Cultural Stereotype and Racial Inequality in The Titans

Remember the Titans is a film that was made in the year 2000, and it depicts many aspects of racial inequality. Racial inequality can be defined as discrimination based on race in opportunity for things such as socioeconomic mobility or access to certain goods and/or services. In the United States, this discrimination can have a strong effect on many aspects of society such as home life and employment. A large gap between Caucasians and African-Americans still exists in America. In this film, there are more white people than there are black people. In terms of major roles, there are about five black characters and more than fifteen white characters. Although the degree of importance of the black characters is pretty high, the quantity still does not compare to the white characters.
Coach Herman Boone is the main African-American character in this film. He is a football coach who is brought in by the newly diversified T.C. Williams High School as a form of affirmative action. This character struggles throughout the movie with dealing with the prejudices of his players, of other football coaches, of parents, and even of the school board who hired him in order to try to create a winning football team. Another key black character is Julius Campbell. He plays a linebacker who ends up becoming best friends with a white linebacker on the team. He, too, struggles with prejudices from some of his teammates and people in the town because of the new desegregation of the team. The remaining black players on the T.C. Williams High School had very similar roles in the film. Petey Jones, Jerry Williams (quarterback), and Blue Stanton all are shown facing racial inequality by players, citizens, and even other football coaches. The attitudes of ...

... middle of paper ...

...ire film. I would not say that my view on this movie has changed, but I would say that it has intensified. The whole point of the movie was to show the struggles and victories associated with racial desegregation, so that part was quite obvious. However, now that I can see the subtleties associated with racial inequality, the depiction of inequality is clearer. I believe the audience that this movie is trying to reach, besides die-hard football fans, is people that were previously unaware of how big a problem race was within these very small groups of people, like the football team. The creators want to show the struggles that were less obvious, like trying to become a team with people who are supposed to dislike you or look down on you. I think the actors and creators of this film did an excellent job at showing the dynamics between white people and black people.