Good Stuff in the movie

1. Good Stuff in the movie • “Big Mike” becomes Michael. • He unites the family and is a good brother. • Finally, at the end, they ask if he even wants to play football. • His brother does attend his graduation from high school. • His story is one of success. • Helping Michael, thus giving back, makes them happy. • They ask him before they become his legal guardians. • The science teacher isn’t as judgmental as the rest.

2. Stereotypes in The Blind Side • Unintelligent and infantilized, but athletically capable black male youth. • Crack addicted mother who struggles with retaining legal custody of her children and getting evicted. • Absent black father. • Lascivious, drug dealing males in the ghetto. • Football dropout who turns to selling drugs. • Angry black woman. • Snobby white ladies who eat salad and fear black males. • Redneck men who “woo hoo” and taunt over football.

3. Stereotypes • The only options for black males in the movie are sports or dealing drugs. • There are no healthy functioning black families. • Physical violence is fetishized, the harder the hit, the wilder the crowd goes. • The white family swoops in and saves a young man from black culture. White patriarchy = good. • Leigh Ann is bossy, controlling, rude to her husband, and references her love of shopping. • The husband is the clear bread winner while she has a fun hobby job that consists of spending other people’s money.

4. The bigger issue • Stereotypes don’t come out of nowhere; they exist for a reason. Without other representations, stereotypes become the assumed norm. • If the film uses so many stereotypes without more positive portrayals of black males as present fathers, husbands, scholars, and academics there is no contrast. The stereotype becomes the truth. • What’s more, black stereotypes are a reflection of the society the exist in. A society that legalized slavery for many years, and more pervasive forms of racism and discrimination that still exist today.

5. Questions that need answering • Why do school’s in urban areas that serve minorities teach so much less and have high drop out rates? • Why are African-Americans concentrated in those poor, urban areas with poor schools and violence? • Why do many young, black males feel that sports or drugs are the only means to a lucrative life? • Why do some teachers assume that minority students are dumb? • Why are minority and poor families more unstable? • Why are minority families disproportionally poor?