infusion probably almost since our founding, so to speak, whether through actual membership, honorary membership or support," she says. "Throughout the last decade, it was somewhat difficult to make inroads without having someone part of the status quo in your corner.
Black, a life member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, says Whites make up just a small percentage on the national rosters. But she's not surprised that the numbers are slowly increasing.

"It's happening more now because our organizations offer a couple of things that have turned out to be very desirable for non-African-Americans--perpetual membership and community service to name a few," she says. "We have a moral fabric that is more desirable to some people. Historically, White fraternities have reputations for drinking and other behaviors, and some people don't want to be associated with that."

The above article would have you believe that Black fraternities are all virtuous institutions that produce moral Black men. Revenge of the Nerds tries to showcase this as well, though the truth is far from what U.N. Jefferson would have you believe.

Remember that Black fraternities helped perpetuate the Brown Paper Bag Test. Do you think a bunch of white nerds would be allowed to become brothers, regardless of the bump in cumulative GPA that might come from such bids being handed out?

Black History Month Heroes includes U.N. Jefferson from Revenge of the Nerds, a man whose steely gaze intimidated an entire white football team and helped usher in a peaceful nirvana of nerds and Black people coexisting together.

This ceremonial act of embarrassing the all-white football team at Adams College forever destroyed the idea of white people as cool. 

Watch the scene where the nerds get a meeting with U.N. Jefferson here at Hulu.





21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I actually use that bass line as the ring tone for my token black friend.

Anonymous said...

White greeks drink a lot while black fraternities and sororities are commited to community service and charity. Yeah. Right. Black fraternities take hazing to a new low. Every year, pledges are beaten to death in their quest to join a frat or sorority. In fact, becoming a black greek is as dangerous to one's health as becoming a Blood or Crip.

FWIW, I have always found it hilarious that the foremost black sorority (AKA) pays homage to the standard modus operandi of criminals who find it easier to avoid arrest and conviction by operating under multiple names and aliases. Even college-attending young blacks who avoid prison and being killed in the 'hood feel the need to fulfill polite society's expectation that they are all lawless thugs. And damn proud of it!

Anonymous said...

Wow, watching those clips from ROTN was excruciating.

When you see an all white football team combined with a bunch of chivalrous, righteous, upstanding black males...

You can't help but wonder, when do the aliens start landing?

White Guy said...

I used to love this movie, but since my racial awakening, I can only watch these films in complete contempt and disgust.

Hollywood has corrupted society.

To think, a nation of white idolaters worshiping the black race as the symbol of all that is admirable, powerful and moral. It is a tragic irony that the people of this world who have contributed the least in form, function and character, are the ones who are thrust toward artificial heights.

How could anyone venerate this race of people?

It is beyond me.

What have they done for the advancement of human thought, human kind, human knowledge and human well-being? What is so praise-worthy about these people?

Their noble shade of black skin?

I watched a Pepsi commercial featuring Snoop Dogg - a self-styled masochist, drug dealer, murder, rapist and thug whom is now representing a household beverage.

What are children supposed to think when they make the connection between his lyrics and their favorite beverage?

The black and brown races have caused a moral decline in this country that will bring it to its knees. It is undeniable.

Just look at pre-civil rights and pre-Immigration Act America and compare it to today?

Had it not been for the blacks, we would have landed on Mars 20 years ago, and had we known blacks would cause so much social strife, we would have picked our own damned cotton.

These alien cultures are poison to whites, everywhere, the world over.

We live in an insane world. How can anyone one deny we are a nation in decline whose decent is inextricably bound to the 'wonders' of diversity and multiculturalism?

Anonymous said...

Disney worker accused of raping woman at resort.

Shocker: Pic included.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/disney-worker-accused-of-raping-woman-at-resort-1280933.html

Anonymous said...

Teens found guilty in Christmas attack on Marine, wife after 'Little Fockers'.
No pics, no desciptions.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/teens-found-guilty-in-christmas-attack-on-marine-1280649.html

Google search confirms that the assailants are black.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df7qW_sXo9U&feature=player_embedded#at=47

my my my

Anonymous said...

