The White Savior Complex In The Blind Side

In a society full of social and cultural constructions, race is constantly depicted as a social hierarchical category used to group people according to their diverse backgrounds. When thinking of the ideals of race, each individual must first consider the fluidity of race and its development of stereotypes. As a simple analysis, racial stereotypes depict the contingent process of ranking people into unique groups based on an individual’s variation in phenotypic physical features. As a result, individuals conceptualize and value others in a whole different way, thus creating a sort of racial bias. The 2009 film, The Blind Side, gives the audience an insight into how racial stereotypes are still present in our modern society. The film, taking place in Memphis, Tennessee, contrasts the racial stereotypes of Michael Oher, an African American teen from the ghetto, and the Tuohy family, a wealthy, upper class white family. With the racial stereotypes presented in the film, the fourth feature of Critical Race Theory is referenced in the prospect of races being commodities of social invention. The idea behind racial stereotypes is that the individuals in society are the only reason they are there in the first place, meaning that it has never been objective or biologically real. The Blind Side ultimately portrays the inspirational distinction of Michael’s residing racial stereotypes in the ghettos to the stereotypes derived in the altruistic Tuohy family. Through the intricate use of Michael and Leigh Anne, the film reinforces the aspects found in racial stereotypes through the establishment of the white savior, redemption and complications through sports, and the racial prejudice found in Michael’s humble beginning.

To begin, The Blind Side, illustrates a racial concept found in many Hollywood films, the white savior complex. The notion of the white savior complex is best defined as a white individual who, through acts of generosity, save and help non-white individuals. This recurring concept first occurs when the Tuohy family offers Michael a home off of the streets, giving them a place to bless him with the spoils of their white lifestyle. The director ensured that “The Blind Side is structured within a colonial narrative of the white savior in that a good white person(Leigh Anne) rescues a poor black child(Oher) from poverty and ignorance by bestowing the gift of civilization upon him” (Montez de Oca 135). As a clear indication, the film depicted the stereotype of African Americans always living in the ghettos and in poverty, while the white individuals always live luxurious, wealthy lives. Michael, the poverty-stricken character of the film, can only advance in his life through the charity of the successful white individuals in the Tuohy family. Through the film’s integration of the white savior, the audience could be lead to believe that the film is implicitly stating that white people are superior. Throughout the film, the Tuohy family was compared with the neighborhood that Michael was from. One scene, in particular, is when Michael and Leigh Anne go to his mother’s house to pick up his clothes and he ends up encountering Alton and his thugs. The African American men depicted in Michael’s neighborhood were all seen as violent thugs and drug addicts, while the Tuohy family was illustrated as the perfect financially set family. To recapitulate, the representations in the film are overly dramatized and essentially create an imprecise portrayal of African American and white individual lifestyles. This leads to the conclusion that the idea of the white savior is wrongly defined in the film. The film made an implicit point of finding a savior only in a white individual.. The film failed to depict that, no matter an individual’s race, anyone can be a savior to another individual. In the end, the film gave the audience a direct correlation to the continually occurring animosity of racial stereotypes in our society.

As an inspirational cinema, The Blind Side invokes an interesting connection and complication between sports and race. Being that the setting and environment of the film is set in the South, there is a possibility that Michael was stereotyped right into playing football. The South is very well known for the competitive college football games that occur there, making it almost seem natural for Southern players to dominate football. Inexplicably, Michael seemed to be forced by Leigh Anne to play football when she learned that he had many protective instincts from a career aptitude test. She automatically assumed that a career in football was the best choice for Michael, a giant African American teenager, without getting his input for what he truly wanted to do. The film made it seem that the Tuohy family, primarily Leigh Anne, forged Michael’s whole life path the moment they adopted him. Michael, in many of the scenes, never had the opportunity to speak for himself, making it confusing for the audience to know what Michael really would have wanted to do instead of football. Being that Michael’s personality was very inept, another argument can be forged about Leigh Anne manipulating his individual characteristics to shape her expectations. Despite the fact that this personality manipulation was for the better, it is still very wrong for Michael to not be able to have a chance at creating his own personality. Another scene that perfectly supports this argument is when Michael is investigated by the NCAA. This scene gave Michael the realization that the Tuohy family was practically forging his football path towards the University of Mississippi, or better known in the film as Ole Miss. Since the beginning of his adoption to the Tuohy family, they never thought to ask him what college he wanted to attend. The Tuohy family only wanted Michael to go to the school that they went to. It wasn’t until Michael’s realization was noted by the Tuohy family for Michael to actually get his own choice in the matter. Although he chose to go to Ole Miss in the end, it was still clear, from that scene, that Michael was manipulated into attending the University of Mississippi. Ultimately, the film provided the audience with a lucid point that, even in modern society, individuals of all ages are stereotyped into doing many things that they may or may not want to do according to their various characteristics, whether it be ethnicity or race.

With the prodigious aspects of the plot, The Blind Side, enlightens its plot by depicting the fragments of the racial prejudice found in Michael’s humble beginnings in the ghetto. Racial prejudice is best construed as “a concept that has social meaning that interferes in the scientific understanding of human genetic diversity and it’s a concept that we are not the first to call upon moving away from” (Gannon). Michael’s racial prejudice first appears when he is depicted with the African American people in the ghetto. Almost every African American there was depicted as cruel, self-destructive, and addicted to drugs, giving the assumed notion that many African Americans have the same illicit personalities and are impoverished. A scene supporting this is when the film went as far as explaining how Michael’s mother, Denise Oher, told him to close his eyes while she did crack right in front of him. This scene gave the audience the shrewdness of Michael’s arduous life. When Michael was introduced to football, he was able to create an escape route away from racial prejudice. Football gave Michael the pristine opportunity to leave his impoverished life and live life as a white individual, being that they were all depicted as upper-class entities in the film. With estimable intentions, The Blind Side gave society the acumen that many people all around the world grow up with the parasite of racial prejudice. At the same time, the film offers a rebuttal of having these individuals escape racial prejudice through the many opportunities that they find or are presented to them, like Michael.

In consummation, The Blind Side methodically reinforces the perspectives found in various racial stereotypes through the formulation of a white saviour complex, atonement and obstacles found through sports, and the racial prejudice found in Michael’s tragic beginning in the ghetto. The film gave society the various aspects of how racial stereotypes are continuously occurring in our society and an example of how it is possible to overcome it. When thinking of this film from the entertainment standpoint, the audience will think that it is an inspirational film, where a good samaritan helped an individual in need of help, but when the audience looks at it with the critical thinking mindset, they will notice the sheer, keen details of race, class, and gender.