Remember the Titans
Overcoming Prejudice
to Unite for a Common
Cause
Using Social Psych Principles for Conflict Resolution
By Jason Baddley
15 July 2005
RTT and Social Psych
Introduction
The Main focus of this presentation is
not to outline the plot of this movie
but to identify principles of Social
Psychology laden within its context.
RTT and Social Psych
Major Principles Dealt With
Conflict
Social Dilemmas
Perceived Injustice
Competition
Misperception
Peacemaking
Contact
Cooperation
Conciliation
Communication
CONFLICT
Prejudice – Many Sources
One of the social dilemmas the
film deals with is prejudice.
Many factors combined to make
up the prejudice seen at the
beginning of the film. Though
overstated for plot a, the world of
1971 in Virginia still held many
prejudicial views.
“Separate but Equal”
Inherently Unequal
Social Attitudes
Time and Place
Just World Attribution
Segregation
To Integration
CONFLICT
Prejudice – Mandatory Integration
Three High Schools in Alexandria Virginia Become one
Integrated High School and two segregated Jr. High schools
Home
of the
Titans
T.C. Williams
High School
George Washington
Junior High
Francis Hammond
Junior High
Though the movie is somewhat inaccurate in
how integration happened, even with
exaggerated racial attitudes and loose history
accuracy, RTT does show the effects of
prejudice on group dynamics and effective
ways of uniting different groups.
CONFLICT
Perceived Injustice
Combining Schools means combining faculty and coaching staffs – Coach
Boone is chosen to be the Head Coach based primarily on the color of his
skin – this is the ironic effect of swinging the pendulum to find racial equity
Coach Boone is a fairly
successful coach from
North Carolina. He is
somewhat less experienced
but is determined and
powerful. By his own
admittance he did not want
to take the job. He had
been denied a job for race
and so he thought much
less of this offer. He only
took the position because of
rallying support by
neighbors and friends to
take it.
Vs.
Coach Yoast is a highly
successful coach and
beloved in Alexandria. He
seemed a sure win for
head coach. When not
given the job already high
tension about integration
surged. He is instead
offered an assistant
position. He is offered
several head coaching
jobs elsewhere but stays
on at the behest of his
white players who threaten
to not play without him
there.
CONFLICT
Boone as Head Coach
With already high tension among everyone at T.C., Boone
as head coach creates an uproar in the school
Although Coach Yoast stays on as an
assistant, he can’t help but feel a sense of
injustice by not being picked as head
coach.
This is the backdrop for the movie’s plot.
Prejudice is running rampant and tension
is thick, yet football must go on.
The Challenge is to get from hateful
opposing groups who see each other as
threats to a united football team ready to
take on opponents and win ball games.
Vs.
Actual 1971 Coaching Staff
CONFLICT
Segregation and Competition
First C -
Though supposedly integrated, the players are still very much
segregated; this time not by court order but by personal choice
Even when integrated most Whites associate
with Whites and Blacks with Blacks. An added
element is seen with the football players,
when two teams merge, competition for
positions on the new team is suddenly
created. This adds greatly to the conflict of the
situation, especially when it is perceived that
race will play a greater role than ability in the
fight for positions.
CONFLICT
Competition and Misperception
With conflict among players heightened
by the threat of losing starting position
based on race and not on performance,
a sense of individualism is increased.
Instead of working as a team individuals
fight each other for the spotlight. Helping
the team comes second to ensuring
one’s own spot.
Mistrust among players makes it difficult to allow for good social exchange.
That is, “when you get the ball you’re on your own, I’m not blocking for you
because I don’t think you will block for me.” This attitude prevails because
players misjudge the other players in virtually the same way (mirror-image
effect).
CONFLICT
Handling Misperception
Some psychologists note that perception
can be more important than reality in how
people handle themselves. For Ray Budds,
the perception is that integration cannot
work. Prejudice is a driving force behind his
hostile actions – to the point that he refuses
to help any one of his Black teammates, on
or of the field. The result of such
misperceptions is he eventually gets kicked
off the team.
