Remember The Titans Rhetorical Analysis

Remember the Titans: A Theoretical Analysis
Rameca Leary
Regent University Ph.D. Program
Communication and the Arts, Charleston
Email: [e-mail]
ABSTRACT
This paper addresses a pivotal time in American history, when a 1971 Supreme Court mandate required southern school districts to end segregation (Daugherity, 2011). In Alexandria, Virginia, the merger of three rival high schools yielded a racially diverse football team and coaching staff. Beforehand, blacks and whites had their own schools. Many wondered how the new T.C. Williams Titans football team would fare. This paper takes an in-depth look at the film, Remember the Titans, which is based on this story. It analyzes the film using Gordon Allport’s
(1954) Intergroup Contact Theory
When people fail to interact with others from different ethnicities or cultures, a fear of the unknown can prevail
(Crisp & Turner, 2009). One theorist who explored this issue extensively was Gordon Allport. In 1954, he introduced Intergroup Contact Theory (ICT) to argue that contact and interaction between members of different identified groups must be present to recognize similarities and gain knowledge of “the other” (Massey & Hodson,
1999, p. 669). In Remember the Titans, confronting racial adversity helped the team overcome numerous obstacles. Therefore, the focus of this paper will be to explore: (a) Intergroup Contact Theory’s major concepts;
(b) its applicability to communication; (c) provide a theoretical film analysis; (d) examine the Titans’ legacy; (e) and address ideas for further research.
Intergroup Contact Theory: Major Concepts
Intergroup Contact Theory sheds light on the issue that communication barriers and the absence of knowledge can lead to ignorance. This, in turn, “makes a person easy prey to rumor, suspicion, and stereotyping” (Matusitz,
2012, p. 93). Allport (1954) attested that prejudice is a direct result of generalizations or
Ellison and Powers (1994) found that black students who developed close friendships with whites held more positive views, compared to blacks who had not developed such friendships at all.
Weaknesses
Although Intergroup Contact theory has received much attention and empirical support (Jackman & Crane,
1986), it still has critics. Dixon, Durrheim, and Tredoux (2007) argued ICT sounded great on paper, but “in principle, a majority can believe in racial justice, but in implementation, they are unwilling to create policies to change racial disparity” (p. 871). Forbes (1997) argued the level of analysis appeared to influence the results rather than the conditions of contact. Dixon, Durheim, & Tredoux (2005) stressed that limited research involving other races (e.g., Hispanics and Asians) indicated ICT needed to be refined to explore how it affects groups other than white Americans.
Intergroup Contact Theory: Film Analysis
It was the summer of 1971, and with the fall semester just a few weeks away, Alexandria, Virginia, residents braced themselves for the dawn of a new era. Black and white students would be playing on the same football team. Remember the Titans chronicled the events on the big screen, but Allport’s (1954) Intergroup