Michael Ashton: Welcome to today's webinar.
Life lessons From Remember The Titans presented by Professor Lauren C. Snowden.
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Lauren Snowden: Thank you, Mr.
Ashton. Hello everyone and welcome to this presentation I'm Lauren C. Snowden as was mentioned, and I just think everyone for joining joining us for this awesome month of Black history events.
So this particular presentation is
called Life Lessons From Remember The Titans and I did make available the film for folks to watch. I hope you were able to watch it beforehand, I just wanted to give a tiny plug that
if you weren't able to watch it, I will be showing several clips so there will be some spoilers so just be aware of that.
So I would like to start with
a quote from the writer of the film, next slide please?
Gregory Allen Howard, this is what he said in regards to this movie, "If America sees this movie, maybe now the paradigm will change after 400 years and we won't be trying to do this false crap called
'Let's love each other' - that's never going to happen ever, but let's learn about each other, our differences, respect our differences, and respect each other."
I think this is a powerful statement and is pretty loaded. I think for myself, I feel like this is the bottom of the expectations, right? This is like the bare minimum, that we should be able to respect each other,
but myself I'm a dreamer and I just I have a vision that we can get past just respecting each other and get to this place of love. So anyway, this film has
several life lessons packed into it, that would can be applied to many different situations and that's what we're going to kind of talk about today. Next slide please?
So in my film studies class, a little bit about me, I teach at Film Studies here as a part of the FTMA or the Film Television and Media Arts Program and the classes
range from aesthetic classes to looking at contemporary cultural issues in American cinema, international cinema, but the whole point is to analyze these films and to and to start conversations about many different topics.
In the Introduction to Cinema class one of the things we talked about is narrative form and the hero's journey. So,
this applies to this particular movie because, when we connect with heroes,
we're looking at the people who are impacting the world around them in a significant way. So,
the film that I use to introduce introduce narrative form to my students is The Shawshank Redemption and if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it but Andy DuFresne in that film is a hero who has
had a life changing effect on everyone in the prison where the film takes place.
And it's really easy to connect to him. Red, another character in the film. These are characters who who kind of extend beyond their own experience. And so, in our own life,
we are the hero of our story, and so I think Remember The Titans is a great
piece to look at have several heroes. We this is kind of like an ensemble film and there are several heroes in the movie but and they all have
an impact on this overall story that we're looking at. So in our own life as the heroes of our own story, how are we going to impact the people in our lives? So that's kind of the way that I want to frame the film as we look at it today. Next slide please?
So why Remember The Titans? Well at the very minimum, it's an underdog story, it's super inspiring, and we all love an underdog story, right? So,
but that's just where the film starts that's the beginning of it. Kit Pardue who plays Sunshine in the movie he said this in an interview that, Remember The Titans "Transcends football."
It's about, "The coming together of two races and how we can all live together," but I'd go a step further and say it's not just about the races, you know, I feel like
the themes applied in this film and that we should apply to our lives if they go beyond just, you know, the black and white issues that we have
in our society even still going on today. I mean this is every single person you encounter is going to have a different philosophy than us, a different faith,
base, different beliefs and values, different life experiences and different backgrounds, and I feel that, being able to
connect with people where they are, as the people that they are is important, no matter what they look like. So that's kind of the basis, and I feel like that
with Remember The Titans, you know, you have the surface film, which is a sports movie and we all love those, but underneath there's really a lot to be mined from the movie. So, next slide please?
So that said, this is our Life Lessons From Remember The Titans and
of course we're in a college environment, right now, so we have faculty here, we have staff, we have students,
but beyond our roles on the Moorpark College campus, we have our lives that we live outside of here, and the people that we encounter every day. So as human beings, what are the messages that we can take away from the film? Next slide?
So the first lesson is, that compassion and empath, compassion and empathy are not the same thing, but both are needed. Next slide please?
So empathy versus compassion. There is a an article that I read
in Forbes Magazine and
the writer was Rasmus Hougaard and he wrote this article, called "Four Reasons Why Compassion is Better for Humanity than Empathy,"
and he actually had four takeaways but I'm just going to highlight three of them in this talk today. The first is that empathy is impulsive and that compassion is deliberate.
The second is that empathy is divisive while compassionate is unifying. And the third is that empathy is inert and compassion is active. So I'm going to show you some clips to illustrate these ideas from the movie, but, at the very basis, just to kind of
to frame this appropriately, empathy is for sure, a great thing, right, and compassion definitely comes out of empathy. I like to say that compassion is empathy and action. So,
when I'm teaching screenwriting classes, which I don't here at Moorpark but I mentor screenwriters and I, and I teach screenwriting elsewhere,
one of the big things that we teach writers, is that you want to establish empathy with your protagonists and
you also want to establish empathy with your antagonists. So that might sound a little weird, but we're able to, just think about any film that you've watched that has
impacted you in a way. I think about the villains that really stand out to me and they're the villains that are the most complex. You know, I think about Daredevil for, for example, and
Win Fisk in or I think it's Wilson Fisk in Daredevil it's played by Vincent D'Onofrio.
One of the most brilliant villains I've ever seen, and they really built his character, they we get to see who he was as a child and in the background that he came from, and so on one hand, we see the psychopath,
but on the other hand, we see this broken child. And that piece, where we see the brokenness of the child is where we connect with him because you know what,
every single person has the ability to be in that situation, right? And so when we have when we have villains that there's an empathetic factor
that's written into them, they we identify with them even more, right? So empathy is the basis for for connecting with characters. So when you watch films, the thing that makes movies so
involving and so engaging for us as human beings, is the fact that we're all people, right? At the very basis of who we are, as people,
we all have the same needs. So I start my Introduction of Cinema class out with a movie called Sherlock Jr. and it's a Buster Keaton film from 1924, silent era film.
And that means no talking, right? It's wall to wall music but it's brilliant stunts and it's an awesome little story and I ask my students,
"There's a lot of laughing in here, why is everybody laughing and why, why all the remarks and all the reactions?" and everybody says every single time I showed the film the same thing,
"I've been that situation before." We've been in this place where this young man wants to
he just wants to to fall in love and he wants to marry the girl of his dreams, but there's the guy who wants to swoop in and steal her away and so he does some kind of
some antics that get them into some trouble and we've all been in that situation where we've done something, I'm one of those people that's like, the first time I do anything wrong, I know I'm gonna get in trouble for it, right?
And so, without giving too much away with Sherlock Jr. I highly recommend you watch it, but the idea is that a film whether it's from 1924 or it's a night or 2021 right now.
Whether it's even people or even we can even see these characters exemplified in
in animals, right? A movie like Babe or a movie like A Bug's Life, but they they take on human qualities, and so we still connect with them.
And that's because that's that empathy. So just to start us their empathy is a great thing, but when we're watching a film, we can empathize with characters all day long and it just stops there. Where compassion takes over is where we meet Remember The Titans. So next slide please?
And so, this this first slide is empathy is impulsive and compassion is deliberate. So I wanted to just read a little a little summary.
Hougaard says that, "Empathetic feelings, thoughts, and decisions are generated mostly on an unconscious level, which means we are less aware and less intentional about those feelings.
Compassionate feelings, thoughts, and decisions pass through filters of consciousness, which means we can deliberate, reflect, and improve on the decisions. On its own without compassion empathy is a dangerous thing," and again, compassion is empathy in action. So let's watch this clip.
It's those agitators race-mixers. I feel like taking a swat at. Troublemakers in the Berg are ready to put a torch to the city. You want us to burn up like Watts?
Every head coach in the system is white. We had to give them something. It's a world we live in. God help us all.
Boone: I left North Carolina because I was passed over for a job that I had rightfully earned. Gave it to a white coach down there. Couldn't even tie up his own football cleats. Now you are asking me to do the same thing that this man? I can't do that.
Carol: Herman?
Folks in Carolina say you marched with Dr. King.
Say you stood toe-to-toe with the Klan.
Said you're a race man. That's right. I'm also a family man.
Coach Boone black folks have never had anything in this city to call their own, expect humiliation and despair.
Lauren: Okay. So, there, what we see as the beginning of the film where we we introduce our two protagonists, right, and
and in the film is very much set up to seem like it's an us and them that comes together, right? So what we see here is, we see two men who are both family men, they're both providers, they're both coaches. So
with Herman Boone what he just said right there he's empathizing with
Yoast, right? Already he doesn't even know the man, but he knows what it feels like to be passed over for a job or to lose your job
that was yours, right? And so already we're seeing a little bit of connection. Even though they haven't connected, as viewers, we are already starting to see
that these are these are just these are men and black or white they're dealing with the same issues, right? And so that being said,
that's just where we're starting out and so right now we're at a place of empathy and we can empathize with them because we've probably been that situation before. Okay next slide please?
