Discrimination In The Titans

Remember The Titans is a great football movie, and an even better civil rights movie. The movie shows how TC Williams handled desegregation and how the football team brought the community together. When the white players and black players came together for the first time, they did not get along. Coach Herman Boone took the team to a camp, and the players started to get along. When the players went back to school, they experienced the racism all over again. Eventually, the team helped the school and community get over the desegregation.

Most people don’t realize that the media play up the stereotypes and gender roles that are out there. We don’t realize that the movies and television shows we watch feed into the stereotypes and gender roles that we believe in. Remember the Titans, directed by Boaz Yakin, tells the story about a high school football coach, Herman Boone, attempting to integrate T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria in 1971. Boone coming to T.C. Williams High School really upset many parents and students. When the parents of the football players found out he was going to be helping the head coach, Bill Yoast, many were fuming with anger. Why? Because he is African-American. Parents did not want their children playing African-American children in sports or sitting next to them in classrooms. This movie is based on a true story and the film challenges everything we claim we know about discrimination and racism in school.

Remember the Titans, is a film that is about a predominantly white culture in an era that is predominantly white dominated over blacks. In the film, the school makes a very bold movement of combining both black colored students and white colored students so that they attend the same school. In addition, the school also demotes their successful white football coach to instead a black football coach, something that had never been done before.

In the movie Remember the Titans Gerry and Julius worked to overcome racial issues and eventually resolved their unnecessary conflict. They came to develop an amazing friendship built on trust and respect. They eventually learned to appreciate the meaning of trusting a man for who they are as a person rather than the color of their skin.

Director Boaz Yakin created film “Remember the Titans”. This film was set placed in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971. At this time T.C. Williams high school was the first school having black race and white race together and neither race were happy about it. This film talks about how they overcome the racism and how each individual person on the team become one as team. And analysis of “remember the titans” shows people can overcome challenges by hard work, determination and perseverance.

In the 1970s, Americans and African Americans conjoined to the same school, T.C Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Football Coach Yoast was fired and replaced by Coach Herman Boone. Tension rises as white players didn’t want to be coached by a black person. The football team ended up going to training camp in Westbury, Pennsylvania. At first they hated each other, but Coach Boone made them have respect for one another and get to know each other. By the end of training camp, the team grew closer together. T.C Williams went on a undefeated season then won regional and state championship. The characters in Remember the Titans are Denzel Washington as Coach

“Remember The Titans” by Boaz Yakin is a visual where both the African Americans and All Americans still live in a time where racism was stronger and more open then today. When the school board decides to integrate both schools the white community doesn’t take it to well and a Young African youth is slain which causes uproar in the city. The uniting of both schools goes on and we as audience can see the hostility shown towards both races. It’s not until the football team and leaders unite do we start seeing a change in the community. The respect for an individual isn’t based upon his color but his soul. The uniting of a team brings a community bound by racism and hatred together for the greater good.

In Remember the Titans we witness Coach Boone fighting for civil rights, signifying the image of an outsider integrating into a foreign white team as their coach. Director Boaz Yakin, uses techniques to strengthen Coach Boone’s character where the initial hate and disrespect towards him succours the development of a meaningful arc. The disrespect and aggression is employed when a brick is thrown through his house window, threatening him with the derogatory coloured comments calling him “Coach Coon”. The pressure of quitting was not felt and heroically he encompasses the journey with Yakin emphasising Boones evocative discipline and determination forcing integration amongst the segregated football team. This technique is employed when we witness Coach Boone stepping up, pushing equality for the players in a determined strike to stop racial abuse for good. His actions initiate the forced building of friendship and acceptance when he forces both races to get to know and accept each other at the camp. Yakin heightens the themes of overcoming racism when Boone rallies the troops together to support their team mate during a sad time. Instinctively, the implicit segregation is evoked further bringing unity to the team, Coach Boone emerges as a ‘hero’ to both the coloured and white community.

In 1971 Coach Herman Boone replaced a popular, successful white coach at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, in that community's effort to finally integrate its schools. The school and community were angrily divided by the federal integration order, and the volatility of the situation was heightened by the abrupt demotion of Coach Yoast and Boone's promotion to Head Coach. In this movie Coach Boone is on a mission to try to get the white and black players to unite and play together as a team. He wanted the two races to become a team. Around that time, there was a lot of racism and a lot of schools were segregated, so the players obviously didn't get along with each other at first. A lot changed when Boone replaced Yoast

In the movie Remember the Titans, the plot shows clear examples of race and ethnicity discrimination and Sexual orientation discrimination. One of the first scenes that show the issue of race and ethnicity discrimination is when the coach (Coach Boon) house is being vandalized by the “white players” when they throw rocks at his house. It is evident that the players don’t want the Coach or his Family in the neighborhood due to the colour of their skin. Another example is When Julius walks into the room and is completely ignored by a group of White girls when he says Hi to them, the nature of the movie suggests that if Julius has been of Lighter Skin, the girls would have reacted differently to him by saying Hi back. An example of Sexual Orientation discrimination in the movie is when they refer to a male player as Sunshine as he is homosexual, it is even more evident in the scene where the group of football players are uncomfortable around the character Ronnie as he is homosexual. The behaviours shown in the movie are learnt behaviours, the discrimination shown in the movie shows that white characters are acting on their judgment against the black characters with no substance behind their behaviours, and no real reason for them to be acting that way. It is clear that Discrimination is a

After the T.C. William Titans started the season off at 7-0 the entire city started giving them positive feedback. Many restaurants were promoting their success with posters in their windows saying “Titans 7-0 and counting, all players eat free.” Prior to their success people were un-accepting of the whole integration issue. There was one instance where the owner of a restaurant kicked the players out because a group of both black and white players came in together and blacks weren’t allowed. Their success on the field helped them have positive results in their school and in their bi-racial community.

I think that this movie shows one of the many historical events that took place in the U.S. during the 20th century that led to peace, as it is today, between blacks and whites. This football team kind of symbolizes the first step towards the future of blacks and whites in America- the country that we now call "the melting pot." Of course, change isn't all that easy, and it certainly wasn't for this football team. They started out hating each other, but slowly (with the help of their coaches), they came to respect and play as a team.

Racism is still a high profile subject in the media today. The film “Remember The Titans” directed by Boaz Yakin strongly shows the theme that “colour is only skin deep”. This is shown when Boone is talking to Yoast in his shed, when Petey defends Louie while they’re eating at camp, and at the end of the movie when Sheryl is older.

The film wasn’t about that 13-0 record and winning a state championship, but the struggle that came with it and all the hardships they had to deal and get past. Racism, prejudice, compassion and love were all key aspects of this film as shown. The racism, prejudice of the team when they first met was severe and had been changed. The love and compassion came as the team grew to become one unit and love each other and be able to become something more powerful than they could be by themselves.

Remember The Titans was a movie that was set in a very hostile time in our country. We were in the middle of what I like to call a civil war. Although there were no battles or gunfights our country was torn in half. There was an issue dealing with race in the United States. The movie, Remember the Titans is based on actual events that occurred in the year 1971. Mainly on the integration of a school called TC Williams High School. When the school was integrated the old football coach, Coach Yoast, was let go and a black coach Herman Boone was hired on. The main plot of this movie is regarding the coaching change in the school and the 1971 football season the TC Williams Titans have.