Stereotypes In Sports

For hundreds of years, our society has been blanketed with racism, discrimination, and prejudice, but how does one stop it? As bad as it is to say, how does one imagine a world without it. That is how prevalent it is in current day society. In the same way, there has long existed this exact same problem throughout the world of sports. It was not until the early sixties when most of the United States professional sports leagues began allowing African-Americans to compete. However, once these athletes broke the color barrier, they were able to use this platform to spark social change on the issue of race relations throughout the country. Unfortunately, some like Colin Kaepernick, are paying the price of being unemployed for this outward expression

on the topic. However, his push for social change has sparked some of the same conversations and actions that you see during the movie. Although this movie is nearly 20 years old, for these previous reasons, there is a lot that one can learn and take away when watching the film. In a similar fashion to Colin Kaepernick, the athletes in the movie used their sporting platform to change the social constructs around them and spark debate about racial equality. This platform of athletics is a powerful thing and it must be used correctly. Unfortunately, the progress and change that are witnessed throughout the movie is not fully reflective of what Kaepernick's protests have accomplished. However, by watching the film, you can begin to understand how to use this platform to unite to fight racial inequality near you and around the world.
Remember the Titans is a 2000 Walt Disney movie that depicts a 1970’s high school football team that is being integrated after a recent decision by the school board. The school board also has decided to demote long-time head coach Bill Yoast in favor of an African-American head coach, Herman Boone. At the beginning, there is much animosity towards both Boone and the other African-American players from all of the white players that have long been on the team. However, as the season proceeds, all of the players begin to learn more about each other and accept everyone for who they are and not what they look like. By the end of the movie, through many trials and tribulations, most everyone on the team has learned how to unite together to fight the racism they are facing from the community as a integrated football team. The movie concludes with them all coming together one last time to honor one of their well-known teammates Gerry Bertier at his funeral. Collectively, this movie shows its audience how a group of people can unite around a common cause, in this case athletics, to make a change in this world, which is why it is such a well-known and popular movie.
Throughout this movie, there are several stereotypes that are depicted by the characters in the movie.

A majority of these stereotypes are negative, but most of them eventually change over time. The most prominent stereotype is African-Americans being seen as less fit to accomplish the same things as the Caucasian kids. In portraying this message through a movie that revolves around a football team, this ‘less fit’ status is mostly witnessed where the African-American kids are not as good of football players as the Caucasian kids. Aside from this, there is also an overwhelming amount of blatant racial prejudice from other teammates, students, and community members towards the African-American players. A majority of these community members that participate in this blatant racial prejudice are also stereotyped by the creators of the movie. They fit the stereotype of what one would imagine when thinking of a white southern in the slang they use and their attitude towards African-Americans, which is greatly negative. The two stereotypes mentioned above work together to create a lot of the controversy and animosity that is seen in the film. For a majority of the film, these stereotypes remain constant. However, near the end, as the team and the town begin to unite together to fight this prejudice, these stereotypes start to change. This change was not easy and was only accomplished, because of the relentless effort of the African-American players fighting for that change,

