Remember the Titans

Overcoming Prejudice to Unite for a Common Cause

Using Social Psych Principles for Conflict Resolution

By Jason Baddley15 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

Prejudice – Many Sources

CONFLICT

Social Dilemmas

“Separate but Equal” Inherently Unequal

SegregationTo Integration

Just World Attribution

Social AttitudesTime and Place

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.

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.

Prejudice – Mandatory Integration

CONFLICT

Three High Schools in Alexandria Virginia Become one Integrated High School and two segregated Jr. High schools

Social Dilemmas

Francis HammondJunior High

T.C. Williams High School

George WashingtonJunior 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.

Home Home of the of the TitansTitans

Home Home of the of the TitansTitans

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

Vs.

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.

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

Social Dilemmas

Boone as Head Coach

With already high tension among everyone at T.C., Boone as head coach creates an uproar in the school

Vs.

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.Actual 1971 Coaching Staff

CONFLICT

Social Dilemmas

Segregation and Competition

Though supposedly integrated, the players are still very much segregated; this time not by court order but by personal choice

First C -

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

Social Dilemmas

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.

CONFLICT

Social Dilemmas

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).

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.

CONFLICT

Social Dilemmas

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.

Hoping for Solutions

PEACEMAKING

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.

Resolution

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

The Four C’s

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

Contact

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

Cooperation

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

Cooperation

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

Cooperation

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

Conciliation

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

Communication

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.

PEACEMAKING

On to Victory

“Remember the Titans” is Simplistic

THE FINAL WORD

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 feel-good 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.

Simplification