Sports Pages #13

     When we watch movies, films and documentaries such as Hoop Dreams, The Blind Side and Remember the Titans, African American athletes continually are depicted in the same manner. Constantly films as the above mentioned highlight lives of marginalized African American athletes living in inner cities with little to no resources. Sports act as the way out, “the path to righteousness” for these teens instead of their predestined paths to the streets and hustling. Constantly sports such as football and basketball in particular serve as “saviors” for these boys who would otherwise have no other way out. The problem with these portrayals is the very fact that young African American boys and girls are growing up taking in these messages, that somehow their culture is innately inferior, incompetent, and destined for destruction. Often times the African American culture is over exaggerated and presented in racial stereotypes.

     Let’s take for example the movie The Blind Side, where Sandra Bullock’s role in the movie is the savior of a poor abandoned black teen, Mike. In his character we can see both similarities, but I argue there are also a lot of differences that the boys in the documentary Hoop Dreams. Although all three boys come from limited families and backgrounds, both of the boys have their parents however Mike is shown alone, in despair and need of “salvation”. Hollywood portrayals of the African American athlete create damaging images for the Black communities in America, accepting and believing such portrayals will preserve the myth of race.