Cultural Struggles in Remember the Titans Essay Example
Cultural Struggles in Remember the Titans Essay Example

Cultural Struggles in Remember the Titans Essay Example

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  • Pages: 7 (1733 words)
  • Published: February 9, 2022
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Introduction

Racism and discrimination in the United States has been a long-standing issue in the country where the whites and the blacks’ integration is a problem. Many of the movies and films in the country has been directed to cover this problem and try to solve it but in numerous occasions racism and discrimination in the United States has not yet ended. Cultural struggles between communities and other groups have been a problem where integrating both cultures has met barriers. Different ethnicities in the United States have led to the cultural struggles in the country where the issue of racial discrimination is leading in the cultural struggles between communities and groups.

In schools, racism and discrimination due to color, race and gender is not an exceptional in the cultural struggles in the United St

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ates since the school students engage in the blacks and whites tussle. In many occasions, the government and other agencies in the country have tried to have conventions to help integrate the conflicting ends and solve the whole issue but to no avail. The use of films and movies to show how this vice can be eliminated in the country and solve the cultural struggles between communities and groups is the best way so far the country is using. The film “Remember the Titans”, is one of the films used as an example of cultural struggles in the United States (Nauright, 2012).

Remember the Titans

This is one of the films produced in the year 2000 and is a sports drama action where the issue of racism and discrimination is depicted. The film is a reflection of the United States society where cultural struggles are shown

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in the drama in regards to color and race between people. The drama film opens when a group of students well-dressed arriving in one of the cemeteries in the United States in which they are a mixture of whites and blacks. A voice that explains that the two schools Alexandria and Virginia were forced to integrate in 1971 by the board come up and the film goes back to the past. According to Hollywood movies in regards to cultural struggles, the films always depict that violence starts from the whites in the society towards the blacks.

The narrator tells about the white storeowner in the streets who had just murdered a black boy that led to violence in the town. The whites coach Bill Yoast establishes his moral values when he prevents his football team stars to go and participate in the violence in town to protect the storeowner from the blacks. This is one of the best selling movies since it starts directly with a clear picture of the society in the United States and how the cultural struggles in the country is affecting the people through violence and racism due to color. The whole film from the beginning shows how integrating cultures in the American society proved difficult and how people can work together with different worldviews in regards to culture (Nauright, 2012).

As the tension in the film grows due to the violence in the town after the death of the black youth, Boone a black coach is recruited to take charge of the whites and the blacks’ football team in which he was to replace Yoast as the head coach. Racism and cultural

struggle start when the white coaches find the issue unacceptable since they hated and discriminated the black race in the school. The black coach Boone takes charge of the integrated team and moves his family to one of the all-whites neighborhood. This is one of the main themes of the story line of the film in the manner that, the coach tries to show the community that integration and living together as brother is the key to solve the cultural struggles in the country. In this tense kind of situation, the white players threaten to boycott the decision made by the board to replace the white coach with a black coach (Yukl, 2006).

In this situation, Yoast decides to keep his morals high due to respect to all cultures and convinces the white’s team to accept the coach. He tells the team that the main aim of the team is to play football not solving cultural differences between them. The whites accept the black coach and the integration of cultures start as the team’s first trip to a camp under the new coach starts. Boone struggles to hold and dominate the team where on the back of his head he knew to dominate he had to work hard to achieve it since the issue of racism and discrimination was pulling his efforts back. The two teams go on a camp with Boone in charge as the new coach. At the camp, Boone decides to eliminate the racism in the team by making a decision that in every tent, there should be two players a black and a white player. This brought violence in the camp since

every race had preference in regards to music, and sports, but this did not make Boone lose hope (Yukl, 2006).

In the film, the black race is termed as the minority group due to the way the whites believed they had towards the blacks. At the start of the season, the whites threatened Boone that if he loses of one the games at that season he was to be fired. The whites did not like the idea of having a black coach of the team. Boone decided to have the cultural struggles end in the team by simply appointing Yoast to the post of assistant coach to help in the integration of the team. The minority who are the blacks in the film play an important part in the football team and made the team to succeed in that season.

After the threat by the whites that any losing of the team will lead to firing of the new coach, the team went ahead to win the season unbeaten and made history. The integration of team by the coach made the team to succeed in all their games and this made the team to be liked by the community and other people in the society. The team captains of the two teams did not like the idea of integration but Boone made them understand one another and that without integration between them the team will not prosper in the league (Bruckheimer, 2000).

After the team won the season undefeated in their games, the whites still had to confidence in the coach and therefore the last game they threatened the coach that if he does not lose he will

get fired. The whole idea of the whites was that he lose the game and get fired or even win the game and get fired of which it meant no difference at all. Yoast stood by his values and threatened the referees who were biased that he will call a press conference to uncover their evil doing. Due to the values he had towards cultural struggles, Yoast was removed from the list of the hall of fame inductees and the team went ahead and won the game. Ryan and Harris are the two captains from both the whites and the blacks respectively and help the other team to keep away their racial differences and play football. This helped the society in good integration and putting away their differences. Boone dominates the team with harsh teachings on integration and the issues like racial discrimination that cannot help in the society at any cost (Bruckheimer, 2000).

Cultural struggles in the film are depicted all through the cast as the two coaches battle for command in the team but Yoast was simple and principled all through helping Boone in building up of the team. The minority who are the blacks in the film play an important part in the football team and made the team to succeed in that season. After the threat by the whites that any losing of the team will lead to firing of the new coach, the team went ahead to win the season unbeaten and made history.

The integration of team by the coach made the team to succeed in all their games and this made the team to be liked by the community and

other people in the society. The team captains of the two teams did not like the idea of integration but Boone made them understand one another and that without integration between them the team will not prosper in the league. After the end of the league, the community had confidence on the black coach Boone and gave them an example of how the community can live together without discrimination of culture and race. Yoast and Boone later on became friends in life beating the odds that they were of different racial background from the society and showing good example of cultural integration (Snowman, 2012).

Conclusion

The sports drama film is one of the best actions that simply show how cultural struggles in the United States can be solved. The teams started their training with complete disaffection towards one another but through the help of Boone, the team decided to put their differences aside and play football. The issue of blacks and the whites ended in the pitch and they succeed in that season. This draws the conclusion that, cultural struggles in the society we live today are unhealthy and should be avoided at all cost so that the people can integrate without problems.

Racial discrimination affects success in many ways and this is the reason why the team had to put away their differences to succeed in their football league. . In schools, racism and discrimination due to color, race and gender is not an exceptional in the cultural struggles in the United States since the school students engage in the blacks and whites tussle. Therefore, cultural struggles in the society should be avoided for the community or

the society to integrate freely and succeed in the activities they are performing (Snowman, 2012).

References

  1. Bruckheimer, J. Oman, C. (Producers), & Yakin, B. (Director). (2000). Remember the Titans
  2. Nauright, J., & Parrish, C. (2012). Sports around the world: History, culture, and practice. Santa
    Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.
  3. Snowman, J., McCown, R., & Biehler, R. (2012). Psychology applied to teaching. (13 ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
  4. Yukl, Gary. (2006). Leadership In Organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson Prentice Hall.
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