Accept or Reject Racial Stereotypes?

In honor of football season starting in the IHSA, the movie, “The Blind Side,” correlates well with football season beginning and the social and race issues going on in America today. “The Blind Side” features Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron, and Tim McGraw. Although this movie came out in 2009, there are relevant issue risen throughout the movie, that remind Americans whether a story told is true or not and how these stereotypes affect today’s society. Controversy with racial stereotypes are subsequently associated with social class stereotypes. As exemplified in other pieces of recent American culture, such as “Straight Outta Compton” and “Selma,” racial stereotypes can cause the most controversy, or make people of all races feel uncomfortable. “The Blind Side” is just another part of this trend that has been building for decades. This American cultural piece is a good, paradoxical example of conveying social class and race stereotypes, both promoting and breaking the typical ideologies society has. Analyzing the accepting and rejecting stereotypes in “The Blind Side” is done with the help of knowing the characteristics of a true story and a false story.

“The Blind Side” contains specific scenes that help prove the stereotypes for race in America are false. For example,white people are stereotyped to be racist. While this statement is seemingly true, because there are white people who are racist, it is not true in the sense that all white people are racist. In “The Blind Side,” Leigh Anne Tuohy rejects this stereotype when she takes in low economic class, black, Michael Oher. A white person would not open their nice home up to a black person and provide clothes and food for them with nothing in return, if they were racist. Furthermore, the stereotype that black people are only good at sports is also rejected when Michael Oher proves he is more than just a big football player. Although Michael Oher is his team’s best football player, he needs to get his grades up to qualify for an academic scholarship for a D1 school. With the help of his teachers and tutor, Michael devotes time to his studies as well as juggling football. When writing a paper for English class, Michael demonstrates and learns of his capability to write and perseverance. He is ultimately able to and accepts a college offer with his improved GPA.