The Blind Side-29

I was very skeptical about this one being on the list, a book about football doesn't exactly seem like it should be placed in the curriculum of an English course. Thankfully the book wasn't really about football, it just so happens that the people it was actually about were heavily involved in football.

The book seemed to be split into two topics, and switched between them seemingly at random, which was rather confusing. Sometimes it was about Lawrence Taylor, a football player who was so deadly he revolutionized the NFL's view of offensive linemen and their value to the teams the played for.

The other topic was about Michael Oher, a kid who pretty much embodies the "poor black kid" stereotype. He was one of god only knows how many children, and he lived a nomadic existence, living at a different person's house each night.

The dominant topic was unclear at first, but eventually it is revealed to be Micheal Oher. He was adopted by a rich family, and they turned his life around. It was a real task, Micheal had to go to high-school, but his education would have made a third grader seem like a college graduate in comparison. He also had a learning disability and didn't seem to know how to learn in a classroom setting. It didn't help that his school had only grudgingly accepted him and intended to just let him fail.

The two topics, a football revolution and a black boy becoming an educated member of the rich-white society would seem to be completely unrelated topics, and in most cases they would be. However, Michael Oher weighed over 300 pounds, over 6 feet tall, and he was still as fast as someone half his size. In other words, a born offensive lineman, the position undergoing massive reevaluation in the NFL and college football.

Michael's incredible physique made him a target for pretty much every college offering football scholarships, which enabled him to go to college for free, as well as get other benefits the colleges offered in desperate attempts to influence his decision on which school he would attend. All of the attention probably also earned him a pro football career, though I forget if the book actually ever said he joined the NFL. This is what makes the whole football thing relevant to the main theme of the book.

This book touches on a social issue that's been largely ignored for a long time, we've freed black slaves and given them equality, but it still takes a lot more work for a black person to become successful. All the time spent in oppression has left a lot of blacks in a situation where they have no education, are poor, live in poor neighborhoods, and overall have lifestyles that aren't helping to change any of these things. Some blacks rise above this and become huge successes (Barack Obama is a good example), but many, if not most, blacks simply take the most straightforward path available to them. They join gangs and wind up dead or in jail.

It's not their fault, they live in a situation where that's all they know, public schools are simply white organizations filled with police officers and other things that someone from this background would hate and distrust. It's no wonder that the "gangster" stereotype is practically identical to the "black" stereotype.

There are exceptions to this rule of course, as many people that I meet that fall into the black stereotype, there are some people I have met who are studious, hardworking, intelligent, and black. However, these examples, at least in my experience, have represented a minority. Perhaps a growing minority, but a minority nonetheless.

As for what can be done about this problem, to be perfectly honest I have no clue. I'm a white kid growing up in a pretty good neighborhood. I have parents who stress the value of education, and my family is financially secure enough that I can most certainly get into a college, the prestige of which is dependent on my performance. So anything I could suggest would be practically valueless, since I am incapable of viewing things from the perspective of the ones I would be trying to help.

The only thing I can think of to do is to aid those few blacks who are an exception to the stereotype in every way possible. If they grow up and become successful, then their kids will be on the same level as white kids are now. Those kids can then grow up to be successful as well, and so the cycle would continue, and the minority of successful blacks could become the majority through society's very own natural selection process.

The only other thing to do is to somehow dispel the illusion that every black kid seems to have. That they are, as black kids, so naturally talented at sports that a professional sport career is guaranteed. It may seem ridiculous that this would be a universal view among black kids, since simple logic disproves it. However, from my encounters with black kids and their dreams of being in the NFL or NBA or some other professional sport, it's going to take a lot more than simple logic to get them to accept reality and look at more feasible career options. My high-school football team is awful, they lose every game by large margins, and yet every person on the team is convinced that they are future NFL stars. So apparently we need more than logic and a harsh slap in the face from reality to change this stance, exactly what we need is a mystery to me.

I think that here is a good place to stop, I would just like to provide a disclaimer of sorts before I end. If anyone reading this post is offended by the views presented about blacks, please accept my sincere apologies, I can only draw conclusions from what I have seen, even if what I have seen might not reflect the reality of the rest of the world. I do not in any way intend for views of this post to be racist, and will be happy to be proven wrong at any time by the black community. If you feel that my conclusions are incorrect feel free to say so in comment form, provided you do so in the same academic manner as I have posted the views themselves and provide reasons for your disagreement.

With that done, I bid you all farewell.