accompanied by the Caucasian players supporting that change. Although these stereotypes were presented in the film, I was well aware of these stereotypes prior to watching this movie. All together, these stereotypes play a large role in the film and it is important to understand how these stereotypes are being portrayed in order to understand the significance of the change that occurs by the end of the movie.
A majority of the stereotypes presented above and depicted throughout the film go back in large part to the racial divide between African-Americans and Caucasians during the time this movie was set. It was set in a time where America was just coming off the Civil Rights Movement and a large fraction of African-Americans were still fighting for equality both educationally and athletically. This racially charged time period is a large social aspect that motivated groups in the movie toward prejudicial behavior. Not only that, but the feeling that ‘the African-Americans were taking over,’ due the integration of both their school and football team. These two aspects combined give us insight into what motivation groups may have to act in a prejudice way. However, there are times throughout the film that certain characters act opposite of this behavior. This instance is best represented by one of the main characters, All-American Linebacker Gerry Bertier. Near the beginning of the movie, Bertier is depicted as a stereotypical white southerner. Both his family and him are not too fond of any African-American and Bertier even goes as far as going uptown to fight against a protest of African-Americans who are calling out a white store owner for shooting another African-American teenager. Yet, throughout the movie you begin to see Betier’s attitude change as he gets to know African-American teammate Julius Campbell, another star defensive player for the Titans. Through a large amount of trials and tribulations, that includes Campbell calling out Bertier’s leadership style and Bertier being in a car accident that leaves him paralyzed, the two become best friends. This can largely be credited to a change in Bertier’s belief about African-Americans. The film shows us that as he began to learn more about Julius as a person, he appreciated who we was. There was certainly an amount of peer pressure that was accompanied with this from the integration of the school. However, this unfitting behavior is mostly due to a change in Bertier’s behavior rather than the peer pressure. Interestingly enough, when looking at overall attitude change of the characters throughout the movie, one can apply Allport’s five levels of negative action, but in reverse order. Those levels: antilocution, avoidance, discrimination, physical attack, and extermination, are stated in his 1954 novel The Nature of Prejudice. At the beginning of the film, there is an instance of a Caucasian store owner killing an African-American boy for coming into his store, as mentioned above, which is reflective of the extermination level. However, by the end of the movie a majority of the characters, Bertier included, have reduced their actions to near below the antilocution level. This progress throughout the movie shows us just how much the football team was able to accomplish by uniting to fight racism. We can use Allport’s level, even if in reverse succession, to help illustrate that change step by step. Overall, these scales and examples work together to show how attitudes throughout the film changed and what factors went into that change.
Although, there were multiple attitudes that changed throughout the movie, there was one constant that reflects an attitude we have talked about in class several times.

Authoritarianism is defined in the textbook as, “A set of attitudes—authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression and conventionalism—that lead people to be prejudiced against groups that authority figures condemn and that are perceived to violate traditional values” (Kite and Whitley, 2016). The definition mentions that this personality style typically leads people to act prejudiced towards minority groups. Interestingly, this movie depicts the authoritarianistic personality through Coach Herman Boone, who would be considered a part of the minority group. Due to the situation Boone is in, one would think that he does not fit the authoritarian personality. However, he constantly refers to himself as the team’s dictator. This self-pronouncement and other authoritarianistic behaviors throughout the film lead me to conclude that he fits this personality type. This is an interesting dynamic and would lead one to think, as an authoritarian, Coach Boone would act prejudiced towards his Caucasian players, but that is not the case, which supports the interesting dynamic mentioned above. Besides this, there is also other characters in the movie where their characteristics separate them from other group members. Throughout the film, there is a collective stereotype that African-Americans are unfit, but Defensive

End Julius Campbell separates himself from this stereotype through his star power on the field and his intelligence in the classroom. These two examples, combined together, work to provide interesting dynamics in having characters go against what is deemed as normal by society. Going against this normality is ultimately what helps the team in uniting and fighting for change in their community.
In essence, there is plenty of references throughout the movie that relate back to a lot of the things that we have talked about in class this term. Whether it be Allport’s five levels of negative action or examples and definitions from our textbook, this movie provides its audience with a chance to understand how these concepts are being portrayed in real life. For that reason, I would no doubt recommend this movie to anyone hoping to learn more on this topic. This movie is able to depict how you begin to fight racial inequality and injustice throughout a society. Certainly, accomplishing this change is much more difficult than displayed during the movie. However, we are able to apply the concepts from our textbook and other in-class sources to get an idea of how to begin to fight for this change. For the longest time, Remember the Titans has been my favorite movie. However, I never looked at this movie through this lens before, which helped me reaffirm my appreciation for the quality and the lessons that come from this film. The thing that stuck out to me most and inspired the title for this essay was a quote by Gerry Bertier near the end of the movie. Shortly after Bertier was paralyzed from an automobile accident, Julius Campbell went to visit him in his hospital room. Upon entering the room, the nurse turned to Campbell, an African American and said that only kin is allowed in here. Bertier quickly responded by saying, “Can’t you see, that’s my brother” (Remember the Titans 2000). This outward expression is a changing point in the movie that serves as a lesson to viewers. A Caucasian man calling an African-American man “his brother” during this time period is monumental and shows you that it does not matter the color of someone’s skin once you get to know them. All of these lessons combined together encourages the audience to not accept things as they are, but rather get to know to people for their character, not their skin color, and by doing this we can come together to use the sporting platform to fight racism at its core.