To top it all off, get ready for Allen West for president!!

Cause as we all know by now, ONLY a black man can save this horribly flawed (read: White) country.

The chorus is a singin', and I cannot envision a scenario where West is not voted in by the mass of idiots who call themselves conservatives.

South Africa, here we come!

Professor Snape said...

White Guy said:
I watched a Pepsi commercial featuring Snoop Dogg - a self-styled masochist, drug dealer, murder, rapist and thug whom is now representing a household beverage.

What are children supposed to think when they make the connection between his lyrics and their favorite beverage?


The same was said when Britney Spears did Pepsi and Fox News star Bill O'Reilly made much ado about rapper Ludacris' representation of the brand a few years ago, as well. If the company decided that Lindsey Lohan was a sure fire way to make capital, they'd have her selling Pepsi, too, probably even with the ankle monitor.

Hopefully parents will teach their children to separate a product from the spokesperson, or not give that fluid to their kids in the first place.

White Guy continued:
Just look at pre-civil rights and pre-Immigration Act America and compare it to today?

The debate over illegal immigration seems to be a silly one; it is nonsensical to let continued proliferation of illegals into the States. Political correctness prevents logical dialogue on the issue, and interconnected economies and capitalist ventures prevents employing a real - and very simple - solution.

Had it not been for the blacks, we would have landed on Mars 20 years ago, and had we known blacks would cause so much social strife, we would have picked our own damned cotton.

Civil rights for such a large segment of the US population integral in its formation was inevitable. Only a faulty knowledge of US history - or prejudice - brings one to believe differently. This is why it is important to move beyond survey classes that gloss over the actual history of this nation.

Most people don't realize that post-Civil War inequality and segregation was predicated upon the fears of white men that white women would come to realize their shut-away sexualities and realize it with black men (although there were no qualms about white men with black women; a Southern governor infamously pardoned white and black men accused of raping black women because he felt black women were incapable of being real victims, as they had no innocence to violate).

The "social strife" to which you mentioned, "White Guy", has roots in inequality based upon the sexual fears of white men.

I laughed at the assertion of whites "picking their own cotton". I've seen this all across the internet when I search - sometimes in vain - for places to discuss race. No one would want to pick their own cotton. Everyone would have someone else do it for them. I don't know if you've ever tried it, but those plants are painful to touch. With so much of it producing capital back then, yours is just a nonsensical emotionalism, which does nothing to aid in the real discussion of US race relations.

Anonymous said...

Used to book and visitthis site alot. Your constant relienace on garbage US cinema has left me disgusted. Go play in your small media sandbox; done giving you hits or suggesting your site. Your boring. I can surf IMDB and find media incongruity myself.

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

Last Anon,

I can't please everyone. February is Black Fictional History Month here and movies and television provide the best examples of these for a mainstream audience to see and for me to analyze.

It's simple behavioral modification techniques and a way for the "mainstreaming" of positive images of Black people.

Read about The Cosby Effect.

February is almost over... it will be all # posts next month (plus the occasional discussion of currents events, economics and sports).

I found a fascinating study on Black people and social security that I want to write about ASAP.

So thanks for visiting and I'm glad you enjoyed this site once!

White Guy said...

"Civil rights for such a large segment of the US population integral in its formation was inevitable."

Blacks should have been repatriated or put on reservations, not integrated with a population, who, by and large, wanted separation - and rightly so.

"This is why it is important to move beyond survey classes that gloss over the actual history of this nation."

No. White people must examine the mistakes of the past to move forward, toward productivity, not decline.

"The "social strife" to which you mentioned, "White Guy", has roots in inequality based upon the sexual fears of white men."

"Professor", let me take you to chapter one: The social strife, to which I mentioned, is rooted in the low IQ of African peoples - they are, by and large, incapable of functioning in Western Society, i.e., white society, let alone their own societies.

It was true then, and it is true now.

