The Blind Side Rhetorical Analysis

Media such as movies, video games and television, in general, are all created to support some form of social context. This helps with generating popularity because people are able to relate to the form of media. In Greg Smith’s book What Media Classes Really Want to Discuss, he describes 6 different representational strategies that justifies people’s way of thinking. The trope that I will be amplifying is the white savior tactic. In addition, I will connect this strategy to the movie The Blind Side. There are clear examples throughout the film where racism and low-income cultures exist in which the white family is there to help. The Tuohy family from the movie “The Blind Side” serves as the white savior for the progression of Michael

Oher’s career in life and as a football player. They do this with the help from their involvement in eradicating racism throughout their community and inviting the poor black athlete into their home.
Greg Smith’s book describes the white savior tactic as a person “who intervenes and saves the day”. (Smith, 2016, p.106) It is “a strategy that keeps the focus on the issue but also seems to say that the Other is helpless to improve their own situation”. (106) Many different media forms tend to focus on this theme in order to portray a stereotype on an individual or group of people who seem to be abandoned. Therefore, a ‘white savior’ comes into play and essentially mitigates the damage that the community strives to implement.
There are numerous instances where the Tuohy family serves as Michael Oher’s white savior in the film.

Oher is presented as being helpless, poor and basically homeless. His mother is said to be a massive drug addict, therefore, his future could be cut short if help doesn’t arrive soon. Throughout the beginning of the movie, the white family notices Oher and immediately realizes that he is in need of help. Although, the community recognizes him as a black beast in need of taming. When the family met Oher for the first time, it seemed as if he had no clue how to interact with other humans. This justifies Smith’s definition of “othering”, showing that Oher is shut out by everyone and over looked because of his abnormal appearance. One scene, in particular, reinforces his untamed demeanor when Oher meets S.J., the son of the family, for the first time. In an attempt to make some friends, he approaches S.J. while he is playing on the swings and all of the children get scared and run away. As the film progresses, the audience is told that he placed in the 98th percentile for protective instincts. This fact supports the claim of Michael Oher being an outsider who, like a dog, needs taming and only possesses the most elementary of evolutionary traits. After the family had officially taken him under their wing, they discover that he is in fact a loving, caring individual whose instincts can carry over onto the football field. Overall, the white savior in The Blind Side is easily dissected to be the Touhy family and the abandoned “other” is Michael Oher. The family ultimately discovers a hopeless person, who is talented at football, and takes full

advantage.
The film also has sociocultural implications within the white savior trope as well. This aspect resonates more positive than the general definition of the strategy itself. The connection with its sociocultural impact to the white savior theme can help the audience realize the amount of influence that the white man/women or family can have on the repressed. A large portion throughout the film illustrates the family’s efforts in eliminating the racial profiling around their community. In the white population as a whole, it’s very rare to see race as a topic of conversation in film. This is why the confrontation of Leigh Anne Touhy towards her friends is so important while they complain about her actions with Oher. Mrs. Touhy is accompanied by a few of her friends during their weekly lunch gathering and they begin to lower their voices and make racist comments such as “but he’s a large black man”, when she informs them about her new son. This behavior is an example of the back stage behavior that blacks in today’s society expect whites to engage in. However, the white savior is striving to alleviate the racism and oppression within her friend group as a starting point.
In an effort to take a step back and look at the other side of the coin, a person might ask “what does it mean for a film to have the white savior theme?” or “is there problems with this strategy?”. Understanding these aspects can both positively and negatively affect the films growth based on the response of the audience. After watching a film like The Blind Side, white people may see the Touhy family’s actions as an incentive to rescue a person of color and give them a more memorable life. The trope may even distract the colored audience to not see whites as the oppressors but as hero’s. This distinction can be extremely helpful within the white population. However, it can also be problematic throughout the black community. These films tend to focus the storyline in the eyes of the whites, and how they feel awful about their past and learn a lesson. In fact, The Blind Side is a true story which can be confusing to people when looking at the problems with the white savior trope. This is because people can argue that it’s in Hollywood’s best interest to create a film that shows the heroic white people saving the people of color. Therefore, people see these films as being fake and an opportunity for whites to shine. The major problems with films centered around this trope is that they describe people of color as hopeless and needing whites for help. It also exemplifies that white people inspire people of color to be a better citizen as if they were incapable of helping themselves. The ignorance of stories where colored people help their own communities is problematic in-and-of-itself.
In conclusion, the Tuohy family from the movie “The Blind Side” serves as the white savior for the progression of Michael Oher’s career in life and as a football player. These types of films can cause positive and negative impacts in the eyes of an audience because of its sociocultural implications, what it actually means to have that characterization and how problematic it can be.