All right now empathy is divisive, and compassionate, and unifying.
So Rasmus also says that, "Empathy is the tendency to join in others suffering, particularly those who are close to us, but when it comes to helping outsiders, who are suffering our brains perceive it as hard work and reject the effort."
Rasmus Hougaard goes on to cite a study called Social Connection Enables Dehumanization which found that empathy triggered from social connection makes it more likely that we will dehumanize individuals, seen as belonging to an out group.
"And it's extreme empathy can fuel aversion to those who are different from us."
Now to bring this home a little bit and to also look at it, and not just in terms of black and white,
this could look like, you know, kids on a playground, and, you know, you've got
the group of kids that the cliques, you know, you got cliques and the ones that always hang out together well the new kid comes in, right? "We don't know that new kid. We don't want to talk to them.
Their shoes are weird. Their clothes are weird," right? And now they're already being ostracized and they just got here, right? That's one example.
David Cronenberg is a Canadian film director that I teach in my Contemporary American Cinema class.
He has a movie called, well he has several films, you might know him from the film called The Fly. The one that I teach in my class is called The History of Violence and it's a film that kind of is a commentary on geopolitics and it's a post 9-11 horror film, but he, he gives this,
this,
this quote where he talks about how
euphemisms are used to dehumanize during wartime. So terms like collateral damage, for example, you hear collateral damage well you don't necessarily put a face to that, right? That sounds very abstract. So it's easy to not
get emotionally involved, right? Even think about the newsreels from the World War Two, and, you know, you've got,
you know, you've got this this really triumphant and happy go lucky music playing while they're bombing ships, right, and it's like, "Ay!" you know, "But were there people in that ship?"
You know what I mean? So it's really easy to separate when you whether visually, or literally, or literary,
use literary terms to dehumanize, right? There's a lot of different context for this. And so
that's where, that's where I think how Hougaard is making some really good points. So when he talks about this idea of, you know,
empathizing with others, right? The people that are outside our group, we can see that for sure in this movie, right, because we've got these two groups.
Now, even in that first clip I just showed you you've got Yoast and his administrator telling him, "Look, I feel the same way you do man, you know,
we got to give him something, but, you know, it's not right, and all this kind of stuff," and then you've got, you know, Boone with
his support saying "Look, we need you, we need you to come in here and make a difference," and they're looking at him to like, you know, to turn this whole thing around, right?
And he's saying, "Yes I'm a race man, but I'm a family man too," and so you can already see that we're setting up these two camps, right, and they both have their own agendas and their own
intentions and motivations for preserving their own identities and their own agency. Okay, let's play this clip and I want you to see what happens here.
[Coach Yoast]: It's been a rare privilege to have lived here, as long as I have coaching your boys. I'll be taking the year off... [Player]: No.
...after which I'll moving to Loudoun, taking the coaching job at Loudoun High.
[Fred]: I say boycott T.C. Williams! [Parent]: Tell 'em, Fred! Our boys aren't playing for some Coach Coon!
[Gerry]: Coach, he stole your job. I'm not playing for him. I started a petition, and I'm sitting this season out. [Yoast]: Only place you're going to sit is right back in that chair, Gerry. I appreciate it, though. [Mr. Bosley]: Boycott T.C.! Boycott the school! [Yoast]: Stop this, Fred.
You know that none of these boys can afford to go to some of the district just to play ball. They sit this one out, they put the futures on the line.
[Player 1]: Coach, I'm out, too.
I ain't playing for no thief. [Yoast]: Don't do this. don't make this any harder for me than it already is.
[Player 2]: Coach, if you go, I go. [Player 3]: I only play for you, Coach Yoast! [Player 4]: Don't go, Coach. You can't leave us. [All]: Coach Yoast! Coach Yoast! Coach Yoast!
We'll be all right coach.
Yoast: I've coached most of these boys since they were your age.
I've seen them grow up in front of my eyes almost like they were my own kids.
Almost.
Yoast: This is a heck of a time to be abandoning them to look after themselves, ain't it?
So, what are you gonna do?
Lauren: Okay, so, hopefully you can see there that there's this definite, you know, stick togetherness, right, and of course they all empathize with Coach Yoast and there's definitely already a spirit of divisiveness,
but a lot of that's coming from, "We just don't know," right? The thing that we don't know we're afraid of. So compassion, on the other hand
is the joining of other stuff irrespective of their social or personal identity. It's the perspective that in any person suffering, there is a common humanity.
The recognition that no matter a person's cultural background, sexual orientation, or age, you are like the person in that moment, right? So while these two men don't see
this yet because they haven't met each other, we as a viewer can see both sides, right? So we kind of have a little bit of an omniscient view going into the film and we can see where
problems are going to arise because there's already this divisiveness that's taking place because of this empathy factor, right? We haven't seen compassion, yet. All right, next slide please?
Okay, so this one is empathy is inert and compassion is active. So though empathy can feel good at first, when we join in another's suffering
but we don't take any action to resolve or remedy the situation, empathy can devolve into rumination on the problem,
and can lead to symptoms of depression even, right?
And so, this is like I feel really bad. This happens to me, sometimes when I look at the news, right? It can be very disheartening and disconcerting to see some of the stuff that's going on,
right, but sitting back and just looking at it all day that's why I, you know, I read lots of places where it says it's not healthy to just watch the news 24/7 because it's just there's so much overwhelming
stuff that's going on, right? If there's no action taking place that can cause problems. I don't have a clip for this particular one but Bertier is an example in this, and if you remember
the scene, where he's going to go to the berg to meet Julius, and his mom says, "You are not going to the berg. You're going to stay here. You're not going down there.
You're going to stay home," and he says, "I was going to go meet Julius. I already promised him I was going," and his mom keeps them from going.
So, in the next scene you see him at the game and he's got and he's real down, I mean it's all over his face.
And and Julius says, "Look I already knew you weren't going to show up," right?
"I knew, you were just talk," right? And Bertier is like, "Get away from me. Don't say anything to me," and he's having a hard time processing this because he's trying to make action steps. He's trying to change
but he's being held back from doing that and so he's feeling it inside, he's filling in his heart, and hasn't talked this thing out. So, you know, he tried to make a change, wasn't able to, and now he's feeling that guilt.
Now, on the other side you've got compassion, and compassion is more constructive it starts with empathy but then it turns outward with the intent to help.
So with compassion we make the conscious choice to turn emotion into action, and the clip I'm going to show you is about Louie Lastik. And Louie Lastik in this film is so amazing to me,
because he has a heart for everybody, and he shows his love through his actions from the very, very beginning, and you just fall in love with him as soon as you see him, right? And so this clip we're going to see is Louie extending some compassion. Go ahead.
Julius: I see you eat lunch. But why you eating over here? Why don't you go on over there and eat with your people?
Louie: I don't have any people. I'm with everybody, Julius.
He's just a light-skinned brother.
Julius: Yeah, and I'm a dark-skinned cracker.
(All laugh)
Blue: Come on, Julius, he's just another blessed child and god's loving family.
(Blue hums Amazing Grace)
Julius: Come on, Blue, let me... (All humming Amazing Grace)
Buck: Lord we come before you today and ask you to soften big Julius Campbell's heart.
Ray: Look at that traitor.
And Rev? He better be praying
I block for his black behind.
Yeah, but, Ray, if you don't block you're not gonna start. [Ray]: I'll start.
I'll just bide my time. [Yoast]: I got some plays, we won city title with last year. Got some trick plays and stuff that might
fire up the boys' imaginations little bit.
[Coach Boone]: Trick plays? [Yoast]: I think unless the boys start having a little fun, they're not gonna put points up on that board for you. [Boone]: You worry about your defense. Let me worry about the offense. [Yoast]: All right.
Lauren: Alright, so I extended that one just a little farther because I also wanted to set up a couple of the other relationships that we're going to talk about throughout this presentation. So first we see Louie there, right, and he's,
it's a no brainer for him. It's not even a thing to think about. That's just his heart already. Now there's a lot of things to take into account so, Louie came from
a military family so he's been all over the place, right, and he's seen lots of different people, and he's probably grown up in a school
in all the schools he's been at that are that are mixed races, and all this kind of stuff. So he's got a different experience than the people here in Virginia, right?
So taking all this into account, you know, this is another thing about empathy. It's like, you know, you can't know where everybody's coming from. Everybody has a different background, a different situation.
