Boaz Yakin Remember the Titans: The Experience of Segregation1. The movie Remember the Titans, directed by Boaz Yakin, was first released on September

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1 1 Raven Laibstain Dr. Guler ENGL Oct Boaz Yakin Remember the Titans: The Experience of Segregation1 The movie Remember the Titans, directed by Boaz Yakin, was first released on September 23, This movie is based on a true story and its goal is to make the viewers reflect on the Battle of Gettysburg, issues of segregation/desegregation, sit-ins which get turned into sit-outs, and gay rights. Figure 1: Opening scene the title of the movie is shown (1:00). The movie maker wants his audience to know what happened in Alexandria, Virginia during the early 70 s and why it was such an important moment in American history. Remember the Titans, opens with the following screen caption: up until 1971 in Alexandria there was no race mixing. Then the school board forced us to integrate. They combined the white school with the black school into one called T.C. Williams High School (0:41). This movie is mostly about a high school that becomes integrated and the students Figure 2: This video clip is the quote on the right, which is used in the opening of the movie (0:41). 1 MLA format must learn to accept each other and

2 2 to not judge each other based on the color of their skin. The purpose of this rhetorical artifact is to educate people about the significant moments that took place in American history and learn how the high school student s mindsets about segregation changed throughout the movie. Remember the Titans tackles with many significant issues, but the one that stands out the most is segregation/desegregation. This is proven when two schools, one black and one white combine, but the students always get into fights with each other. Segregation becomes a problem when dealing with the T.C. Williams High School s football team. The white students don t want the blacks to join their football team, which results in the students staying segregated for a period of time. The coaches don t let this continue, so they make the players get to know each other. They do this by making the players pair up with someone of a different race and get to know their background, which then gets reported back to their coaches. This movie is a great way to visualize the issue of segregation/desegregation that took place in Alexandria, Virginia. The film shows how bad the process of integrated schools was and the hatred behind it. Aristotelian appeals of rhetoric The rhetorical artifact, Remember the Titans, utilizes Aristotle s rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos to communicate an inspiring motive. Ethos can be defined as credibility or the character of the speaker; more completely, it is the character of a rhetor performed in the rhetorical act and known by the audience because of prior interactions (Palczewski, Ice, Fritch 167). Ethos is discussed in this movie when the football coach, Coach Boone, shows his credibility over his football players. He teaches the players how to work together as a team and makes sure that they become great athletes. Coach Boone also establishes credibility when he brings the players to the battle field where Gettysburg was fought and men had died. The next artifact is pathos which leads the audience to feel emotions (Palczewski, Ice, Fritch 15). Pathos plays a role in this

3 3 movie when the football players get to know each other and by the end of the movie, they re like a family. They no longer judge each other based on their skin color and the team makes everyone feel equally important and unique in their own way. Logos relies on argument itself, by showing or seeming to show something 2 (Palczewski, Ice, Fritch 15). Logos occurs in this rhetorical artifact at the scene when Coach Boone shows his players where the Battle of Gettysburg took place and stated: fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fighting the same fight that we are still fighting amongst ourselves today (41:28). Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are all significant appeals that play an important role in this rhetorical artifact. Power, identification, and culture For this rhetorical analysis, the best Figure 3: This video is from a scene where Coach Boone states the quote listed above about the Battle of Gettysburg (41:28). concepts to describe this movie are power, identification, and culture. It is useful to analyze the text through these concepts because throughout this movie, there are some very powerful scenes that take place which relate to each concept. These can relate to events that have happened around the world, which is part of America s history. The concept of power plays an important role in this rhetorical artifact. The ability to have power in this movie is significant and is needed to be successful. The football coaches have the most power in this artifact, but also the school board had power too when they decided to combine a white and black school together. Identification plays a role in this movie because each person has their own identity and background. Not everyone is alike and this is shown in the movie when the people are desegregated 2 Aristotle, On Rhetoric, 1.2 [1356a-60, italics added.

4 4 and they don t want to deal with anyone of another race. Culture is the last concept that plays an important role in this movie. An example of culture relating to this movie is that not all of the students grew up the same. Depending on a person s culture and family background, it can be different from others, whether it is related to the religion that someone observes or their beliefs and values. These concepts are important and are shown throughout the movie, which gives the audience a better understanding of what this movie is truly about. Interpretation Power, identification, and culture are some important concepts that are used to analyze this artifact. Even though these can be similar in a way, they are defined differently than each other. Power is something that someone can have and they aren t born with it like identification and culture. Power is the ability that someone has to work for and earn that right to have. Identification is something that you re born with and can be described as what you look like for instance your hair color, eye color, skin color, etc. An individual s identity is something that is important and no one should tell you differently. Lastly, culture is something that gets passed down from generation to generation. It is something that a person usually believes in and the way that they were raised. Culture runs differently in everyone s families and that shouldn t be an issue that occurs in the world. People can believe in whatever they want to believe in and no one should tell them differently. In this movie, these concepts play a role that shows how important power, identification, and culture are. It doesn t matter what the color of your skin color is, your background, or how much power you have. The only thing that matters is that those students are humans and shouldn t be fighting based on the color of your skin. The examples of power, identification, and culture all play a role important role in this rhetorical artifact. Power and ethos appeal

