The movie Blind Side is a film summarizing the start of Michael Oher’s football career and background. The story depicted the intersection of two very different realities. Michael Oher, a young black boy, born into the world of a drug addict mom, a runaway father, foster homes, and a gang infested neighborhood. Leigh Ann Tuohy, a blonde white woman, lives the American dream, a lavish life many people dream of.
A scene that stuck out to me was the poem Michael wrote when he changed schools. It was called White Walls and it quoted “I look around me and everything is white. White walls, white paper, and a whole lot of white people.” Michael was not able to voice the feelings he felt about his current situation of moving somewhere where he felt out of place, so instead he wrote. He wrote as though he felt that he did not even recognize his own reflection. Who was Michael and what was his purpose here?
Michael experienced a plethora of micro aggressions at this new, predominantly white, high school. The movie shows most of these racist comments coming from Michael’s own teachers. For example, a teacher listened to his letter pouring his heart out about the struggles of being a black student at this particular school and the only comment he has about said letter was if any of it was spelled correctly. This is injustice that occurs regularly in the American school system: giving up on minority children that never even had the chance to start.
Michael faced many issues throughout his upbringing. Even things as simple as being unable to do his own laundry. This is a problem many children face that most privileged people would be unable to fathom. Kids from lower class backgrounds frequently miss school for fear of being bullied for smelling bad to their classmates due to their lack of access to washing machines and bathing resources. This work inspires many from more privileged backgrounds to consider the struggles, prejudice, and racism that children from lower class black communities face, especially when being transferred to white areas.
