Remember the titans
Remember the Titans
Remember the Titans takes place in a small town in Virginia called Alexandria. This little town forces the civil rights law of integration. Combining a white school and black school was not such a good idea in this town. Today we will discuss the differences in the white and blacks, such as the racism, the realistic conflict theory and prejudice, and conformity amongst the people. The only thing different between and black person and white person is the skin color. They both have two arms, two legs, a head, a heart, two feet, and so forth. But in this town white people thought just a little different.
The first encounter of a white and black was the coaches. The new African American coach, Coach Boones has had an opportunity to take the head coach position, over the white head Coach Yoast. Coach Yoast was a Hall of fame coach. So many of the players were confused as to what was going on. Many white people thought this was unfair. The football players was white and African American and where forced to go to a football camp together. They are forced to cooperate, and suffer hard drills together. White and the African Americans in this town have always known to judge each other. This would be an example of Racism. Racism is the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race based on the belief that ones own race is superior. Racism is also a recurring theme and it has shown to be difficult to overcome, but not impossible. Discrimination is also a form of racism. Discrimination is when the behaviors affect a certain group of people. The white peoples actions also had an effect on the African Americans or vice versa, the African Americans actions always had an effect of the white people. White people always thought they were in control over the African Americans. So the racism to the African Americans was pretty strong. When Coach Yoast had lost his first game thats when Coach Boones took over. So automatically the white people are saying very racist comments about Coach Boones. A fight breaks out during school between the African Americans and the whites. The whites think they are more superior to the African Americans. That is when the students show racism. The white parents also show there racism when they the fight the bus transportation to and from school. But dont think the African Americans dont show their racism. The African Americans was just quite about it at first. The African Americans was the ones who had to change schools and combine with the whites. So they think they should be number one in anything as well as the whites. When the team over comes the racism and actually acts as a team is when they start playing good. One African American on the team spoke up and said, No player is perfect, but the team is perfect. Racism still goes on in the real world today. It happens daily, whenever it shouldnt even be brought up. We all have the same rights. We shouldnt judge other by their skin tone or even their views on things.
The realistic group conflict theory which is kind of like prejudice is when two or more groups are seeking the same limited resources this will lead to conflict, negative stereotypes and beliefs, and discrimination between the groups. When prejudice is judging a person on the bases of stereotypes about the group to which the person belongs. Prejudice and the realistic group conflict theory relate because they both stereotype groups. Just like the whites and blacks are stereotyping each other in Remember the Titans. In the beginning of the movie, white and the African American football players are mainly worried about their position on the field and if they was going to be starting. Starting positions are very limited, so that is why the African Americans and whites fight over them. To make an African American player look bad, the white football players wouldnt block for the African American during practice. The white people just wanted to make the African Americans look bad. All the white football players cared about was to make sure that all the starting positions were filled with their own race. It caused many conflicts between the players, not only during practice but during games. The white and African Americans were both seeking the same starting positions on the field, which were limited. The football team was mainly white people and is now being intruded with African Americans or thats how the white people seen it. The African Americans seen it as they had starting positions at their old school, so they wanted to keep their starting positions whether it was at a new school or not. Both races had to deal with losing starting positions that they had, had before the schools combined. When the players step on to that field to play football, is when the realistic group conflict theory is confirmed. The boys turned this theory around later on in the movie. They wanted to make each other better players on the football field. By making each other better they would make the team better as a whole. So instead of competing for starting positions they were now competing as a team to become better.
Conformity is illustrated by so many different ways in Remember the Titans. Conformity is compliance with standards, rules, or laws. The white and African American communities go against each other for a while and have to compromise when it comes to the football game. The white and African American coaches compete against each other but after time has passed they have to learn to get along and go along with the rules. The white football players tend to stick to their own race, in the beginning of the movie not wanting anything to do with the African Americans. The African Americans also stick together in the beginning of the movie and also not wanting anything to do with the white players. The players eventually have to conform into one big team together. The whites had to become not only team mates but brothers with the African American players. Each race had to learn to love each other, and work together as a team in everything they did, whether if it was during practice, or out on that field playing the championship game. Both races have to go by the same standards, the same rules and same laws. Throughout the movie both races attitudes change towards each other. When the team came up with a new warm is when they really showed conformity. Both the African Americans and whites football players came together and did the warm up. So in the beginning of the movie conformity can cause problems by helping with segregation and discrimination, but by the end Conformity was shown in a different way when the community as well as the football players came together for one purpose.
In closing I have discussed how racism and discrimination are related in Remember the Titans, how the realistic group conflict theory and prejudice are just about the same, and last but not least how conformity is demonstrated in the movie. Being racist and discriminating did not have a purpose in the beginning of the movie because all it did was cause the community, the football players, and the coaches to have problems amongst each other. When all they did was overcome the problems throughout the movie. The realistic group conflict theory and prejudice only caused problems amongst the football players when it came to practice and the actual game, which caused them to not do good in practice or the games. Which the team overcame these problems also, whether it took time or not. Conformity was demonstrated way too many times throughout the movie, between the parents, community and everyone else in the town. When in the end the whites and African Americans realized they had to conform with each other, instead of working against each other. Imagine how much conflict would have been avoided in this movie if known of these psychological concepts would have never occurred. They would have won games from the beginning of the season. The parents would have never got into verbal arguments. The coaches would have never competed for the head coach spot they would have just worked together from the beginning. All these psychological concepts still occur till this day, but everyone has to learn to overcome them together.
