Sociological Concepts In Jackie Robinson's Film 42

Imagine someone going up an escalator while everyone else is going down. Or, better yet, imagine trying to pull a door toward you while someone else is pushing it outward. These kind of scenarios are similar to the posture that Jackie Robinson finds himself in the 2013 film 42, by Brian Helgeland. 42 is about the racial integration of American professional baseball player Jackie Robinson. The movie has many sociological concepts. There are four concepts that are very prevalent throughout the film. They include: gender roles, racial stratifications, deviance, and organizations and groups. This paper will explore all four concepts and provide examples of them in the film. The first sociological concept that is very apparent in the movie is gender role. William Little, author of BC Open Textbook, defines Gender role as society’s concept of how men and women are expected to act and how they should

Dr. Richard Verdugo provides a definition of what racial stratification is in his socio-historical case study. He defines it as a system of structured inequality, where access to scarce and desired resources is based on ethnic/racial group membership. Racial stratification assigns roles and functions to individuals based on their ethnic-racial group membership (Verdugo 70). A perfect example of racial stratification in the movie is when the fans are at the ballpark watching the game. The majority white crowd is engaging in the excitement. Most of them are using offensive, derogatory, words toward Robinson. There is a young boy, no older than 12, in the crowd, who witnesses this. The scene shows him looking around, from side to side. He is not saying anything. However, once he is finished looking around, he starts in on the screaming by repeating the offensive, derogatory, words. The young boy’s action shows the audience that racism and racial stratification is learned from one’s