But another thing I wanted to point out in that part with Louie is that Julius and it's, you know, the whole Amazing Grace thing it's just, it's really
got so many layers to it, right? But, you know, the prayer about, you know, "Soften Julius Campbell's heart," and all that kind of stuff you're going to see as we go through as well that Julius has been growing to do too, but
the thing about compassion is that you can only be responsible for your actions. You can't be responsible for how a person receives that, right? So Julius was not open to receive that in that moment.
So the fact that Louie was being compassionate and he was acting out of love, Julius wasn't ready to receive it, so that moment passed him by.
Moving on to the next part I wanted to also show you that, with Bertier and Ray, Ray is kind of the Judas in the situation, right, and Ray is
definitely in that divisive mentality still. Now they're already at camp now they've had time to
be together and he's absolutely not open to it. Bertier's more of a place of, you know, "I need to do what I need to do to get to play," and all that kind of stuff.
But the bottom line is that Ray has no intention on emphasizing with this other group, right? He has no intention and so
and so you see that already and we're going to see how that progresses over the over the course of the film. Alright, so this idea that compassion
is two parts is giving compassion and it's receiving. I tell my students all the time, especially right now, and in this Covid time that we're in,
this whole online learning thing is hard on everybody, right? This is a great place to talk about empathy. I can empathize with my students
and what they're going through, but my students can empathize with me too. It's hard. This has been a challenge, right? Like, you know, for those who don't know I'm a tenure track
professor this is my second full time year, even though I've been at Moorpark now for eight years,
and, you know, there's just so much for me to be learning right now, and I can understand because I'm learning, I feel like a student in so many ways,
and so I can definitely, you know I can relate to them, and so I tell my students, that "This is going to be a season of
giving grace and receiving grace. You're going to give me grace for the mistakes that I'm for sure to make,
and I'm going to give you grace, right, for, you know, missing a class, or because you have a doctor's appointment, or you have to work, or whatever it is, but we have to figure out how to meet everybody in the middle. So next slide please?
Alright, so a little more on compassion. The definition of compassion according to Oxford is that is the "Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings
or miss misfortunes of others." So what I want to highlight right here is kind of an overall overarching theme in the Remember The Titans.
My dad grew up in segregation in Oklahoma
and he would tell us stories growing up about having to walk in the gutter when a white person would walk by he would have to step into the gutter if he walked by even if he approached a baby, a newborn
baby that was white, he would have to call that baby sir or ma'am, right? Just, you know, obviously all the separate bathrooms, and the separate wat-,you know, drinking fountains, and all that stuff but,
that was a hard time to live in, you know and, in many ways we're still struggling today but,
the thing that my dad would always tell us growing up is that an oppressed people cannot pull themselves out of oppression. Think about any oppressed group
in history, right? If it's the, you know, the Jews in Auschwitz in Germany and, you know, think about Schindler's List, like Oscar Schindler put his life on the line to save so many people. He was someone who was in a position of advantage. So,
people who are oppressed cannot within themselves make any change. Women's Suffrage, there had to be men who were supporting that that that movement, they would have never gone anywhere on their own, right?
The Civil Rights Movement, Bobby Kennedy, JFK, lots of white people. If, you know, if you go back and look at pictures even of the early N double A CP (NAACP) there are white people there too, advocates,
right? It takes people who are in a position of advantage to do something.
And so it doesn't matter how hard to impress people and it doesn't matter who that is that's bullying on a school campus, right? If you got popular kid in school,
and, you know, the people follow that child, righ? You see it in movies a lot where somebody is getting bullied and then they turn to the person who,
who is like a leader at the school to
try to get some change, right? So that's an idea that you can kind of follow through this film and you're going to see, there are many moments where it's going to cost, it's going to take Yoast,
and it's going to take Bertier stepping up and doing something to start to see a pivot, all right? And that's just a reminder of the the quote, that I already mentioned that, "Compassion, is the perspective that any person's suffering,
is common," sorry, "is the perspective that in any person's suffering there's a common humanity- the recognition that no matter a person's cultural background, sexual orientation, or age, you are like the other person in that moment." That's compassion. So, next slide please?
Oh let's watch this clip.
Coach Boone: Like I said, we will not be intimidated. We're going to play football games. Hatred, violence will not intimidate us.
Is that why you need the state troopers, Coach?
Boone: Look, I don't need no John Brown state troopers. And you can tell whoever threw this brick through my window, they can come visit me anytime. I'll be at home.
Coach Yoast: I think it's time you stopped antagonizing everybody and learned a little humility.
Boone: Humility, huh?
Yoast: You know, if you could just keep your mouth shut Herman and if you didn't brag so much...
[Boone]: I see. So you're blaming me for what happened last night? [Yoast]: No.
I am talking about setting a good example for our boys and for the community.
[Boone]: I don't scratch my head and less than itches and I don't dance, unless I hear some music. I will not be intimidated. That's just the way it is. [Yoast]: If you want to carry your sinful pride with you to your grave, that's your business. But when your sins endanger my little girl, it becomes mine.
Boone: My sins?
You think my sins had something to do with what happened last night?
I'm sorry about what happened to your daughter, I really am,
but maybe you got a small taste of what my girls go through.
Welcome to my life, Yoast.
Lauren: All right, and right there, that's a pivot. Now another thing I want to point out too about narrative form, is especially in an ensemble film like this you've got many storylines going on,
it's not one sequential path, right? I like to think of it like an interstate, where all these roads, you know, have their own destination. So if each character has their own path, these paths are intertwining, and crossing, and twisting up.
And so, if you were to lay all their stories out separately, you could see each character's progression and each character's growth. But right here, this is a significant moment for Yoast because his daughter was a victim of,
terrorism when they threw a brick to the window at at Boone's house and his daughter happened to be over there playing, right?
But this idea about compassion, this is where we start seeing this, because, for a minute there, it was like, "Hey it's them over there,
and then that's us over here," and again, that empathy being divisive, it's easy for us to identify with our own group, but now that Yoast's daughter has been implicated in the situation, now it's a little more personal.
My dad always says that, "I don't care, who makes it stop, I just want it to stop," right? When we're dealing with these oppressive situations and we're dealing with this kind of stuff it's kind of like,
"However, I need to get you involved.
Then that's that's what we need," and this situation, this is kind of like the, this is like the springboard for Yoast to start seeing things a little bit differently.
It takes him a long time to really start acting, but he can start to see that, "Wow, this is not just about them and me. It's us now," and he's seeing that. And this is one of those moments that we get to see start to see the coming together of the two sides. Okay, next slide please?
Second lesson. Awareness is critical. Let's watch this clip and then I'll come back.
Petey Jones. Come on man. No, man. What, man? It's on me, man. We party on. Let's go.
Look...look here, man, all right? This here's Virginia. All right?
This here all right they got problems with, you know...they don't want us in there, man.
Oh, man, that's history, bro. It's on me. Come on.
(Soft music playing on Juxebox)
We're full tonight, boys.
What? There's tables all over the place, man. What are you talking about? Well, this is my establishment. I reserve the right to refuse service to anybody. Yeah, that means you too, hippie boy.
Now, y'all want something to eat, you can take these boys out back and pick it up from the kitchen.
What'd I tell you, man? Yo, come on, Petey, man! Petey, I didn't know, man. I told you! What you mean you didn't know? You think I was playing you?
Man, he didn't know, Petey. Blue, he don't want to know.
You pull some crap like that, you better be able to back it up. Man, let's go, man. Why don't you cool out? Cool out!
Let's go, Rev.
Man, let's go, let's go, man. What happened? This man acting a fool tonight, man. Petey. Man, don't even talk to that man, man.
He acting all crazy and stuff, man. It don't even make no sense. Petey. He know the man's from out of town.
Next slide?
Lauren: All right, so, that's a really tough scene to see, right? It's uncomfortable in a lot of ways, you feel really bad for Sunshine, you know, you know him, already came in just charmed us right away right and he made this mistake. Well,
couple of takeaways I want to point out are
the first is that pretending that issues don't exist is not the right approach, and now we're talking about this in terms of life, right, now, obviously in Remember The Titans awareness in that situation is that, look
blacks are not allowed in these establishments and Sunshine was not aware of that, because again, military family
he doesn't see race the same way as everybody else does, and he comes in naively thinking that, "Hey you're with me. So you're cool by association," and that's not the way it works.
But I wanted to point out several different examples, the first, of course, colorblind, right, and, you know, I have people in my life that say this all time, "I don't see color right? I'm colorblind."
