Remember the Titans: Stereotypes, Prejudice & Discrimination Analysis

Remember the Titans

by HUNTER STORIE on FEBRUARY 12, 2018 EDIT

            When looking at stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination, it is important to look at major historical events that were fighting the roots of these problems. One major event to look at is the African-American Civil Rights Movement. This was an era drowned in racial discrimination and prejudice against others who had different color skin. These were all based on stereotypes that each race had against one another. For this reason looking at the move Remember the Titans is a good movie to analyze to look deeper into these issues. It takes place in 1971 right after the end of the Civil Rights Movement. The movie is about the first integrated football team of blacks and whites at TC Williams High School. It is based off a true story of the football team that went undefeated in their season, so there are a lot of real life examples we can pull from this movie.

            A good place to start looking is in the beginning of the film when the students first find out that they are going to be on a mixed team. It is announced that African American Coach, Boone will be taking over as head coach of the Titans. You find out shortly after this announcement that the only reason they did was to make the school board look like they were being fair and letting a “black man” get an opportunity to coach. This is a form of discrimination in itself granting someone a position just because the color of their skin. Immediately following these events, Gerry Bertier, the leading representative of the ‘white’ students says, “I don’t want to play with any of those black animals” (Howard, 2000). This form of verbal discrimination shows how oriented their culture was around stereotypes and prejudice. According to Social Psychology by Kassin, Fein and Markus, prejudice is “Negative feelings toward persons based on their membership in a certain group.” This is reflected by Gerry’s comment because he is using animals in a negative sense to describe the entirety of black individuals. It also reflects the out-group homogeneity effect because among the white students they accept the fact that they are individual, but they are taking all of the black individuals and stating that they have greater similarities and that they are all the same.

            After getting over the fact they would have to play together on the filed, they leave to go on their way to football camp. Coach Boone takes them and makes them sit with the opposite race on the bus to start breaking down those racial barriers. One of the black members of the team, Blue, starts singing a song on the bus intending for everyone to jump in. Julius, one of the main black protagonists quickly shuts him down. The way he urgently shut it down, seemed less because he was in a bad mood, but more because he was afraid of stereotype. Julius’ solution to the race problem going on was to just focus on playing football and worry about himself. He was afraid they would be discriminated against even more for expressing their culture when they could avoid it.

            Another important aspect of discrimination happened when the two races were forced to get to know one another. They were instructed to find out facts about a different person from the opposite race each night. When two of the players are talking, the white team member asks about his father and his occupation. He immediately follows up his questions with snarky remarks about whether he actually has a dad or if he even works. This is a prime example of a stigmatized attitude towards black individuals at the time. He was being devalued based on his race and assumed his family was more deviant then his own white family. This character continued to keep his stereotypes and attitude throughout camp even though the other team members were learning to break these.

            After progressing through camp Coach Boone did a great job at breaking through the racial tension between the two groups. After returning to school where the discrimination towards each other was very extreme it made it hard for them to keep those bonds strong. They could not defend each other without being judged by their same race friends. Through these events they showed signs of implicit racism. These examples were present when they would be less likely to defend each other in the school setting because of the judgment they would get from their friends.

            There were other more minor forms of prejudice that took place during the storyline as well. One example of this is when Petey is asking Sunshine if he is gay. He says it doesn’t matter either way, but he just had to know. This was in result to Sunshine kissing another member of the team unexpectedly. Sunshine expressed how it was important, but Petey felt like he had to know so he could act a certain way. Needing to know, so he could treat him differently because he is gay is a form of discrimination even if he didn’t have ill intentions behind it. Another example of this is when some people accuse Sheryl, one of the coaches daughter about not knowing football as well because she is a girl. This is proved wrong on a number of different occasions, so it was an obvious form of sexism. Even smaller group biases such as making fun of Sunshine accusing him of being a hippy. It shows how people can discriminate on someone for more than just their skin.

            With focusing on racism like they do, Remember the Titans does a great job at showing how breaking stereotypes is important. By getting an undefeated season, it shows that united as a team with less hatred in their hearts they could play better. It also does an effective job at showing how even after you break down the big barriers that are associated with prejudice like racism, it can still be hard to use forms of implicit and modern racism. Though they may not be intentionally harmful they can still have negative effects. The film shows when they defend each other and don’t let race cause an issue they can be more successful and have more love in their hearts. Overall I think this movie does a good job at inspiring people to be more aware of their actions and take initiative.

Works Cited

Howard, G. A. (Writer), & Yakin, B. (Director). (2000). Remember the Titans [Motion Picture].

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2016). Social Psychology. Cengage.