Remember The Titans: True Story Of Coach Herman Boone

Remember the Titans is a film based on the true story of Coach Herman Boone. The film takes place in 1971 at the newly desegregated T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. T.C. Williams High School hires a black head coach, Herman Boone, to lead the school’s football team alongside Bill Yoast, a white defensive coordinator. During their practices, black and white football players often clash over racial conflicts. The biggest fights occur between the white team captain, Gerry Bertier, and a black player, Julius Campbell. Over time, Boone is able to achieve racial harmony within the team; this enables them to work together to become undefeated and win the state championship (Bos). Remember the Titans addresses the injustice blacks

According to Greg Paspatis, a man who went to T.C. Williams High School and played on Boone’s team as a kicker in 1977, the high school was long integrated before Boone arrived. He says that Boone was also a dictator and treated people horribly. Another distortion is that Gerry Bertier was in an auto accident after the championship game, a game in which he played in (McKenna). Despite these inaccuracies, the film still reflects the social setting the movie takes place in. During the time of the 1970’s, many people of color were still being racially profiled and mistreated despite the Civil Rights Movement. However, the movie shows how whites and blacks can come together and create social change, similar to how many have joined in solidarity to fight racial inequality in today’s

In Weber’s account, she states that race, class, gender, and sexuality are systems of oppression. Oppression exists when one group has historically gained power and control over valued assets of a society by exploiting the labor and lives of other groups and then by using those assets to secure its position of power into the future (Ferguson 6). In Remember the Titans, race is a system of oppression. Blacks are explicitly discriminated against and seen as inferior by whites, who have gained power and control because of their slave-owning ancestors. Weber also mentions when groups publicly resist oppression, individuals within them can participate in the development of a positive definition of self in the face of dominant culture oppression. By valuing themselves, they empower others, a process aimed to consolidating, maintaining, or changing the nature and distribution of power in a social context (Ferguson 15,16). In the film, Coach Boone resists the oppression and discrimination he faces. By doing so, he empowers his black players to be resilient and strong and encourages his white players to stick up for their teammates. Boone inspires his football team as well as his community to overcome racial inequality. In Zuberi’s account, he mentions the Great Chain of Being. The Great Chain of Being ranked all creation, including Creator,