And then, you know, you get the other side saying, you know, well, "If you say that you're colorblind, then you're saying, am I am I clear, is that what you're saying here?" You know, so there is kind of some,
you know, there's a beautiful intention in the spirit of what people are saying when they say that, but at the same time to say that you don't see color that's to say that you're denying that person's agency, where that person is Black, Latino, Asian,
even white, right? To say that you don't see color because a person's agency includes everything about them. My agency includes me being black, I am a Black woman. I'm an African American woman.
That is a part of who I am as a person. So to just take that part out well that's a huge part of my identity that goes with it, right? So it is important to see that we are different, because our differences are what make us beautiful, right? That's what makes our community what it is.
So, but the thing, the trick is to say, "I see your color and I'm not going to judge you based on that," right, "I'm not going to make predetermined, you know,
decisions about how I'm going to treat you because of your color," that's where that that's where the difference is, right? And so,
on to the next one. ACCESS is another example.
As a teacher here, you know, I've had several students come through ACCESS and ACCESS is another is a huge resource that we have in our school, does amazing work for our students, who have learning differences or have
different accommodations that are needed for whatever the reasons, right? So for me to say, you know,
"That's irrelevant, you know, that's inconvenient for me to have to deal with this extra paperwork," or whatever it is,
I'm denying that student's agency to do that, right? That's a part of my job as a teacher to do what I need to do to help that student to get the most out of their classes and their experiences at this school, right? So,
them being in the ACCESS Program that's a part of their experience. Learning difficult names is another one. I had a student one time, who,
who his name was several syllables and my students will laugh is, if any of you who are in the room right now,
that you know, and they have me in an on ground class,
I mean it takes me a while, on the first day of school to get through role, because I'm, I am so insistent on trying to get these names down, and I'll sit there and study the name for several moments
before I try to say it out loud because I want to give it my best efforts, the first time out. And they're so gracious, right, and they'll, you know, I'd say about 85% though, I do pretty well, but when I missed those things they say,
"Oh, it was close enough," I'm like, "But no, no, not close enough that's your name.
How do you say your name? I need to learn how to say your name, because your name is your identity, and I could at least do that," right? That's the very minimum that we should do.
Is to acknowledge a person, by getting their name right.
That's a small thing. And for me as a teacher, it could be easy for me to just look it over and say, "You know what I'm going to shorten your name," I had a student tell me, "You could just call me Prince, because, you know,
my name's hard," I'm like, "Is that your name?" "No." "I'm gonna learn your name." Another one is
just like I mentioned before the pandemic time and students and teachers just giving grace and being aware that
this whole school year is not just about my class, right? And, yes, I want the students to get everything out of my class, but they have lots of other classes and they have families
that are at home, and they have people coming down with Covid and other sicknesses, and they're juggling all this kind of stuff, and trying to learn online education, so I need to be aware
that all that's going on, and likewise, students need to be aware that I also have life, and I have things that I'm doing, and I'm trying my best, but I'm fallible because I'm human, right? So being aware just in general is critical.
So a couple of the takeaways from that, though, on the flip is
seizing opportunities to educate and enlighten others on your feelings. Whatever those feelings are about, right? If those feelings are about
race, or if those feelings are about social issues, ore those feelings are about my need in ACCESS and why I need to have, you know, extra time on my quizzes when I look completely fine, right? Why, you know,
being able to have a conversation, make room for that, because I think that's where we get better, right? It's like walking in on the middle of a movie, right?
I can't help that, I had, you know, I missed the beginning. I don't know what happened before that. So you might have had to explain it to them, but now that I'm here, I need you to explain this to me, so I can understand, right? And there's a time where what I know about
any situation I didn't know, right? I didn't know, I didn't come out of the womb, knowing everything, right? I still know so far from everything.
So we're always learning and we're all at different places on that journey, so we need to give space and grace for people to ask questions and that's the last is, you know, to be able to
hear and see each other so that we can make progress. So if we don't, if it doesn't go both ways,
and if we, you know, get tired of explaining, and we get tired of having to say the same thing over, and over, and over, well, you know what it's kind of like
that's just the way that it goes, right? Because that's just the way that life is, and so I think the more that we can make room for that, and then we become more aware, and then we can move from there. Next slide please?
Lesson three, I kind of cheated. The three C's. Compromise, creativity, and collaboration. Alright so let's go to the next slide. I'm gonna give you a couple takeaways, and we're gonna watch some clips. So the first is that the team needs to be on the same page. Compromise, right?
Thinking outside the box, for creativity, whether it's teaching, mentoring in studies, in life, and then the last is that it's okay to ask for help. So let's go ahead and watch the first clip.
Boone: You have just disrupted my first team meeting in an unacceptable fashion.
This is my team now. Either you're with that or you're not. [Yoast]: I'm here, ain't I? Let's talk football. [Boone]: Let's talk football. [Yoast]: I run the defense...[Boone]: As a part of my team strategy.
Now, I have never seen an assistant coach's name in the newspaper for losing a game. [Yoast]: I want a job for Coach Tyrell. He's been with me for 10 years. I won't leave them out in the cold. You don't get me without him. [Boone]: You're overcooking my grits, Coach.
All right. I will allow
Coach Tyrell to coach the special team, but I will have my eye on him.
And you.
Lauren: Okay. Compromise. Obviously now we're starting to see this clash, and this is their first meeting, by the way. This is the first time that they,
well actually, no, it's the second time they met. They did meet in the office prior. But, the idea is that this is the first time that they met the team setting.
And so you can already see that they're bumping heads, right? And Yoast is defensive and Boone is defensive, right? And they both have their agendas and they all, they both have their goals, but the bottom line is that
their goals separately, are not going to get them where they need to be. They need to figure out how to get on the same page. Compromise. Next clip please?
Boone: All right, listen up, listen up, I want everybody off the bus. Let's go. Follow me. Everybody. Let's go right now.
Why we got to get off the bus? What are they doing, man?
All right, everybody off the bus. Listen up, I don't care if you're black, green, blue, white, or orange, I want all of my defensive players on this side, all players going out for offense is over here.
Right now. Let's move! Let's move! Let's move! Let's move! Let's move! You and you, offensive bus. Sit together. You and you, defensive bus. Sit together. Get comfortable, too. Because the person that I have you sitting next to is the same one that you'll be rooming with for the duration of this camp.
Lauren: Alright, so, obviously Boone has a tough job ahead of him, right? He's carrying a lot of weight, got a lot of pressure behind this this whole integration, this whole merger.
This, you know, this could be a life situation, this could be a situation in your classroom. I'm sure as teachers,
you know, the teachers in the room, you know,
we're having to think outside the box all the time. I just can't even say all the different creative things I've had to maneuver just to figure out how to get my own ground instruction on to online, right?
And still figuring it out as we go. So, you know, that's in the classroom but what about our life goals, right? I mean, I'll be the first one to admit that there's a lot of things, I thought were going to go a certain way that they haven't gone and
I haven't gotten certain things that I'm,
that I thought I would have or there's a certain goal, I thought I would meet. Didn't get there, this way well there might be another route.
Gotta think outside the box. Whatever the situation is, you might have to get creative with some things to get where we want to be. Next clip please?
T.C. Williams goes in at the half trailing 7 zero.
[Sheryl]: Coach! [Yoast]: Sweetheart. You better get back to your seat. [Sheryl]: I can't coach. [Yoast]: What? [Sheryl]: Ed Henry's got Boone's number,
sure as shooting. And you ain't doing nothing against that shotgun.
Look, Coach, now ain't the time to be proud.
Boone: All right. We're in a fight.
You boys are doing all that you can do. Anybody can see that.
Win or lose,
we gonna walk out of the stadium tonight with our heads held high.
Do your best. That's all anybody can ask for. [Julius]: No, it ain't, Coach. With all due respect,
you demanded more of us. You demanded perfection.
Now, I ain't saying that I'm perfect, 'cause I'm not. And I ain't gonna never be. None of us are.
But we have won every single game we have played till now.
So this team is perfect.
We stepped out on that field that way tonight.
And, if it's all the same to you, Coach Boone, that's how we want to leave it. [Yoast]: Yeah.
I hope you boys have learned as much from me this year as I've learned from you.
You've taught the city how to trust the soul of a man, rather than the look of him.
And I guess it's about time I joined the club. Herman! I sure could use your help, Ed Henry's kicking my ass out there.
