Remember the Titans

In Remember the Titans two groups of teenage football players struggle to adapt to their new integrated environment. The black and white students are thrust under the leadership of a new, black, Coach Boone who makes his first goal to get the students to work together despite their differences, through football. Coach Boone first tries to establish that he will treat no player better or worse based on race but that they are all under him and the other coaches. The students work through their differences throughout the story in humorous, dramatic, and difficult ways. The film also reflects the racial tensions of the time.

I would like to focus on the hostile part of the relationship between Julius Campbell, a black student, and Bill Garnier, a white student. Bill Garnier and Julius Campbell have been chosen as roommates and once in the room Garnier is quick to decide with bed is his and which is Campbell’s. This is obviously due to the superiority Garnier believes he has over Julius but when Julius hangs a poster of the black men who have gold medals Garnier tells him to take it down. The reason Garnier tells him this isn’t simply because of an control issue but because of what we discussed in Johnson PPD 2. The poster is unsettling to Garnier’s way of life and challenges the privilege he has because he is white.

Later, on the field, Garnier actually tries to set up a form of segregation in terms of plays and he does that by saying “Have your boys do what you do and don’t worry about us, we’ll do our jobs.” What he is doing here is basically dismissing the black students and making it seem as though they don’t count. This is a big deal because a friend of Garnier is actually not doing his job and Garnier has placed an importance on the race instead of who can do the job the best. This is similar to what happens in the Ethics of Jim Crowe where the author is basically show that because of his skin he will never actually get the training he thought he would at the beginning.

There comes a point when Julius and Garnier have to get to know one another because of an assignment by Coach Boone. They have obvious tension but the first thing out of Garnier’s mouth is “Let's see. What's your daddy's name? I mean, you do have a daddy right?” Julius responds with a name, then Garnier says, “And what's he do? Wait, he does have a job, right?” The scene ends there but another interesting point from Johnson PPD 2 is raised and that is about how white male privilege somehow entitles them to have control over a conversation.

We of course see that later they have a fantastic friendship but that is mostly dependant on Garnier’s acceptance of Julius and not the other way around. For me this still encourages a form of white dominance over the African American. While it is not the lynching and hangings we saw in the south through the class videos but a reestablishment of a master slave relationship. That the black became docile and obedient much like the large Mammy’s, Sambo’s, and Uncle’s only in a much more camouflaged polished state.