Sociological Theories In Remember The Titans

The movie Remember the Titans is an excellent example for sociological theories. Many topics can be observed within this movie, but two of the most prominent topics that we covered this semester are social structure, more specifically race and prejudices, and group processes, focusing on status construction. This movie takes place in a small town in North Carolina that has to deal with the shifting racial makeup of their football team, therefore high school, and therefore community. There is a lot of conflict not only between the different racial groups, but also within racial groups when people have different opinions of what is acceptable. The combination of the two racial groups leads to interesting observations of racial opinions and group …show more content…
It is important to recognize that we have stereotypes about other groups, which most of time are negative and false, if we want to combat the effects. As the movie progress, we see the racist prejudices break down. The white captain of the football team, Gerry, calls his black friend Julius his “brother” and then says “I was afraid of you. I only saw what I was afraid of. I was hating my brother.” This portion of the movie shows how coming to understand that we hold stereotypes and prejudices can allow us to move past them into positive …show more content…
There are four types of characteristics that can result in higher group status. The first is diffuse characteristics, which are observable personal attributes that have two or more states that are differentially evaluated, where each state is culturally associated with specific performance expectations and also with general performance expectations. An example of a diffuse characteristic in Remember the Titans is race. There are preconceived ideas about someone simply based off of the color of their skin, which can have a role in determining one’s status within a group. The next is specific characteristics which are very context dependent characteristics that are beneficial in one particular situation. This could be Julius being an outstanding defensive end. He has a higher status within the group on the field because he is especially skilled at one thing, but this doesn’t really apply to any other aspect of life. Another is achieved characteristics, which can be diffuse or specific but are the skills were learned or achieved. Gerry was named team captain, leading to him having a higher status within the group. He only held this elevated status within the group when related to football. The fourth is ascribed characteristics. These are either diffuse or specific but the skills are born