Although others have a similar misperception as Ray at the beginning of
the film, their perceptions change as they handle conflict with resolution.
Understanding, tolerance, and teamwork help correct misperceptions.
PEACEMAKING
Hoping for Solutions
The coaches see beyond the
misperceptions and aim for
unity despite initial problems.
They see the mistrust among
Black and White players and
know that it must be resolved
in order to win football games.
Coach Boone believes the key
to building the team lies in a
Marine style football camp.
Contact and cooperation
become the uniting forces.
PEACEMAKING
The Bus Trip to Hell
Setting a demanding precedent, Coach Boone puts defense on
one bus and offense on another, forcing again the players’
integration. Once at camp he uses some techniques familiar to
Social Psychologists to help build unity.
PEACEMAKING
Breaking Down by Familiarity
First he builds familiarity between Black and White students
by imposing interracial roommate rules and by quizzing the
players about their roommates in order to facilitate the
breaking down of prejudice and racial barriers.
Social Psychologists have often found that mere contact with
someone from another group can breakdown misperceptions
and barriers. Knowing a person well from another group
may help us look at the whole group differently.
PEACEMAKING
Breaking Down by Pain
Boone uses another technique in Social Psychology. He creates an
enemy out of himself by demanding physical perfection and
discipline through pain. As the team focuses more on their angst
against their coach they will be more likely to rely on each other to
get through the pain. WWII saw two unlikely allies in the US and
Russia, but given a common enemy the result is often unification for
increased chance of victory.
PEACEMAKING
Uniting for a Common Goal
During this boot camp phase, the team must break down and
realize that each individual is needed to accomplish a greater
purpose. When each player is treated the same by coaches,
players begin to realize that they are all playing under the same
rules and misperceptions about injustice start to fade. Relentless
practices far into the night to “get it right” force the players to
either cooperate or never sleep. This creates a basis for tension
to lift while players unite.
PEACEMAKING
Unification for a Common Goal
These scenes at camp
duplicate Muzafer Sherif’s
findings in unifying the boy
scout rival groups (which he
created). Sherif found that to
bridge rival groups you must
unify them for a common
purpose and make sure they
succeed together at it.
Boone’s Football camp does
the job of helping the players
unify and win a major battle,
in this case much of their own
prejudice.
PEACEMAKING
Finally someone Bends
Gerry Burtier is the first to make a small
concession. He does this by getting
angry at a white player for missing a
block. This is portrayed as the breaking
point to the social blockade. From this,
Black players move toward conciliation
by making their own small concessions.
Another major breaking point is when,
after many moves for unity by both
groups, Gerry kicks Ray (a former close
friend) off the team because Ray is
unwilling to conciliate.
PEACEMAKING
After Camp Adjustments
Applying the lessons learned at camp
becomes one of the greatest hardships for
the team as they realize that the world
has not changed as much as they have.
Though great progress has been made, it
becomes difficult to remain united under
the prejudiced views heating up all around
them. Communication becomes the key to
continued unity. This happens with the
team getting together without coaches to
mediate concerns and find solutions.
PEACEMAKING
Unification beyond Football
Once the team is able to
overcome stirring pressure on
the home front to “stick with
their own kind”, the Titans go
on to achieve great success on
the field as well as off. The
success breeds tolerance,
acceptance, and eventually
successful integration.
Unification spreads to not only
the school but the whole city of
Alexandria as the Titans win
the State championship.
THE FINAL WORD
“Remember the Titans” is Simplistic
In the end, this story is extremely simplistic and overtly
idealistic. However, many of its fundamental themes are
true to the principles of Social Psychology. The feelgood spirit of a movie like this is refreshing in today’s
violent society, in truth however, the story skipped much
of the more graphic and violent events that
accompanied the actual Titans. Racial slurs were
replaced with “mama” jokes, hates crimes simplified
into single bricks thrown through windows, etc. For our
world, increasing understanding and uniting groups will
take a lot more than a couple weeks at camp and a
winning season. RTT however, does show many
principles that may help us along the way.