Remember the Racial Tension

1730 Words4 Pages

Remember the Racial Tension

Attending high school has many challenges socially, academically, and athletically. In the years of racial integration these challenges were amplified for the students. The movie Remember the Titans tells the story of how one high school dealt with integrating black and white students into their school and also into a championship football team. The media can depict their own take on how this transition played out. The media distorts the racial tension demonstrated within the film Remember the Titans, as a means to sell more movie tickets and create a more dramatic story.

Because the movie Remember the Titans is based on a true story, viewers are more likely to take the racial situations more seriously when in fact they are over exaggerated and distorted. The characters in the movie are based on real people and the movie has events based on facts. The film tells the story of how the school board mandated the integration of black and white students into their school system. The school was formed by the consolidation of three of the community’s high schools. The school depicted in the film is T.C. Williams High School. The integration of the school not only meant that the classrooms would have both black and white students, but the football field would also have an integrated team. The film deals with the controversy of racism in the south at the beginning of the 1970s. The school’s football team is the main focus in the movie. It shows the hard times the Titan’s 1971 football team went through to end up with a perfect 13-0 season. The film arguably over exaggerates the racial tension which emphasizes on how black and whites should be treated differently when they should not. Jacquelyn Kilpatrick exp...

... middle of paper ...

...d that the past is the past (538). The misinformation provided in the film succeeds at distorting images of race. These exaggerated misinterpretations of race make the film’s message stronger and more dramatic, but they are not true to the true story.

Works Cited

Jirousek, Charlotte A. “Superstars, Superheroes and the Male Body Image: The Visual Implications of Football Uniforms.” Keller 227-37. Print.

Keller, Michael. Reading Popular Culture: An Anthology for Writers. 2nd ed. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt, 2007. Print.

Kilpatrick, Jacquelyn. “Disney’s ‘Politically Correct’ Pocahontas.” Keller 535-38. Print.

Merron, Jeff. "ESPN.com - Page2 - Reel Life: 'Remember the Titans'." ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Sports. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2011. .

Open Document