Lauren: Alright, so as evident, whether you've seen the film or not, you know, I think you can feel that by this point they've come together, their collaboration efforts have been successful, right, and
they've covered a lot of mileage. So there's a lot of growth has happened between that first clip I showed you and now, right, but even still, this is the moment that Yoast, finally, you know,
humbled themselves enough to ask for help. Up into this point they're still butting heads even during the games, right, and, you know, "You worry about your offense and I worry about my defense," and so forth, right, but
it took that humility for him to ask for that help and that's, a thing that I think we're all, at least, I know, for me, is I'm relearning it all the time, it's not, that's not something that you just,
"Oh, I got that one down, check." It's a process, right, because different contexts require different circumstances, and different collaborations, and different, you know, all kinds of different things, and so, none of these things are set in stone, these are all
fluid and they're all changing depending on our personal contexts, but collaboration, obviously, is a huge part of education, it's a huge part of living. Next slide please?
Lesson four, equality versus equity. Let's watch this clip and then we'll talk about it.
[Boone]: All right, listen, about Petey... [Yoast]: No thanks required, Coach.
Boone: Thanks?
You challenged my authority in front of the entire football team, Coach. Now, you think you're doing these boys a favor taking them aside every time I come down on them, protecting them from big bad Boone.
You're cutting my legs from under me.
Yoast: Some of the boys, just don't respond well to public criticism. I tell them what they need to know, but I don't humiliate them in front of the team.
Boone: Which boys are you talking about?
Which ones you talking about? I come down on Bertier. I don't see you coddle him.
Come down on Sunshine. Don't see you grab his hand, take him off to the side. Which boys are you talking about?
Now, I may be a mean cuss, but I'm the same mean cuss with everybody out there on that football field.
The world don't give a damn about how sensitive these kids are, especially the young black kids.
You ain't doing these kids a favor by patronizing them.
You're crippling them.
You're crippling them for life.
Lauren: Next slide please?
So this one's challenging. You know, equality and equity. I mean equity it's like the that's like the the word, right? That's like the golden word right now, right, especially in education.
And looking at, you know, racial equity and there's equity in the classroom, you know, for all different situations, but I want to kind of expand it just a little bit broader than that. So,
these images at the bottom, you know, the one on the left was, I think, maybe the first one that was going around, and I remember
the first time I saw it, I was at a conference and I thought, "Wow that's a great illustration. Okay that's cool," and it was really interesting because
I use it in my Contemporary American Cinema class and the first time I used it,
you know, and we we're going to talk about, you know, implicit bias and things like that. I asked them to look at the picture and then we'll talk about it. So they look at the picture, and it was one year, one of the students, the first thing they said was, "Why are all the people brown?"
That's a great question, and it is a great teachable moment in the fact that we're talking about implicit bias, right? So whoever even designed the poster,
you know, there's an implicit bias already in place, because they made all people brown. Well, I started looking around and I'm going, "Yeah," you know,
"Why are the people brown? Are brown people the only ones who have these kind of issues?" No. Because, for one thing, you know, this is real to physiological challenges right now anyway, right? We've got
a short person, a little bit taller, and then a tall person, right? Obviously you see how the illustration works. Everybody gets the same on the quality side. That will be Boone teaching and treating everybody the exact same way. Everybody gets, you know,
grilled the same way with Boone. On the other side you got Yoast, right, and Petey is the little guy with the two boxes, right? Yoast is going to coddle him, he's babying him, and, you know, it's kind of like good cop, bad cop with Petey.
But just to set up I didn't show this clip but, in the beginning, when we first see Petey, Petey's fumbling the ball,
in a practice and Boone says, "Why you fumbling my football?" and Petey, the first thing he says, "My blockers weren't blocking," he said "Listen, your blockers have nothing to do with you, holding on to the football that's your job."
And so, from the very beginning, we already see that Petey's going to be a problem. Petey makes a lot of excuses.
And so, you know, he kind of cowards when Boone talks to him, while it gets to the point where Boone pulls them out of the game, Yoast
says, "Hey come and play for my side because I need you to stop this number 23."
And so, he puts him in and that's what causes that conversation that we just saw and Yoast says, "Look everybody doesn't respond that way," and that's true. People have different learning styles in the classroom even, right?
Let's come back to ACCESS for a second. ACCESS is a perfect example of equity, right? You've got students, but these,
some of the issues might be physiological, but most of the issues are cognitive and processing, and it could be anxiety. Students need more time on test, things like that, whatever they need, right?
Some students need more time to take a test, more extended deadlines, different things, for whatever the reasons, right, medical reasons, and things like that. So yeah people don't all learn the same way.
And so that's this kind of gamut of different photos I have. The one on the right, I thought, "Hey this is kind of neat," because,
this one doesn't have colors it's they're not assigning a color. We've got the brown people and then we've got the white people in the middle.
And even add a liberation in there, but on this one on the right is taking into account more than just their personal height, it's also the circumstances that they are inter-different, right, because they're in different parts, the land is not the same
height either, and that's like, you know, certain people starting off at different places, right?
And so, but all that being said, no, students don't all learn the same. People don't respond, the same, right? You know, some people
don't respond to abrasive, you know, kind of personalities, or sarcasm, or cynicism, or you know, some people are more lighthearted and different things like that. So next slide?
Alright, so just hold on to that because we're going to come back to Petey a little later. So character and integrity lead to accountability. Lesson number five.
So Paul Rabil says, "Character is who you are when no one's watching." Now, mind you,
this is one of those quotes that goes around and sometimes you wonder if it got assigned to the wrong person, who said it first, but I looked far and wide, and this particular wording, Paul Rabil is everywhere. He's a lacrosse player.
And there's a lot of truth to that, but we're gonna kind of digest a little bit. So next slide please?
Let's watch this clip of Bertier and Julius.
Bertier: All right, man, listen. I'm Gerry, you're Julius. Let's get some particulars and just get this over with, all right?
[Julius]: Particulars? [Bertier]: Yeah.
[Julius]: No matter what I tell you, you ain't never gonna know nothing about me. [Bertier]: Listen I ain't runnin' any more of these three-a-days, okay?
[Julius]: What I got to say, you really don't want to hear 'cause honesty ain't too high on your people's priority list. [Bertier]: Honesty? You want honesty?
Bertier: All right, honestly I think you're nothing. Nothing but a pure waste a God-given talent. You don't listen to nobody, man. Not even Doc or Boone!
Shiver push on the line every time, man. You blow right past 'em! Push 'em! Pull 'em! Do something! You can't run over everybody in this league, and every time you do, you leave one of your teammates hanging out to dry, me in particular! [Julius]: Why should I give a hoot about you?
Huh? Or anybody else out there
You want to talk about a waste, you the captain, right? [Bertier]: Right. [Julius]: Captain's supposed to be leader, right? [Bertier] Right. [Julius]: You got a job? [Bertier]: I have a job.
[Julius]: You been doing your job? [Bertier]: I've been doing my job. [Julius]: Then why don't you tell your white buddies to block for Rev better? 'Cause they have not blocked for him worth a plugged nickel, and you know it!
Nobody plays! Yourself included!
I'm supposed to wear myself out for the team? What team?
No, no, what I'm going to do is, I'm gonna look out for myself, and I'm going to get mine.
Bertier: See, man?
That's worst attitude I ever heard.
Julius: Attitude reflects leadership, Captain.
Next slide please?
Lauren: So, this lesson is kind of multi-layered. I wanted to show that clip first to kind of set, you know, a little bit of groundwork but,
this idea that taking accountability can cost us. So,
a few questions,
and these are questions that I find myself asking all the time and, like I said this whole life is a journey, right, and we're going to get it right sometimes and sometimes we're not going to get it right.
But the first question is are we doing all we can do as leaders in our own spheres, to bring the best out of those who are leading? Now whether that's in our classroom like as teachers,
whether that's parents at home with children, you know, supervisors at the job, whatever it is,
if we're in a position of leadership, are we doing the best that we can to bring the best out of the people who are leading?
The second thing. As students, as team members are we doing our part to contribute to the overall success, whatever that goal is, you know? And in this particular situation of course you got our two leaders, right? You got Julius and Bertier,
and they're butting heads and again, at this point they're still very separate, they just got to camp, right, and so they're very separate and
we're still at that divisive place of empathy, if you remember, from the beginning, right? They're still very much sticking to themselves and we saw Ray already say, "I'm not going to block
for Rev, he'll be lucky if I blocked for him," right, "I'm gonna buy my time and then I'm going to let them have it."
right? And so that's what Julius was referring to when he says that and Bertier's has of course that's his friend and he's just kind of like letting it go he's just kind of like he knows it's not right, but he's not really doing anything about it.
He's not stepping up as a leader. He's the captain and he's not that's why I asked him, "Are you doing your job?" right?
