Jazz’s Blog

There was a lot of clear segregation in the movie, especially in the beginning. At first, the two groups of players segregated themselves on the bus to the camp, until Coach Boone made them separate into offensive and defensive. Then, at their first football game, the audience even separated themselves by race. And when they were at school, the black students had everyone staring them down making them feel like they don’t belong. When Petey is accused of talking to some white boy’s girlfriend, it becomes a fight between blacks and whites and everyone gets involved.

The thing about it, though, is that the white people (at least in the movie, I’m not sure about real life back then) either try to strictly enforce the segregation, or they are oblivious to the fact that it’s even there. Like Sunshine who tried to bring some of the players from both sides to eat inside a diner, sure of himself that they would all be allowed in regardless of race. He really did seem like he didn’t know what would happen, but it could be because he was from another state entirely. And then Gerry, who tried to fight with Julius on the first day of camp about some poster. I think that he just wanted to start trouble, or make Julius think that he could run the place however he wanted because of his race. But I don’t know for sure.

Filed under: films