Coach Boone's Struggle In Remember The Titans

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“To say that it is not our fault does not relieve us of responsibility, however. We may not have polluted the air, but we need to take responsibility, along with others, for cleaning it up. Each of us needs to look at our own behavior (Tatum, 2013, p. 66).” A quote that not only applies to Remember the Titans but also the lives of ordinary people currently. Remember the Titans, based on a true story, takes place in 1971, at a school beginning to desegregate, with the main focus being on the football team. This football team is being coached by an African-American by Coach Herman Boone; the team is being assisted by Coach Bill Yoast, who happens to be a white man. The two face many struggles, but Coach Boone faces many more. He is forced…show more content…
He was warned early in the season that if the team starts to show signs of losing he will lose his job and be replaced by a different coach. However that is not the only time he faces racism, some of the players stated that they weren’t going to play for him simply because he was African-American. He was also called Coach Coon instead of Coach Boone. Coach Boone also had a brick thrown through the window of his home, where his family resides. All of these situations are scarring and scary, yet the Coach powers through and continues to coach the team on a long running winning streak. The oppress he faced did not crush him like it does some, he helped use it as a tool to continue on. Although none of these things deserve an explanation because they are brutal, I think one can be found within the book Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. The history of Whiteness and various forms of racism directed at groups of color has meant that in the U.S. being a member of one race—or one side—has immediately placed an individual as an out-group of the other. The greater the power imbalance between groups, the greater the emphasis on maintaining boundaries between sides (Dalmage, 2013).” This quote leads me to believe that this could be one of the main reasons that cause Whites to treat the minorities as poorly as they do. This does not make this okay, but it could be the start of…show more content…
There is a player named Petey who happens to talk to one of the White girls at the school. He is confronted by the girls boyfriend and it ends in a fight. This fight was all started over a simple conversation that generally does not cause people to fight in this manner. This reminded me of a section in the book called “Group Boundaries and Discrimination.” These lines in particular stand out, “When the distinctions seemed threatened, anti-miscegenation laws—those that denied people the right to marry across race lines—were enforced through penalties that included imprisonment, enslavement, and death. The primary threat was not the marriage itself but rather the fact that in the U.S. marriage legitimizes the offspring (Dalmage, Patrolling Racial Borders, 2013).” To think that someone in high school could be so bothered by a mere conversation being held between two people. How many other people of that time and even current times feel this way? The problem is that the criticism does not stop with the parents and their relationship, it continues on to the children which is unfair in numerous ways. People have no choice in their race, yet we still judge people on that. The children of these relationships know no different, they are forced to face criticism daily because people see race as a defining factor of who a person is. “Raising her voice, the

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