The last one, as people are we doing what we can to live a life of integrity and are we setting a good example for those who are watching us?
So this is going to come back in a couple of clips later as well, but it's hard to do right and none of us get it right all the time, so,
but I think just for us to continue to be asking these questions are good, right? And when I say taking accountability can cost us, that's what we're going to see in the next clip. Go ahead, please?
Team: Rev! Rev! Rev!
[Bertier]: Coach? Can I speak with you in private? [Boone]: Sure.
What's on your mind, son?
Bertier: I want Ray off the team, Coach.
[Boone]: You know my policy, Gerry. [Bertier]: Yes, I do,
and I respect it, but I know that Ray missed that block on purpose.
Sometimes you just got to cut a man loose.
Boone: Well, you're the captain.
You make a decision, but you support your decision.
Bertier: Ray?
You're out.
Ray: What?
Bertier: I'm not going to let you play for this team anymore.
Ray: Oh, yeah, Jerry Lewis?
Going to go and tell Coach Coon what to do, just like last time?
But, then, that's right.
He is your Daddy now, isn't he?
Boone don't cut anybody. Remember Gerry? [Bertier]: I had you cut, Ray.
Ray: You're willing to just throw away our friendship for them?
You can keep them.
Lauren: So,
in that moment, obviously, you know, Gerry we see he's grown, right? We see the growth and
you see two sides of the same coin of accountability, because, on the one hand, Ray does not take accountability for any of his actions, he's not remorseful, his heart is so hard, right? So Bertier it's his job because he's the leader, right? You remember back before, you know,
oppression, you know,
needs help, right? So people who are being oppressed can't pull themselves out. Somebody who's on the outside, has to be the one to step in. Well Bertier had an advantage that other people didn't have, because he knew Ray's intentions and he knew
that Ray was going to do that, whereas everybody else on the team didn't know. So Bertier, it was his job to step up and take accountability in that situation, as the captain of the team and do the right thing and he did that,
right? So but it cost him his friend.
And, but what you can see is that sometimes taking accountability is going to weed the people out of your life that shouldn't be there, right? And as a life lesson that's something that we need to take account of too, is that toxic,
energy and toxic people in our lives doesn't belong there, right, and sometimes you have to make those hard
those hard calls like Bertier said, "Sometimes you just gotta cut a man loose," right? That's that's a life lesson and, you know,
I've had to do that in my life and I'm sure that everyone here can relate to that, that sometimes you just have to do what you have to do to grow. Next slide please?
This, I think, is coming back to that quote at the beginning character is who you are when no one's watching is absolutely true.
But the thing about it is that, just to say that I mean I could be good or bad character, right, and so I'm going to kind of like
you know, massage a little bit and get us to another place, but John Wooden who I love, I thought I'd use a sports, another sports legend.
It says that, "The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching." I think that's
closer to where we need to be, right, because that's also true. I mean you're going to test your character
in the practices that you do when no one's around, right? So that's what we're seeing with Ray we got to see his character come out and what he did to Rev, right?
And we get to see that these other people as they are growing and they're ruminating over this stuff and then they're making changes. That fruit is starting to show. Next slide please?
So what's the difference between character and integrity? So coming back to that beginning I said character and integrity equal accountability. So,
by Oxford's definitions, character is "The mental and moral qualities that distinguish," or sorry, "that are distinctive to an individual." So,
these qualities can be good or bad. That's just your character. You say, "Oh, that person has good character that person has bad character."
Okay, so that can be either way. But integrity is, "The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, and moral uprightness." So integrity is a type of character, right? And so now,
Hope Szymanski is another blogger, that I follow, and she said, "Integrity is recognizing a behavior that's wrong and not joining in and then character is doing something about it."
But I thought that there is a little bit of fallibility in that just because
if it's bad character then they probably wouldn't do anything about it, right? So.
But we're talking about integrity, so if it was good character, they would be doing something about it. So I kind of massaged it a little bit and I kind of extended it to kind of encompass
more and kind of like to reflect back into the clip I'm about to show you. Integrity is recognizing a behavior that's wrong and not joining in.
And a sign of good character is doing something about it, and setting a good example for those who are watching. So we keep talking about that character is who you are when no one's watching,
but what about when people are watching then what's happening,
right? So to be able to show that
is that's the sign of good character to be able to show your integrity, so that we're setting a good example for the people around us. And this is what my parents always tell us like, you know, you never know who's watching you, you never know who's looking at you, and,
you know, I've gotten emails from people that are messages from people out of the blue, that have thrown me off and saying things about how, you know, they're so proud of me like friends on Facebook I haven't seen in a long time.
"I'm so proud of what you're doing," and, you know, "Keep making these great efforts," and, you know, "I'm following you. I know I can't see you but I'm following you."
And that's nice to see but it's also a little bit sobering to be like, "Well better make sure that I'm, you know, putting a good example forth," and I do my best to do that.
But I think that we all need to remember that it doesn't matter if we're on the podium at school teaching, if we're in the classroom just a student in the room, you know,
we all have someone who's watching us, right, even if this is the person sitting behind you that's watching you because they're behind you, right? What are you doing? So,
your siblings, you know, your neighbors, people at your job, we're always, somebody's always watching us. Let's watch this next clip.
[Referee]: I've got holding on 78 white. [Boone]: What, are you trying to cheat my boys out of the game? [Referee]: 15 more yards.
[Boone]: Listen. Let 'em play, ref! Let 'em play! Let 'em play! Let the boys play! Cheater! [Player]: Coach, come on. [Boone]: Cheater! [Player]: Coach.
Go, go, go, go!
Sheryl: Oh, come on! What was that?
What are you, blind? That wasn't a hold. Oh, come on, that was such a bad call.
Yoast: Titus!
I know all about it, Titus. [Referee]: What are you talking about, Bill?
Yoast: You call this game fair,
or I'll go to the papers. I don't care if I go down with you,
but before God,
I swear I'll see every last one of you thrown in jail. [Referee]: You dig your own grave. [Yoast]: Okay. Defense! On me!
Okay, Petey, don't you drift to the strong side. [Petey]: Coach, they're calling a holding penalty on me every time. [Yoast]: Did I ask for your excuses? you want to act like a star, you better give me your star effort, do you hear me?
Lauren: Alright, so...
in that moment a few things happened, one, there's this verse that, you know, the excerpt part of it is, "...and a child shall lead them." I loved Sheryl in this movie because she is just,
you know, she's unfiltered, right? And they always say there's a show called Kids Say the Darndest Things. You can trust a child to tell you the truth,
and be honest. And there's so many moments, right? You saw tell her dad, "Coach, this is no time to be proud. Look we gotta win this game,"right? And so I love her character in this and
going back to the idea that, you know, who you are, you know, setting an example for those who are watching you, Yoast's daughter is watching him.
And so she's up there and she's looking at him. I love that close up on him.
I mean if this was introduction to cinema class, we'd be honing in on the camera framing right now and saying, "Why did they show that in a close up?"
They did a match cut. They went from, they did a shot reverse shot from Yoast
close up and then we had a close up on the coach and you can see that they're looking at each other and the coach is going, "Yeah I got this," right?
And Yoast knows that he is the one in this moment who's going to make a difference. So now we get to this point of like, now we're taking action, right?
And so, he has to step in, in that moment, he has to do that, but there's a lot on the line. Accountability can cost you. He's got the hall of fame on the line, right?
He's got the other friends, he's already lost friends to this darn team, right, and decided, he was going to stay on with these boys, he's lost friends.
And now he's about to put the hall of fame on the line, too, and he goes over and tells the ref what he tells him and he takes account- "I don't care if I go down with you."
right, "This is the right thing to do and you're going to do the right thing," and he called him on that and his daughter saw that. So in the end,
he set the right example, right, and he and he did the right thing, even though it costs him big, right, but that's just the price that you have to pay, right? And so that was the sacrifice he made. Next slide?
So just in, and just about closing up here, I have this teachable moment that I wanted to share that I feel really encompassed what I talked about in class today, and I wasn't expecting it. It happened in my class last week, in one of the courses that I teach and,
you know, everything was going along just fine and I said something anecdotally I said, you know,
students asked me a lot of times, you know, when I was on I was on ground, they would ask like, "Why aren't we watching Star Wars?" and I would say,
"Well, for one reason you probably watch Star Wars last night?" right, and you probably own that movie and, you know,
and yeah Star Wars is a great movie and it has merit absolutely, but it doesn't have a place in the context of the class of what I'm trying to do, mostly because I'm trying to
get you to look outside the films that you take for granted already and watch some things you haven't seen on the the simplest level, right?