Just look at any African country, or, anywhere on the globe where a large number of blacks congregate, to find evidence of the aforementioned strife.

Ethiopia, for example - untouched by colonialism and the "sexual fears of white men". They are a band of cannibalistic savages with no indicators of evolution - again, we're back to IQ. It just wont go away.

These people are the kith and kin of American blacks and blacks around the globe, sir.

"which does nothing to aid in the real discussion of US race relations."

The only way the discussion of U.S. race relations can take place, with any degree of intellectual honesty and responsibility, is if we can acknowledge that skin color is NOT the only difference between white, black, brown, yellow and red - it's only the most obvious.

"Professor", now it's time for recitation:

There is a direct relationship between social strife and low IQ.

A second example: Hatti.

Millions upon millions of dollars were poured into that country - one year later, it's still a third-world cesspool because Hatti's population has an average IQ of 67.

That's the equivalent of a dull 12 year old - just enough intelligence to survive, but not enough for long-term planning and stability.

The majority of black people, due to low IQ, think only in the here-and-now. This is why they have never created desirable societies or contributed to human advancement is any profound manner.

Class dismissed, "Professor".

Anonymous said...

"The same was said when Britney Spears did Pepsi"

No, the same wasn't said. Besides, it's an idiotic comparison.

While Spears and Dogg may both be of questionable talent, her music does not contain vile, filthy, pornographic lyrics, and she does not produce porn flicks.

"If the company decided that Lindsey Lohan was a sure fire way to make capital, they'd have her selling Pepsi, too, probably even with the ankle monitor."

So then why did Pepsi cancel the Ludacris ads after being deluged with calls and emails?

Another idiotic comment.

White Guy said...

I enjoy the black history month posts - they are an excellent tool for exposing this bizarre anti-white world we live in.

We all must understand that cinema and TV are the handmaidens of BRA.

Keep 'em coming SBPDL.

Anonymous said...

Yet another wacky data point:
http://www.thepoliticalcesspool.org/jamesedwards/2011/02/24/is-brenda-jones-stafford-black/

"Of course she is. When you hear about a 47 year old school teacher assaulting an elderly white couple at a mall, during a field trip with her students, and the paper doesn’t mention her race, if you’re at all aware of how journalism works these days, you don’t even need to ask."
(...)

TMI said...

"The "social strife" to which you mentioned, "White Guy", has roots in inequality based upon the sexual fears of white men. "

So fucking what? What man wants to be told that his penis is small? The stereotype says that black men have larger penises. Great, so go have a large penis in Africa. Black men have higher T and several different characteristics as a result. So what??

When you put a group of men next to a different group of men, they size each other up. Natural behavior. This also explains why black women spend thousands of dollars purchasing white textured hair weaves. We have put black women next to white women and they compare themselves to each other, and they should not. White men are perfectly made for white women. White men and white women need to make this message clear to each other.

White men and black men should not be living in the same society. It is unnatural for men of different races to live side by side, it causes great confusion and unnatural behavior.

If white men feel inferior to black men for any reason, it is up to the white woman to build him up and bring balance.

Professor Snape said...

White Guy said:
Blacks should have been repatriated or put on reservations, not integrated with a population, who, by and large, wanted separation - and rightly so.

Following the Civil War, there were other options on the table, such as varying degrees of social equality for blacks, including outright egalitarianism. Many Northerners did not agree with Southern treatment of blacks but around these times, the United States was also expanding into the Pacific. So basically, the US was doing the same thing (or worse) to Pacific Islanders as what was being done to American blacks. The choice was shut up about Southern tactics of dealing with the "black problem" or confess that you are a hypocrite in supporting US expansion in the Pacific all the while naysaying us.

They chose the former, because Northern whites did not care enough about blacks, in spite of their disgust about the way the South treated them, since most had hopes that what was going on in the Pacific would benefit the nation. The reason for a proliferation of segregation was the fear of interracial sex. This is why it is essential to know American history, "White Guy", yes, beyond a survey class.

