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Community Columnist: Blinded by 'The Blind Side'(Barf Alert)
Journalstar.com ^ | 5-28-2010 | Kay Siebler

Posted on 05/30/2010 4:12:53 AM PDT by stan_sipple

For the reader who has no frame for "The Blind Side," it is a football movie where a snappy, sharp-tongued Southern woman (played by Sandra Bullock) rescues a black boy from his miserable life and creates of him, a la "My Fair Lady," a star athlete.

"What do you think," I asked my young plebeians, "the writers and directors of ‘The Blind Side' are trying to persuade you of?"

I told them to watch the trailer, and I wanted them to note the stereotypes of African-Americans. I turned on the projector, and away we went. The trailer is only 21/2 minutes long, but after my students saw it once, we filled the board with almost 15 racist stereotypes.

Oher is a lineman for the Baltimore Ravens. When asked if he was going to see the film, he told the Baltimore Sun that he was "not in a hurry to see it." Recently, that same newspaper reported that Oher is now writing his autobiography because he didn't particularly like how he was portrayed in the film.

What would the "true story" of Oher's life look like if Spike Lee, our country's premier African-American director, made the film? What will the "true story" be when Oher tells it himself? Will it be about a white woman who "saves" a poor, simple-minded, black youth?

Ultimately, "The Blind Side" reinforces the cultural myth that whites are the saviors of African-Americans. Whites love this myth because it makes us feel like heroes. We believe it because it relieves us from examining our own latent or overt racism.


TOPICS: Society; Sports; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: michaeloher; sandrabullock; theblindside
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1 posted on 05/30/2010 4:12:53 AM PDT by stan_sipple
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To: stan_sipple

Oh, for Pete’s Sake!

I guess I may as well stop doing anything good for ANYONE in society because I’m going to be labeled a racist no matter how much good I do. *SHRUG*


2 posted on 05/30/2010 4:15:56 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save the Earth. It's the only planet with Chocolate.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

why isnt it racist to imply that spike lee would be more objective


3 posted on 05/30/2010 4:18:23 AM PDT by stan_sipple
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
When they're down just kick 'em to the curb ~ clear the sidewalks!

(/s)

4 posted on 05/30/2010 4:19:24 AM PDT by muawiyah ("Git Out The Way")
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To: stan_sipple

Our’s is a multi racial family. We have inter married, and my daughters have adopted from other nations, as well as children who do ‘fostering’. They call is ‘eclectic’. Until we get ‘over the fact’, that it just happens sometimes that some white people made different choices. Obviously the gal, the STAR in the movie was not the Michael, but the lady that put her finger in his face and told him he better make the ‘cut’, or he was outta here. I think Booker T. Washington would have approved, and so would have Frederick Douglass. W.E.B. DeBois of the NAACP would have called it a bad movvie. Leigh Anne, crossed her peers by doing something her $18 a plate salad lovers couldn’t do. Made me want to move to Memphis. I hope the movie didn’t strain Michael’s relationship with his adopted family.


5 posted on 05/30/2010 4:20:16 AM PDT by rovenstinez
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To: stan_sipple
Kay Siebler - a local hot-headed feminist - divides her time between St. Joseph, Mo., where she directs the writing program at Missouri Western State University, and Lincoln, where she and her 5-year-old tap-dancing, sleuthing sidekick call home.

So, is did she adopt, use a "donor" or a turkey baster?

According to some comments on "Rate My Professors" she's clearly a deranged liberal.

6 posted on 05/30/2010 4:21:05 AM PDT by raybbr (Someone who invades another country is NOT an immigrant - illegal or otherwise.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
The Touey’s are a prominent family in our town.

Michael Oher is not a simple minded boy from the hood. The racist issue is with the author of this junk piece. It's all about keeping the slaves down on the plantation instead of helping them to be great citizens.

7 posted on 05/30/2010 4:23:19 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek (ue)
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To: Coldwater Creek
I watched a movie recently that left me with the same feeling. The Stolen Summer. ‘If we accept “dirty money” from Jews we Catholics will be admitting that they are better than us’. Not even sure it was necessary for the movie's story, and left me feeling embarrassed. Won't recommend it.
8 posted on 05/30/2010 4:41:07 AM PDT by grame (May you know more of the love of God Almighty in the coming year)
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To: stan_sipple
"The Blind Side," it is a football movie where a snappy, sharp-tongued Southern woman ....rescues a black boy from his miserable life

Isn't that phrasing just a tad-racists? - right from jump street of this article.

I considered the character a black teenager - not a 'black boy'...my, how the liberals are liberal with their selective wording....almost as if he's inflicting subliminal racism into the movie by the choice of words used in the article...

