Racism on the Gridiron Do you have metathesiophobia, the fear of change? Remember the Titans, directed by Boaz Yakin and starring Denzel Washington and Will Patton, takes place in Alexandria Virginia in 1971. It is about an all white school and an all black school that integrate to form T.C. Williams. This leads to very high racism, discrimination, and prejudice in the town. The film does a great job of leaving an impact on the viewer by portraying a change of heart in many characters. The film starts out with a big fight between whites and African Americans, in which a store window gets smashed. Football was a big part of the town and when white former head coach of the high school team Bill Yoast, portrayed by Will Patton, was replaced by black head coach Herman Boone, played by Denzel Washington, the town was not happy. Yoast was not completely gone, he served as assistant coach, but a black coach was head coach. Throughout the movie, coach Boone tries to
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A prime example is Gerry Bertier, a white player who started off very mad about the new coach and was racist towards the new team members. Later on in the movie though, he started being accepting of his African American teammates. There was a scene where Bertier was in the hospital after a car accident where a black player named Julius came to visit him. The nurse said, “only kin’s allowed.” to which Bertier replied, “Alice, are you blind? Don’t you see the family resemblance? That’s my brother.” Bertier started off as possibly the most prejudice towards the new team members, but by the end, he was treating them as equal, even calling them his brothers.
A counterclaim that could be made is that the movie is somewhat unrealistic because the players randomly start singing at parts. The lunch scene for example, where Lastik and Rev started singing The Temptations-Ain’t too Proud to beg. People in real life don’t really just burst out in
A prime example is Gerry Bertier, a white player who started off very mad about the new coach and was racist towards the new team members. Later on in the movie though, he started being accepting of his African American teammates. There was a scene where Bertier was in the hospital after a car accident where a black player named Julius came to visit him. The nurse said, “only kin’s allowed.” to which Bertier replied, “Alice, are you blind? Don’t you see the family resemblance? That’s my brother.” Bertier started off as possibly the most prejudice towards the new team members, but by the end, he was treating them as equal, even calling them his brothers.
A counterclaim that could be made is that the movie is somewhat unrealistic because the players randomly start singing at parts. The lunch scene for example, where Lastik and Rev started singing The Temptations-Ain’t too Proud to beg. People in real life don’t really just burst out in