Social Issues in The Movie The Blind Side

Introduction

The Blind Side is a movie based on the true story of Michael Oher, who was once the offensive lineman of the Baltimore Ravens’. Michael Oher, a black teenager, grew up in an impoverished part of Memphis known as the “projects”. He is homeless after running away from foster care and being taken from his drug-addicted mother at a very young age. A football coach from an exclusive and mostly white private school notices his potential in the sport, after seeing his massive build and the way he moves. At first, the school board is reluctant to accept Michael into the school after seeing his low GPA and records; however, the football coached managed to convince them. One night, a white woman named Leigh Anne Tuohy notices Michael walking in the rain in just a t-shirt while driving home with her family. Her son knows Michael and calls him “Big Mike” at school. Leigh Anne Tuohy offers Michael a place to stay for the night. The Tuohy family has a very privileged lifestyle from owning several fast food restaurants. Because of this, they give Michael a whole different life than what he is used to and open up many opportunities for him. Leigh Anne and her husband eventually become Michael’s legal guardians. Leigh Anne Tuohy invests her time into Michael to make sure he can live up to his full potential. She sticks up for him when people are being racist towards him and she calls him her son. She helps him understand how to play football and he turns into an exceptional football player who is wanted by many universities. The only problem is that Michael did not receive a good education growing up, so his GPA may not make the cut. Therefore, Leigh Anne Tuohy hired a tutor to work with him every night. Michael eventually graduates from the exclusive, private school and accepts a football scholarship to the University of Missouri.

The Blind Side Movie Analysis

Throughout the film, I recognized examples of racism, classism and sexism. However, racism was the social issue most prevalent in this film. An example of cultural racism in the film would be the fact that the Tuohy family and other white people only lived in a neighborhood with other white people and only associated with other white people. The city of Memphis was highly segregated, with whites on one side and the minorities on the other side. The “white” neighborhood in this film was depicted as the “good” neighborhood and even Leigh Anne’s friend suggested that if she went to other side of town it would hurt her “reputation”. This phenomenon would also be example of white flight, with only white families living in the suburbs and cities still being highly segregated even after segregation.

There were also several examples of individual racism in the film. For example, when Mike approached the little girls at the playground, both of them ran away from him. The little girls must have thought of Michael as the stereotypical black man that is portrayed in society. Another example would be the aggressive taunts Michael’s opponent made to him during the football game. The taunt that stuck with me the most would be when his opponent said, “you aren’t welcome here”, which implies he doesn’t belong there because he is black. A man in the crowd also made a comment about Michael participating in the football game. When Leigh Anne attended lunch with her friends, they always made racist comments too (Smith et al., 2009). Their comments were also an example of backstage racism, where a comment is made in an all-white company and acknowledged as a joke. It very much seemed like her friends were against what she was doing because it was a person of color. The Tuohy’s were even racist at some points of the film. The first night Michael stayed at their house they were hoping he wouldn’t steal anything and the dad mentioned eventually that he cannot believe he has a black son (Smith et al., 2009). In addition, Leigh Anne asked her daughter if she was comfortable with Michael staying in their house. I believe this question would not have been asked if Michael were white.

Another type of racism, institutional racism, was also prevalent in the film. Many of the minority people did not have jobs, most likely as a result of institutional racism. Even if they had a job, it was always a low-income job (Smith et al., 2009). In addition, the area the minority people lived in lacked resources and were of poor-quality compared to the area the majority people lived in. The movie implied that the schools the minority children attended did not have access to as much funds as the schools the children of the majority school attended. This impaired the education Michael received as a child, giving him even less of a chance to succeed in life. While racism was the most prevalent social issue, institutional classism was a noticeable issue in this movie as well.

In the United States, social mobility is becoming increasingly difficult. Once a person is born in a social class, chances are that they will be in that social class the rest of their life. The whole movie implied that Michael would not have been successful if it weren’t for the privileged family that took him in. It was clear to see that the Tuohy’s had many more opportunities in life, like easy access to a good education. Michael, on the other hand, did not grow up privileged and was homeless. It was not until the Tuohy’s took him in that he had the resources needed to succeed in life. While sexism was the least prevalent issue in this movie, it is still important to acknowledge. At the beginning of the film when the Tuohy’s were attending their daughter’s volleyball game, Leigh Anne came late and their son told her that she did not much miss much because it was “girl’s” volleyball. This is an example of cultural sexism. This example may seem miniscule, but it is important to mention because our culture continually reinforces the idea that male sports are much more important the female sports. Often, female sports do not receive as much recognition in the press as male sports and people don’t spend as much time watching female sports compared to male sports.

Conclusion

All three of the social issues I just mentioned have some kind of impact on me. When it comes to cultural racism, I unfortunately still notice that most people only interact with people of their own race. I think our country is much better nowadays when it comes to racism, but we still have a lot of work to do, especially when it comes to stereotypes and segregation. In addition, minorities are more likely to live in poverty and have low-income jobs. Growing up, my upper-class friends were given many more opportunities in life just like it was portrayed in the film. When I really think about classism, mostly everyone I know seems to have stayed in the social class they were born in. Being liberal, I have always had this belief that conservative people are less willing to help others and more likely to behave in a racist way. There were parts of the movie that confirmed this belief for me but also there were parts that challenged this belief of mine. For example, Leigh Anne’s friends were clearly racist and conservative. However, the Touhy family challenged this belief. The Tuohy family may have been racist in the beginning, but eventually they got past this and they really changed Michael’s life for the better.