The film 42 is a movie that tells the story of how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball (MLB). In the year 1946 Jackie Robinson became the first African American to become a part of the MLB. Throughout this film, the audience sees how challenging it is to be the only African American in an all white baseball league. Jackie Robinson faces severe racism throughout his life but never backs down or gives up on his goal. This directly relates to the main topics that we have covered throughout this semester as Jackie Robinson was treated poorly due to his skin color. One piece of theoretical work from this course that can be directly related to this film is de Beauvoir’s “othering” theory. This theory addresses the issue of how individuals in society are often treated as an “other” due to them being a part of a misrepresented group, such as African Americans.
Throughout the film 42, Jackie Robinson is clearly treated as an “other” because of his skin color. Jackie Robinson is forced to endure many hardships just because he is trying to accomplish his goal of playing in the MLB. Before Jackie Robinson was signed to play in the MLB there were no African Americans in the league, and they were forced to participate in a different league solely because of their skin color. Many individuals hated the idea of an African American being in the MLB and racially targeted Jackie Robinson with both violence and racist slurs. Jackie Robinson was de Beauvoir’s definition of an “other” in the MLB, making things very hard for Robinson and even at times made his life miserable. For example, Jackie Robinson would often have pitches thrown at his head by opposing teams because they wanted to let him know that African Americans were not welcomed in the MLB. In conclusion, the film 42 incorporates many of the topics that I have seen in this course and is overall a great story where de Beauvoir’s “othering” theory can be highlighted.
