Social Preconception, Social Mobility, And Social Acceptance In Remember The Titans

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In this reflection paper I am discussing the film Remember the Titans. This movie provides many issues across the United States and in many different aspects of sports throughout the county in this era. The social issues that are reflected to racism, how they define social preconception, social mobility, and social acceptance. Through examples, in the movie I will illustrate the many aspects the movie touches on, and my opinion on them and how they relate to sports in this era.

“Anybody knows what this place is? This is Gettysburg. This is where they fought the Battle of Gettysburg. Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fightin’ the same fight that we’re still fightin’ amongst ourselves today. This greenfield right here was painted red, bubblin’ with the blood of young boys, smoke and hot lead pourin’ right through their bodies. Listen to their souls, men: ‘I killed my brother with malice in my heart. Hatred destroyed my family. You listen. And you take a lesson from the dead. If we don’t come together, right now, on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed — just like they were. I don’t care if you like each other or not. But you will respect each other. And maybe — I don’t know — maybe we’ll learn to play this game like men” (Coach Herman Boone Remember the Titans). This was a powerful quote in the movie referencing that if they did not set aside their hatreds and mistrust and learn to get a long they would never come together as a team. Remember the Titians is a film based on a true story that is set in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971 at the end of the civil rights movement when two high schools one all white and one all black are being integrated together. It shows the effects that their society has on them within the school setting and playing football. These two schools came together at T.C. Williams High School and is focused primarily around the football team. The racism that is displayed is more of fear then hatred on the football team, when the school made former head coach Yoast the assistant coach and brought in Herman Boone to be the new head coach as part of the agreement when the schools were being intergraded. Throughout the movie one of the major themes that stood out to me was how open the racism was back then, it is still apparent in today’s society but is brought about more in actions then words. This was apparent with positions on the football team also known as stacking “can be defined as placing athletes in certain positions based on racial stereotypes. For example, whites are commonly thought of as more intelligent than African-Americans, and thus pushed to play positions like quarterback and center in football, and pitcher and catcher in baseball” (Sage & Eitzen pg. 150-151). I don’t believe that stacking is real a thing, I believe that when black and white kids are growing up they both have the same opportunity to pursue whatever position that they desire. When they have pick up football games in the projects or the hood that is primarily people of African American decent I am pretty sure they don’t bring in white people just to play quarter-back for them, so they play quarterback at a young age and have the same possibilities as the others of succeeding at those types of positions. In today’s society racism is still out there but it is done with more action then words. Some examples of this is with head coaching positions in the NFL, there are currently 6 black head coaches in the league but it took them creating the Rooney rule, which is where teams have to interview minority candidates for head coaching positions and general manger positions before the positions are filled. In our text book it states that “since African American athletes in the past were underrepresented at guard, they have been less likely than whites to be selected as coaches when vacancies occur” (Sage & Eizten pg. 152).

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In my opinion the most obvious social preconception in the movie was at the beginning when they were getting ready to go to the football camp before school started and Gerry Bertier told the coach that they were set in certain positions and that there was pretty much little to no use for his players on the defense, and coach Boone called him out when he had all the attention on them. When Coach Boone says “well I’m not going to cut ’em and eat ’em. The best player will play, and color won’t matter” (Coach Boone). This was a very pivotal seen in the movie showing that he was not there to prejudge anyone but to go out and compete with the best of the best at every position giving everyone an equal opportunity to play the position. I thought that at this point in the movie is when the players started to turn their primary focus toward football and not as much on the race of each other. Another scene was when the mother of Bertier wanted nothing to do with Julius in the beginning when he talked about inviting him over for dinner and the mom walked away. This shows what attitude was like back then and the way people where raised. As the times where changing away from the social preconceptions, the kids on the football team started to see the blacks as real people even as the parents of the players continued to have the same old preformed thoughts.

The community of Alexandria started to change and support the football team when they were winning like when the team made it to the championship game for the state title and coach Boone came home from the game and was embracing his family and the neighborhood started to cheer and congratulate him for the success. As we have talked about sports bringing people of all ethnic backgrounds together it finally hit home at this time to see how fast things can change. The final scene of the movie summed up how everything has come to change. Gerry’s funeral brought everyone back together to one last time to celebrate his life. But the community has changed its social acceptance and their differences regarding racism. The theme is very relevant to today’s society, as a nation we have made great strides to overcome racism and as the years have progressed, there are still people out there who disagree with this, but it is slowly evolving to everyone. This scene was relevant to current society as it reminds us all that we look past the race of people as in the film it showed strength, pride, brotherhood and unity within the community.

Throughout the readings for this class I never thought that social mobility would ever really stand out to me as it did in the Remember the titan’s movie. Coach Herman is trying to get his players to interact with one another by trying to get the players to get to know each other. During this scene coach Herman ask Louie Lastic what he was going to do after high school and he told his coach that “ he wasn’t going to go to college because he wasn’t a brainiac like Rev” (Louie Lastik remember the titans) and after the team leaves the gathering Herman has Louie stay behind and told him to bring his test scores each week and he will help him go to college. As the final scenes scroll through it tells how Louie not only went on to graduate college but also played 4 years of football. In this course I learned that through playing sports at the college level is just another way to allow you to continue to further your education. “Successful professional athletes in some sports (football in particular) must attend both high school and college. In this way, sports participation has the effect of encouraging or (in some cases) forcing young athletes to attain more education then they might otherwise achieve. This, in turn, increases their opportunities for success outside the sports world” (Sage & Eitzen pg.122). This was a touching part of the movie, sports teams are another form of family and to see coach Boone step up to help out one of his “sons” from the football team to better himself rather than let him fail.

In conclusion, racism has changed over time; it changes its obviousness but it still has the same meaning through actions. It’s crazy to see what influence the outside world can have on someone. I like to be my own leader similar to what Bertier and Julius did for their team. As individuals they paved the way for success for the football team and the friendships that where made after the color of skin was no long relevant to them. In my opinion Remember the Titans showcased many aspects of social turmoil that was happening at the time the movie was portraying that continues to this day in sports. The ability for a social setting as an organized team can allow for social growth and lead to economic growth through advanced education. This can in turn change the preconceived notions that sports can in fact look beyond race.

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