Well, what happened was a student said, "Oh yeah, Star War's amazing," and another student said,
"What are you talking about it's full of imperialism, and oppression, and all this like, all this terrorism and all this stuff," and then somebody else cut him off and said,
"Well duh, that's like the whole point of course they're called the imperialists, you know, like this whole thing," right? And it got to be this whole
escalated situation and it resulted in a real like explosion, and it caught me off guard, it happened so fast, I didn't even know what happened, and I had to reel it in, and I said, "Wait a minute that's not okay,"
you know, and I kind of got us back on track and I said, "Well look I said, this is the thing, yeah,
you know, it does have those things in it, and, you know, the others students are correct in saying that. Well the whole point is to set up this
bad world and the non ideal world, and then have the rebels come in and fight to get where it needs to be, and sure at the at the basic level of story, that's what the story was trying to do," but,
what happened was after that he calmed down, he messaged me in the chat and said "I'm sorry for losing it. That was unprofessional. I shouldn't have done that, and you know, I just really, I got cut off and they interrupted me I didn't get to finish my thought.
And I was really passionate about what I was saying," I said, "I absolutely understand that and I understand why, you know, you would be upset about that, but you know you can't,
you know, lash out like that," and he said, "I know I'm really sorry," and I said, "I appreciate your apology, but I think that apology needs to be for the class," "Absolutely, I want to apologize," and so he
sent a message in the chat and nobody really thought. We were talking about gold diggers in 1933,
and nobody really saw it, and so he sent me another message and said, "Can I verbally apologize, because I feel like nobody saw the chat and I just it's that personal I really feel like I need to apologize."
I said, "Absolutely," so this is, I asked him
if I could actually share this story, and he was absolutely he said, "Absolutely you can share it," I said, "I think this is a great teachable moment that would tie in really well with my talk."
And he said, 'Yeah you can use it," and he said, "You know, I think you could probably use the audio, you know?" He's like, "I'm totally fine with that," I said, "Really?" He said, "Yeah." So this is the audio of that conversation.
Yeah I'm sorry for earlier guys. That was not okay.
Sorry that sounded really disingenuous I'm really sorry for earlier. It wasn't okay to call anybody any names.
But like I did feel really invalidated for expressing my opinion and then getting interrupted.
Like, I just wanted to finish my thought. I should not have said anything, I should have waited and then said what I
should've whatever. Doesn't sound a big deal it's Star Wars, like who cares? It's literally a film class about, like analyzing film, like that's the point of the class, like, you know, why am I? It's laughable that I got that angry, but like,
yeah, sorry guys. [Lauren]: I really appreciate that. [Student]: I apologized in chat, but I wanted to apologize verbally, 'cause chat has almost like, not everybody reads it and there's like no impact, so again, sorry guys, I will not do that again.
Sorry. [Lauren]: Look at that. All the grace. Look, what we saying? Grace, giving grace and receiving grace, right? This is what the class is about and I want to just affirm you right now for even wanting to apologize and the fact that this goes back to a direct example of what that,
the mask you live in in the beginning of the class that we watched?
This is a perfect example about how we grow as people. You know what I'm saying? It's like,
the toxic masculinity thing would have been, "Oh I got mad, and he, you know, did whatever he did, and it's my right to be mad." Yeah, it's alright to have those feelings, but then it's like looking at how they affect other people and that's where that makes you,
that makes your character very strong and admirable, and so I appreciate that very much and so does everybody else because look at all the comments. Thank you everyone for that. I appreciate it. That was really, that's the best moment in the whole class for me right there.
Lauren: Okay next slide please?
So the takeaways from that moment, and how it ties in so well to what I was just talking about, compassion and empathy to start off so,
the after part of that apology, the student and I we stayed after and he stayed around to talk to me, and he shared with me that his family is from Palestine.
And that this imperialist oppression has had a huge traumatic effect on his entire family, right? The student is very fair and, you know, if
you were to look at him you probably wouldn't even guess that, but this is again awareness. We're just faces on a screen, right?
We don't know with the stories that accompany the students that are on that, on the cameras or not on the camera, right, if they just have their name up there.
We don't know anything about these people. We are not aware of their background. It's hard to empathize with people
when you don't know anything about them. We have no context. So on one hand,
you know, we see him lashing out about Star Wars, or whatever, but he's telling me like, "When I see Star Wars it's hard for me to watch that because it reminds me
of what happened to my people." I go, "Absolutely that makes so much sense to me," you know, the students didn't have that luxury of getting that explanation. We're going to actually talk about this week, having a follow up, and so, but the idea is that he
felt that his agency was taken away, he did not feel seen, right? And,
the people in the class didn't, they didn't have that empathy at the moment, but later on, they did show compassion,
because once he apologized and he said how he was feeling, the student who cut him off apologized.
He made up with that student and everybody was saying, "You know we understand. Don't worry about it." You know it was,
it was a very powerful moment for me and I was really grateful because it could have easily gone the other way, had he chosen to be hardened, had he chosen to not give grace in his, you know, to give grace to them to even apologize, and let him allow
himself to take that step, and he didn't have to take accountability, but he did. You know, that says a lot about his character and who he is as a person.
And equality and equity. Well, you know, we try to give everybody equal time to speak, but, you know, equity, he needed in that moment he needed that extra time because that was,
he needed that to process through what happened and everybody else needed to hear what he had to say. So anyway that's just a few of the of the takeaways and how they kind of tie back into a
very poetic moment that just happened in my class last week.
But anyway, hopefully we can see like how that's life application, right, with these terms,
or these concepts and themes from Remember The Titans that on the surface, this a movie about, you know, a
underdog football team that comes together and there's some race issues involved, but really these are human issues,
right? Everything that we saw on here was not about black and white. We saw that both sides were dealing with the same things. Both sides are dealing with pride. Both sides are dealing with ego. Both sides deal with fear, and hurt, and frustration, and discouragement.
So that's where the compassion comes in, like we can all be in that situation at any point in our lives. Any of us could be that, right? There's an adage that says,
"But for the grace of God there go I," right? And it's basically saying that,
you know what, you drive by or you walk by and see somebody in a tent on the street and it's easy to judge and say, "Golly," looking at them, "they probably do drugs, and they probably do X, and they probably do Y."
But you know what? You don't know what happened in their situation. You don't know if their house got foreclosed. You don't know if, you know, somebody
took them for everything they had, right? We don't have any idea about anybody's life, so passing judgment in that way is really irresponsible,
and that's what causes that divisiveness. Let's forget about race, let's talk about just people, right? It causes divisiveness even for me to be divided from another human being, because I choose not to see
the possibilities, right, or to choose not to see them for who they are, even for the part that's presented to me, right? So I think it's just really important and I'm I just
this film, I think, it's just so much more powerful than the the beautiful inspirational story that's there. There's a real, there's a lot of nuggets to be taken away, and if we choose to apply them; look I'm a dreamer I said at the beginning,
I really just, I just believe we can do better, we can do better, as people, as human beings.
Like beyond the race thing, just as people, right? And if we start in our own spheres that we have to work with, and then it kind of spreads, you know, yeah that's like grassroots marketing, right, it might take a while, but, you know, eventually we get there. So I want to leave us with
the most beautiful speech in the film.
And that's going to be our call to action. Next slide please?
So your history, my history, our history, let's watch it.
Boone: Anybody know what is place is?
This is Gettysburg.
This is where they fought, the Battle of Gettysburg.
50,000 men died, right here
on this field, fighting the same fight
that we're still fighting amongst ourselves...today.
This green field right here
was painted red.
Bubbling with the blood of
young boys.
Smoke
and hot lead pouring right through their bodies.
Listen to their souls, men.
"I killed my brother with
malice in my heart."
"Hatred
destroyed my family."
You listen
and you take a lesson from the dead.
If we don't come together,
right now, on this hallowed ground, then we, too, will be destroyed.
Just like they were.
I don't care if you like, each other or not,
but you will respect each other.
And maybe...
I don't know, maybe we'll
learn to play this game like men.
Lauren: And thank you. Next slide? That's the end.
Lauren: All right.
Rena Petrello: Professor Snowden we have three questions. Are you ready to enter the question and answer period?
[Lauren]: Absolutely. [Rena]: Awesome. [Lauren]: Thank you all for your patience.
Rena: Alright, so, we have some great comments here which I'll let you read later.
First question is from Jenna, "Who is your favorite character or characters and why?"
Lauren: Ooh that's so tough.
