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.
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*
why isnt it racist to imply that spike lee would be more objective
(/s)
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.
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.
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.
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...
Exactly. The Democrat game plan for the past 150 years.
Hmmm. Stereotyping profiling bigotry on display.
a la There are NO snappy, sharp-tongued Southern black women?
It seems pretty stupid to judge a movie by its trailer.
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. :)
Interesting site.
3.1 on ‘Clarity.’ She’s clearly a socialist, LOL!
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?
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.
She could write a book about a black family adopting a down and out white kid anytime she wants.
“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.
It's been done.
Typical racist liberals.
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