The White Savior In The Film The Blind Side

"The Blind Side" is a movie based off a real story that revolves around a homeless, African-American teen named Michael Oher and a white woman named Leigh Anne Tuohy eventually who adopts Michael into her family. Having grown up in a poor neighbourhood and being neglected by his family, Michael eventually gets noticed by Leigh Ann and her family, and they decided that they would help him by giving him a place to live as well as assisting him through high school. Throughout this time, Leigh Anne buys him more presentable clothes, finds him a tutor to bring up his grades, and also, with the help of her son SJ, get Michael a spot on the school football team. However, the movie later reveals Leigh Anne and her family wanted Michael to go to Ole Miss because that school was their alma mater, and it temporarily strains their relationship with him. In the end, he realizes that the Tuohys were always there for him and he considers them as his family, thus choosing to go to Ole Miss like his adoptive parents and eventually becomes a professional football player. This award-winning movie does an exceptional job in showing that anything is possible no matter who you are. However, this is done through the idea of the white saviour trope. According to Janelle James, "the white savior is a white character who saves people of color (POC) from …show more content…
In the case of "The Blind Side," Leigh Ann Tuohy is seen as the dominant white saviour, as she is the one who initially decided to take Michael in after she and her family saw him eating leftover snacks from the school game and walking towards to school gym at night. After seeing how he was eating leftovers, had no real place to stay, and have no change of clothes, she felt that she had the ability to help Michael out, so she took him in for the night, which eventually led to the Tuohys adopting him into their