Unpacking ‘Remember the Titans’: Leadership and Racial Integration

For the extra credit assignment, I chose the movie Remember the Titans. I have watched this movie multiple times and never took into consideration all the race that is actually in it. I rewatched it over the weekend with a new perspective.

Football's Challenge: Schools' Racial Unity

There were two different segregated schools in Virginia that were forced to become integrated under federal law. The football teams came together for the first time ever to have a black and white mixed team.

When the team first segregated, the school deprived the white coach, Bill Yoast, of the white football team and hired a new black coach, Herman Boone, to coach the newly integrated team. The white coach is asked to be the defensive coordinator, but he considers finding work elsewhere where he would be the head coach. If he chooses to do this, then many of the white players say they will sit out the season. Ultimately, Yoast, who is the white coach, stays with the newly integrated team so that the white players will play this season.

Titan Leadership: From Rift to Unity

The community is not accepting of this newly integrated football team and wishes it would go back to being blacks with blacks and whites with whites. The team also has many clashes about race during their training camp. Boone is very inspiring throughout camp, takes the team to Gettysburg cemetery, and gives multiple motivating speeches about coming together. The community is definitely not supporting this newly integrated football team. They wish to still have the two separate race teams. The team comes together to see no race and realize they are all one, which eventually, within the success of the team, the community comes around and is accepting.

Community's Shift to Colorblindness

I would relate this to social construction because it states humans have more in common than differences. At the beginning of the movie, the two races don’t want to come together to be on the same team, but over time, they realize they have a ton in common. They are just high school students who want to do well on their school’s football team. Not one race is better than the other. It also shifts over time, which is what happened in the beginning. Race was a big deal, and everyone thought whites and blacks should be separated. In the middle, the football team became accepting of each other, but the community still didn’t like the idea of being integrated. By the end, everyone saw race was not an issue, and everyone was seen as one.

Colorblindness is something that happens over time in this movie. At first, both races were really against being on the same team and had no interest in being friends with one another. Throughout the movie, the coaches work very hard to unite the team into one, and eventually, the team comes together to see no race. From being segregated their whole life to having to be on the same team as someone opposite their race, the team does a great job accepting one for who they are and not the color of their skin.

One text I would relate this to is Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? The text talks about how you are more likely to sit and hang out with people of your race. We saw this happening at the beginning of the movie when the school newly integrated the football teams into one. The white players stayed with the white players, and the black players stayed with the black players. It wasn’t until the coaches gave some motivational speeches saying how we are all one that they started mixing between races.

A CRT scholar would suggest it is good how the schools and football teams became integrated because it is never a good idea to keep two races separate. This is cause for racism to exist. They would also see how even though the federal law makes schools become integrated, the community surrounding the schools was not supportive, and racism still existed. They would remind everyone it is a great idea to see everyone for who they are, not the color of their skin. They would be happy with the progress that has been made in such a short time within the football team and the community.

References

1. Yakin, B. (Director). (2000). Remember the Titans. Walt Disney Pictures.
2. Tatum, B. D. (1997). Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race. Basic Books.

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