White Guy continued:
The social strife, to which I mentioned, is rooted in the low IQ of African peoples - they are, by and large, incapable of functioning in Western Society, i.e., white society, let alone their own societies.

It was true then, and it is true now.


The so-called intelligence quotient has been repeatedly discredited with regard to race and there are many interesting reports boasting cogent arguments that they are questionable at best and culturally bias. With so much ado about their seeming unreliability, I will not jump the gun and I'll take such measurements with a grain of salt. To do anything more would be foolery, at this point.

A post-Civil War NC black congressman George H. White remarked then about the willingness of whites to label blacks as inferior:

"It is easy for these gentlemen (white politicians) to taunt us with our inferiority, at the same time not mentioning the cause of this inferiority. It is rather hard to be accused of shiftlessness and idleness when the accuser...closes the avenues for labor and industrial pursuits to us. It is hardly fair to accuse us of ignorance when it was made a crime under the former order of things to learn enough about letters to even read the Word of God."

It should be noted that this belief in inferiority began as propaganda to legitimize enslavement and, as they say, if you repeat a "lie" long enough, it will become the truth. It is for this reason - the brutal consequences of that previous propaganda - that I cannot remark fairly, all things considered, about black intelligence.

But you may be haphazard if you'd like, "White Guy"; that is the folly of those with prejudices. Yes, you are dismissed.

Anonymous said...

"The reason for a proliferation of segregation was the fear of interracial sex."

No, it was a fear of black violence.

The same black violence that exists everywhere that black people exist.

Anonymous said...

"The so-called intelligence quotient has been repeatedly discredited with regard to race"

Repeating this lie will not make it true.

Decades of IQ research and testing have been remarkably consistent in that blacks score lowest, while East Asians score highest.

In spite of colossal efforts to create an IQ test demonstrating racial equality, such a test does not exist.

Anonymous said...

I don't know about you guys but I love those clips and loved the movie. UN Jefferson was cool. I don't know if the name UNJefferson had anything to do with "Movin' on Up" TV show. I can look at that clip and see a lot of the culture of the 80's that doesn't really exist anymore. You're not going to have any valid argument that Black sorority/fraternities haze just as bad as white or fill in the blank. Hazing's just a bad choice regardless of color. This movie was sweet. It's about the outcasts. Tri-Lambs had their own thing going on which is fine. They weren't going to change but there was a loophole they honored it. You look at the fella's UN brought to back him up...they look like pretty bad ass dudes. Regardless of color I wouldn't want to mess with them. They have a pretty serious demeanor about them and look like they could whoops some ass. Look a likes... Looks Like Lebron...Eric Dickerson, Michael Cage, Ricky Williams, Lionel Ritchie and Sleepy Sam Perkins.

Anonymous said...

I love this movie for so many reasons. They didn't turn to the tri-lambs for salvation, the Tri-Lambs were the only fraternity that didn't receive a picture of the nerds with their application, and the nerds had no idea they were even applying to an all-black fraternity. Race was never even a component. Even when they went to meet UN in person, it never even seemed to occur to Louis that they wouldn't be welcome. Plus, the nerds would have bumped up the IQ average of any chapter- existing average or predominant race is irrelevant. They're nerds, they throw off the curve. He didn't make that comment specifically because they were an all-black frat, he was just talking up their best assets as a group. UN gave them a chance BEFORE he saw that they were being abused by the jocks. The offer was solidifed when they finally stood up for themselves. The tri-lambs weren't there as a tool to help illustrate to the predominantly white audience that there was discrimination going on. The nerds sought the tri-lambs' approval, they didn't go to them because they'd understand discrimination. Maybe the tri-lambs were just awesome and were the only ones who recognized the nerds as good, solid individuals that deserved to be treated fairly. Louis never made it about race. Maybe not fine cinema, but a great movie anyway.

Alright so tell me this- if white people are stereotypically square, I can take it. Should I be trying to change my perception of my black counterparts as being naturally more smooth, sexy, cooler than we are? What if the stereotypes that come to my mind are all overwhelmingly positive? They're still bad because they're generalizations?