My Chosen Piece

Society tends to create labels; labels that say what group you "belong" in. You may be labeled by the way you dress, who you associate with, and even where you're from. Some labels given can effect whether you are part of the "in" crowd or the outcast. When made to feel like an outcast, whether we are black or we are white, we all may feel angry, and hide in denial for a term, but at some point realize that there is no reason for it and in turn, accept it. It doesn't matter if it's for whom we are, how we choose to live, or even how we come off to others, we all at one point feel like an outcast. Remember The Titans is a film that lets us in on both sides of this social spectrum, and allows us to draw our own conclusions in determining what's right and wrong.


The film Remember the Titans is set in the era where America was forced to adjust to an interracial society, a society where the main focus was to exile African Americans from the rest of society for their color. This is shown in many instances with Julius. For example when Gerry and Julius are forced to learn about each other Gary starts off by saying, "Listen, I'm Gerry, you're Julius. Let's just get some particulars and get this over with." Then Julius responds, "Particulars? Man, no matter what I tell you, you ain't never gonna know nothing about me." Because of experience and education, the two automatically hate each other and cast one another away. This shows the attitude from the white's perspective as well as the attitude from the person who has been cast out from everything all his life. There is one character that outwardly displays his position on the racial issues and that is Colonel William G. Bass, "Sunshine's" father. When they are discussing the team with the coaches he has this to say, "Well, I met Coach Taber. He won't let blacks play on his team. The way I see it, if these boys can fight a war together, they can play football together." He stood out when he said that because as anyone who has seen the film knows, Ronnie "Sunshine" Bass and his father are both white.


Aside from its many references to color discrimination, the film also presents us with a glimpse of sexual discrimination. When the team is at camp and Ronnie Bass shows up they automatically label him as a "fruit-cake" because of the length of his hair and start laughing at him. Now, Ronnie somewhat skips his anger and jumps to getting back at his "tormentors" when he throws the football and hits Gerry square in the back. Later on in the film, the guys are cruzin' the town and "Sunshine" decides they should go into a restaurant and eat. Well, him, "Rev" and Blue Stanton are told that they don't serve their kind at that establishment. Ronnie tries reasoning with the guy and he gets more sexually offensive comments thrown his way. They all left and Ronnie couldn't understand why he was outcast from the other people. That experience seemed to give him a glimpse into how the other guys on the team were treated for their color.

To be an outsider or to feel like an outsider is to feel different or not wanted. Everyday we are faced with opportunities that force us to choose between how we make others feel. Some choose to outcast others because they don't feel they are as important as them. Others might not like any situation that gives them that choice, but they deal with it and hide their opinions and differences. Then there are those that work through it and discover that there is no difference, there is no black or white, no gay or straight, just people. A good example of that comes up at the end of the feature when Coach Yoast tells Coach Boone, "I know football, and what you did with those boys. You were the right man for the job, Coach!" Overall there is no reason to outcast and label each other because we are all just people living in the same world. The only unfortunate thing is that between human nature and society, we will never see that perfect world.