Michael Kaczmarek

English 1106 Sec.09

Persuasion Essay 5

Why We Should Watch Remember the Titans

All throughout high school, I have witnessed non-stop confrontations between Caucasian and African American students.  I grew up in the primarily white city of Minnetonka, Minnesota.  My graduating class of nearly seven hundred students consisted of twelve African Americans.  Diversity is almost unheard of in that school.  All the African Americans would hang out in one group and all the white students would hang out in one group.  I remember all the fights that used to break out each day, because of all the misunderstandings between each group.  For the longest time neither side was willing to work things out.  Remember the Titans, directed by Boaz Yakin, is a movie that all college students need to watch.  Not only is it a phenomenal sports movie, but there are a lot of life lessons that can be learned from it as well.  The film informs its viewers about racism and the civil rights movement of the sixties and seventies.  It also shows what it takes to overcome obstacles and become one.

Remember the Titans, takes place in the early 1970’s.  This was a time when racism was at its peak and a time when African Americans were striving to become equals to their white counterparts.  T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia is where this movie takes place.  In years before, it had been an all white school.  With a new law in place, a young African American man named Julius attends T.C. Williams for the first time ever.  He is not alone, many others just like him, find the urge to get an education as well.  Julius and his friends had to face pain, threats and feelings of worthlessness just to attend school.  College students everywhere should watch this movie, because it really draws focus on some of the things that African Americans had to go through.  Most college students know a thing or two about the civil rights movement.  Once they see this movie, and are able to visually see what happened.  They will learn a lot more than before. 

This film is about one of the first non-segregated football teams of that time.  It also shows the importance of overcoming obstacles.  T.C. Williams, who at that time is Virginia’s top football program, not only allows African Americans to play on their team, but they also hire a new African American coach.  This causes a lot of hatred towards T.C. Williams.  Summer football camp is upon the new squad and this is the first chance they get to meet each other.  The first week of camp is just hell for the boys and it appeared that it was not going to work out.  Coach Boone, played by Denzel Washington, is not about to give up on his new football team.  Even though he is strongly hated throughout the community, Coach Boone was still able to show his players that skin color did not matter.  Inside they were all the same.  For all American football star, Bertier, and the rest of the white players, putting their racist views behind them was a must.  Julius and his boys had to be willing to trust their new teammates.  This was the only way that this team was going to come together as a family.  Seeing these two very different groups of people go from hating each other, to living together, eating together and playing together was very inspiring.  Sometimes people need to look past things, as unimportant as race, in order to overcome an obstacle.  The real message in Remember the Titans is, go out and accept new challenges.  It does not matter how big or how small the challenge may be, in the end it makes everyone stronger.     

Opposing positions on this film might be.  Isn’t this movie just another one of those sports films, about some team that comes out of nowhere and succeeds?  The answer is no.  This movie is more about building new relationships and learning that people from all walks of life can come together as one.  No matter what stands in their way.  Yes the football team is very good, but above the winning aspect, it portrays everything those boys went through.  All the tough times they encountered individually and as a team.  There were fights, death threats and even a car accident.  None of these, however, were able to stop them short of their goal.

When I look back at my high school, I see it as a present day T.C. Williams.  There are many issues at Minnetonka High School to this day that resemble the issues that went on back in Alexandria, Virginia.  Remember the Titans changed the way I viewed these issues and it will do the same for College student too.  Many of the issues presented in the movie are still around today.  We need to draw more attention to them, so they can be overcome.