Examples Of Racial Discrimination In Remember The Titans

Response

The film Remember The Titans portrays racial discrimination.

This issue is portrayed by various characters, sometimes very obvious, other times subtly. Racial discrimination is first obvious when several white teenage boys are outraged when their friend informs them that “They want to burn the place up 'cause that coloured kid got shot”. This is referring to black protesters who are upset by a black teenager being shot by the store owner. The teenagers have no sympathy for the kid that was shot, referring to him as just “that coloured kid”, this implies the black kids life is worth little to nothing. Later when the schools integrate and the races are mixed, and Boone (black) is appointed as the football coach, a parent exclaims that

This displays the ignorance and racist qualities of the white students’ parents, not wanting Boone to coach because of nothing but his race, calling him derogatory terms and everyone else murmurs in agreement. Later, players state that they don’t want to play with some “black animals”, revealing that they think black people are nothing but dirty animals. When Louie Lastik (white) sits with the blacks for lunch, Ray (white) calls him a traitor. This implies that the races are against each other, in some sort of battle. Ray also states he won’t block for Julius (black), and would rather him get hit then get picked in the starting line-up. Louie Lastik is also asked by Julius, “why you eating over here? Why don't you go on over there and eat with your people?”, to which he replies, “Man, I don't have any people. I'm with everybody, Julius”. Julius doesn’t threaten Louie, but implies that each race should be separated from one another. Louie, along with Boone, believes in racial equality, he genuinely thinks he is no more than anyone else because he is white. The film uses Louie to contrast between racial discrimination and separation, and

After the camp, the players are thrown back into the real world, where racial discrimination exists. A group of the players are hanging out in public, when they try to get dinner, the restaurant owner denies them service, despite having many empty tables. This is a realistic representation of racial discrimination, as many people are denied jobs, services and facilities simply because of their race. Laws have been made to prevent this, and while it has worked in providing equality to all races, many are still discriminated against in this aspect. Earlier in the camp, when racial tension is still present, players of opposite race are forced to learn about each other. The white teenager asks his partner, “What's your daddy's name? I mean, you do have a daddy right?” then proceeds to ask, “And what's he do? Wait, he does have a job, right?”. These two questions sum up one of the main stereotypes about black people still used in society today, that their fathers cannot support a family. When getting their rooms for camp, they were forced to bunk with people of opposite race. This caused tension from the first minute and resulted in a fist fight. While racial equality is accepted by more people, this still is a very real occurrence, which leads to terrible tragedies to innocent