5 5 One way to qualify this movie is the concept of power which is the ability to get things done (Palczewski, Ice, Fritch 27) which plays a significant role in this movie. Power can also be described as a social phenomenon: people have power in relation to others (Palczewski, Ice, Fritch 27). Power occurs in this film when the football team must be integrated and Coach Boone makes his players get to know someone from the opposite race. This is shown towards the beginning of the movie when Coach Boone realizes that the players are divided based on the color of their skin. The black players are on one bus, while the white players are on another. Coach Boone doesn t allow this, so he pairs one black player and one white player with each other. The plays become roommates and have to get to know each other. Coach Boone has the power to do this, since he is in charge and his players have to listen to what he says. Once the team got to know each other and the problems of race wasn t as controversial, then they started practicing football. The power eventually shows at the end of the football season when the team becomes like a family and they win the championship game. They didn t care what the color of their skin was anymore. The players became like brothers and came together to get done what needed to get done. Power can be described as an example of the ethos appeal. Ethos is credibility that an individual has or is trying to earn. Power is related to the ethos when Coach Boone talks with his players and they respect him by listening to what he has to say. Coach Boone holds the power of deciding who the starters are of the football games, so all the players pay attention to what he says hoping that they will start. Having power holds a lot of responsibility, and that is why a coach for example has power over their players. They are the ones who get to decide when to use the power they have and how to make their decisions effectively. For example, since Coach Boone has power over his players, he gets to decide which position each player plays and how much time they play during a game. This is important because coaches always have more power over their players and

6 6 for the students to play football they must listen to their coach. Identification and pathos appeal In the Rhetoric in Civic Life, identification is a communicative process through which people are unified into a whole on the basis of common interests or characteristics 3 (page 8). Identification plays an important role in this movie which involves someone s race and cultural issues. Race was a big problem that occurred in the 1970 s, which was the period that this movie was based. Blacks and whites identity was important to them and they didn t want anything to do with people of the opposite race. Someone s personal identity is important to cherish, but people should be accepting to others of different races. As we eventually see in this movie, the black and white football players stop discriminating against each other and become a family. The white students at the school as well become more accepting of the black students. Their identification and skin color was no longer an issue by the end of the film. The concept of identification can be related to the appeal of pathos. Pathos is the appeal that makes the audience feel some sort of emotion. Someone s identification can deal with pathos, because the football players have to be willing to accept each other s identity for who they are as an individual. If someone doesn t accept you as a person, then that can hurt someone s feelings. The one thing that all the black and white players have in common are that they love to play football. That part of their identity is important to them and something that they share with the rest of the group. Since they all share that identity, they re willing to work together, put the color of their skin behind, and become a successful football team. Culture and logos appeal The last concept used in this rhetorical artifact is culture, which is: 3 Burke, A Rhetoric, 20

7 7 composed of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religions, conceptions of time, social roles, worldviews, myths, and even the material possessions or artifacts acquired by a group of people, the meanings of which are transmitted through symbols (Palczewski, Ice, Fritch 23). People have different types of cultures depending on where they are from or the environment where their family grew up. In this movie, black and white students have different backgrounds and have lived different lifestyles. Culture in this movie is discussed when the students must get to know each other and their family history. I think that it was important that the coach made the players get to know each other and someone from another race. Culture in this movie has a lot of meaning, value, and purpose. We see this occur in the movie several times and how it causes arguments when someone talks about the others race. The black students stand up for themselves and don t let the white students tell them what to do. Their culture is meaningful to them and they wouldn t change it because that s who they are as an individual. Culture can be connected to the appeal of logos, because they both deal with logic or information. Culture deals more with an individual and what they believe in, whereas logos are facts or showing something important to someone. The scene in the movie where Coach Boone wakes up his players at 3a.m. for a morning run. While they re running, they stop at the battle field where The This image is of when Coach Boone is at the battle field where The Battle of Gettysburg took place (41:28). Battle of Gettysburg took place, which has a significant amount of value to it. It is a part of American history and is important for

8 8 everyone to know what happened during this battle. This scene consists of logos when Coach Boone explains the importance behind the battle and he also indicates the culture side when explaining the meaning of the battle that occurred. Implications The overall purpose of the rhetorical artifact, Remember the Titans is to educate people about the significant moments that took place in American history. This movie consists of events that have been a part of American history such as The Battle of Gettysburg and segregation/desegregation. Those are historical events that are very important that took place in America and were discussed about in this movie. The effect that this rhetorical artifact has on people is to make everyone aware of what happened back in the 1970s. It is part of American history and was a time that was significant. The main idea of the artifact is to make others aware of the time period and what happened in everyday life. Whites and blacks didn t share anything including bathrooms, water fountains, schools, etc. Until this movie, T.C. Williams High School occurred this way. It was an all-white school, until the school board made it available for black students to attend as well. That s when the process of segregating the blacks and whites became a problem because they didn t get along. Even though Remember the Titans was mostly about a football team coming together as one, segregation was still an issue. The players learned to put race aside to become the best football team. It wasn t an easy process for the coaches to make the white and black students work together, but they unified as one big team and put race behind. The T.C. Williams High School football team ended up winning the championship football game at the end of the season. This wouldn t have been possible if the team didn t work together and put race behind them. This proves that anything can be done if someone puts in the time and effort. These players became like a family

9 and it shows the audience that the color of someone s skin shouldn t affect people s friendship. 9

10 10 Work Cited - Palczewski, Catherine Helen., et al. Rhetoric in civic life. State College, PA, Strata Pub., Remember the Titans. Boaz Yakin. Walt Disney Pictures, Film - Smith, Hawley. The Power of Film: Remember the Titans brehmcenter.com. Brehm Center. 11 Jan Web. 1. Sept