9 posted on 05/30/2010 4:47:47 AM PDT by libertarian27 (Ingsoc: Department of Life, Department of Liberty, Department of Happiness)
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To: Coldwater Creek
It's all about keeping the slaves down on the plantation instead of helping them to be great citizens.

Exactly. The Democrat game plan for the past 150 years.

10 posted on 05/30/2010 4:53:18 AM PDT by darkangel82 (I don't have a superiority complex, I'm just better than you.)
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To: stan_sipple
For the reader who has no frame for "The Blind Side," it is a football movie where a snappy, sharp-tongued Southern woman (played by Sandra Bullock) rescues a black boy from his miserable life and creates of him, a la "My Fair Lady," a star athlete.

Hmmm. Stereotyping profiling bigotry on display.

a la There are NO snappy, sharp-tongued Southern black women?

11 posted on 05/30/2010 4:53:48 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedys: Can't fly, can't ski, can't drive, can't skipper a boat, but they know what's best.)
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To: stan_sipple

It seems pretty stupid to judge a movie by its trailer.


12 posted on 05/30/2010 4:53:54 AM PDT by jocon307 (It's the spending, stupid.)
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To: Coldwater Creek

Glad to hear it! Every interview I’ve seen with the ‘real’ Mrs. T. has shown her to be a really stand-up, humble, grateful, sincere, God-fearing woman.

Not much of a movie-goer, but I’m looking forward to seeing this movie now! Going over to Netflix to add it to the queue. :)


13 posted on 05/30/2010 5:05:24 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save the Earth. It's the only planet with Chocolate.)
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To: raybbr

Interesting site.

3.1 on ‘Clarity.’ She’s clearly a socialist, LOL!


14 posted on 05/30/2010 5:07:58 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save the Earth. It's the only planet with Chocolate.)
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To: jocon307

It is very stupid to judge a movie by its trailer. I’d be willing to bet the if anyone asked Michael Oher how he felt about “being adopted” by this family, the word “racist” wouldn’t even be used.

Plus, hello, it was a movie, produced in Hollywood, it had to be sensationalized or it wouldn’t have been as popular as it was. None the less a great movie about how a family saw who helped somebody and it just so happened that the somebody is now a pro football player. How about all those other families that help a kid in a similar situation and, gasp, they become ordinary productive citizens?


15 posted on 05/30/2010 5:13:31 AM PDT by Cyclone59 (I ROCK, Guitar Hero said so........)
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To: stan_sipple

You gotta be kidding me?

I am sure there was some creative license in dialogue, etc. But the white family who took in this kid has to be admired. Where would that kid be today if they hadn’t? Where are the black middle class families doing likewise? There are an awful lot of whites who take in cast off children to raise, whether black or white.

I raised a white child, one of six cast off siblings, never took a penny for her. She is my daughter. Today she is a grown gal of fine character and has published a college text book. She and my natural born children are all of a tight knit extended family group....

I think there is a difference in whether you take in a child for the child’s sake or whether you take the child in to fulfill your self.

The woman took in the child in ‘Blind Side’ strictly for the sake of the child. Not to make a statement or to fulfill some need in herself.


16 posted on 05/30/2010 5:44:29 AM PDT by Dudoight
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To: stan_sipple

She could write a book about a black family adopting a down and out white kid anytime she wants.


17 posted on 05/30/2010 5:44:32 AM PDT by CriticalJ (Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.. But then I repeat myself. MT)
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To: Cyclone59

“How about all those other families that help a kid in a similar situation and, gasp, they become ordinary productive citizens?”

Yes, really. I mean what is this man saying, that white people shouldn’t help black people because that is racist?

I enjoyed the movie very much, and hubby liked it too. It is a good movie because it has enough girly stuff for the girls and enough football for the guys.

Plus, you are quite right, this is a hollywood movie, it is not to be taken as any kind of documentary.

To me the best scene in the picture is when Sandra Bullock is telling the ghetto thugs that she’s a member of the NRA, always carries, and is in a prayer group with the District Attorney. (I paraphrase from memory). And the tough guys are just staring at her, speechless.

That was worth the price of admission, or rather the blockbuster rental fee.

It probably just galls this “teacher” that here was a movie that showed Christians in a good light, as opposed to revealing them as the eeeeevil people he knows they secretly are.


18 posted on 05/30/2010 6:13:05 AM PDT by jocon307 (It's the spending, stupid.)
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To: CriticalJ
She could write a book about a black family adopting a down and out white kid anytime she wants.

It's been done.

19 posted on 05/30/2010 6:18:42 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim (Live jubtabulously!)
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To: stan_sipple

Typical racist liberals.


20 posted on 05/30/2010 6:19:29 AM PDT by Hazwaste (Democrats are like slinkies. Only good for pushing down stairs.)
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