But, you know, I have to say my favorite relationship is Julius and Gerry. That's my favorite relationship in the film and
like even thinking about it, right now, like I start to get a little misty. Like it doesn't matter how many times I've watched this film and, you know, when
right after Ray walks out and says, "You can keep them," if you heard that one little note the two little notes from Cat Stevens, it's my favorite song in the world, Peace Train.
And I'll never forget, when I saw it in context of this film, I cried in movie theater.
It's just like the words of that song are so beautiful and if you haven't heard it I highly recommend, you know, if you seen the movie you've heard it, but Cat Stevens, Peace Train.
But yeah I love their relationship. I love everything about it. I love the fact that you see them grow. There's so much redemption in that relationship, and the fact that
the thing I love about, but at the most of that it's a true story, right, and these two people really existed, and they really had these struggles, and they really came together. And, you know, one of my favorite scenes is,
you know, at the end of course somebody I think mentioned in the Q&A there, but there was a car accident, you know, Gerry he's injured, you know, and sadly, you know, he's been, he's no longer with us now.
But, you know, after that part, you know, Julius tells them, you know,
"We're going to drop this, we're going to grow up, we're going to move out of the hood, and we're going to
live together, we're going to
grow old together," and all these things, but when he comes into the room, the nurse says, "This is only for family," and he says, "Can't you see that, that's my brother," you know, "The family resemblance," right, and
it's just like it's such a huge like the arc is just it seems so impossible at the beginning.
Right? You got the left side, strong side, I mean it's just if you just watch the whole entire thing, right? That whole arc that's like my favorite arc in the whole film. And I feel like it's such a
it's like a microcosm, I guess it's where I hope, the dreamer in me feels like, "Why can't we get there, as people, we can get there, right?" and I'm like, "If they got there," you know, and I think that, that just has the most inspiration for me so that's my favorite relationship.
Thank you, great question Jenna.
Rena: Alright, the next question, "What is the best way," and this is from Lani, "What is the best way to deal with people like Ray
who repeatedly deflect and don't recognize when they say or do something discriminatory? I usually have to try my best not to go off and get mad at them and I know that is not the best response."
Lauren: Wow that's a tough question. That's a really real question and to be completely honest with you, I haven't figured out the right answer for that, because I feel like
it's an equity issue,
really, right? Like I feel like it's definitely case by case. Like in this particular case with Ray and Bertier, right?
Ray didn't listen to anybody, right? Even his best friend couldn't couldn't break him, right? So I feel like we do what we can do. Some people are just not going to change and that's the sad part.
That's, you know, and that's hard to accept. That's hard to accept, but some people are just not going to change. Some people just don't have it in them.
They don't have the, they don't have the desire, they don't have the compassion, they don't have the empathy or compassion, right? And, you know, some people are just in that place, but I think that to start out, you know, I think the most important thing is when things like that happen,
to say that that's not okay. You know, at the very least, "I'm going to let you know that I heard you and it's not okay to do that," right? And,
you know, and, of course, all these things require wisdom, right? It depends on the context, it depends on a lot of stuff. If this is a hostile situation
you might need to be a little bit more reserved in how you handle it, but, you know, in a just a casual conversation setting,
I think the biggest thing is not joining in, right? Like, you know, going back to those quotes at the beginning, and, you know, that article that I mentioned from Forbes Magazine,
you know, empathy being divisive in a social setting,
like a lot of that happens when, you know,
another example of this is like, you know, you got a group of people and they're sitting here, making back jokes off color jokes about certain races and stuff like that, and you just kind of laugh because it's awkward and you don't want to really be the one to really
say anything, but really what is that doing for you? If you're going to walk away and feel sick to your stomach because you joined in or because you just were complicit because you didn't say anything, well, you have to be able to
sleep with yourself at night, right, and so
what is it going to take for you to feel that piece? And, you know, and whether or not again, same thing I said with compassion,
Lastik he tried to reach out to Julius, he wanted to sit with, Julius didn't want to have anything to do with him because he was angry, he was defensive, and all those different reasons, right?
But Lastik was still Lastik. He didn't let that change who he was, and I think the biggest thing is that we have to be who we are, no matter who is around, and
not change our colors to fit. Especially when the colors are wrong, right? So if it's not okay with you, then you say that it's not okay with you.
And you know what, maybe you have to show by example, like if they're going to keep doing that you get up and walk away. That's a very visual way to show that you don't approve of that, right?
And maybe, so maybe yeah you walk away you say, "Look this is not cool," they might tease you, they might do whatever they do, but you know what at the end of the day, you're going to feel good that you stood up and do the right thing.
And if that meant you standing up and walking away as well, then, you know, then that's that. You know, and maybe you'll have another chance, maybe that plants a seed, and maybe later on, you can revisit it but
if people don't allow, again, going back to the thing about awareness, if people don't allow space for these conversations,
then there's not really a whole lot you can do, but I think the first step is at least to make sure that people
understand that you saw and you're not okay, with it. And from there, I think, you know, you kind of have to listen to your heart as far as what to do, but every situation is different, again, just like with
Boone, you can't just go out there and just do the same thing.
The same approach doesn't work for every person, you know what I mean? How well do you know this person? That's another thing. You know what I mean? Depending on how well you know 'em you might be able to have a different conversation.
You know, so I think it's definitely there's no easy answer to that, but I think the biggest thing in that is your character and your integrity.
And keeping that intact and by living your life by example and if that example is you getting up and walking away and showing that you don't improve, then that might be your message for the moment. That's a great question.
Rena: Right, and this is the final question from Jesus, "As adults, how can we introduce the concept of respecting others' differences to a younger generation elementary school and upward?"
Lauren: That's great, so,
I believe, you know, especially with educators, like, so for me I don't have children, right, and I actually used to teach middle school. So I kind of got to do a little of this, you know, a little bit younger ages, but I think it needs to start even before that. You know, I think the biggest thing is
acknowledging, right, acknowledging like, you know, at a school level you've got, you know, events like Black History Month and allowing space for this. I have to tell you don't take for granted that we're doing this I used to teach at a school very, very affluent school,
in a different part of the valley, a secondary school, and, you know, before I got there they didn't have one Black faculty member, I started off as a long term teacher and
as soon as I got there it's like I started the job at the end of January, here comes the Black History Month, right, I get an email from the principal, "Hey so we wanted to give you an opportunity to join in our Black history presentation, you know,
we would love to have you, you know, be a part of it, and you know what,
take as much time as you want. Whatever you want to do." What that told me was this is the first time you're having Black history, because you have a Black teacher and now you feel like, "Oh, we need to do this," right? So basically I was a Black History Month, you know,
it was like, "Okay well that's a lot of pressure," for one.
Secondly, well you know what the conviction was there, because they saw, "Well we're not doing enough," right?
And so don't take for granted that we're doing this. So, you know, that's one thing, you know, at the younger levels, I think, having not only Black History Month, having multicultural day, having, you know,
appreciating every single culture and to me like as a teacher, in my classes now I try to make sure that I,
you know, and I can't cover all of them, right, but I tried to study like what are the, you know, the nationalities and the culture that we have at our school, and I try my best to represent them. I'm still building on that,
but to be able to represent as many different people as possible, right,
it's like to be able to let them see themselves on screen, right? Whether that's in the books that the students are reading, in the younger ages, like
having them read books with characters who look like them, who look like other people who aren't them, right? And so that's how you start to grow them beyond their own experience. You know I remember my dad told me when I was little,
my dad is a welder and he's a welding professor, but he's had his own gate making business and he made a gate and
he was working at this white family's house and the little girl said, "Oh you're putting a gate on our pool?" My dad says, "Yeah that's a nice pool you got there," and he said, "You're gonna let me swim in your pool?" and she said, "No, I don't want my, I don't want the pool to turn black."
I was little when he told me that. I cried. I was so angry, I was like, "How dare she. How dare," I was like seven. I'm like, "How dare you say that to my dad and who are her parents?" You know what I'm saying? So,
a lot of that stuff starts at home, and I do honestly think that we put too much onus on the school to do a lot of this stuff. You can't take for granted that your school is going to do the things that your child needs to know. So I personally don't have children, yet,
but I want to say that if you have if it's siblings, cousins, whoever it is, whoever the children are in your sphere that you can influence,
you can start that conversation with them, right, and then continue that. So,
I think that that's really important whether that's in the school environment or outside, but to be honest with you, I think that we put too much
pressure on the schools to do the parenting and things that we're supposed to do. Like, I believe that those are things, like my parents taught us at home, you know, the way that we should treat people and
they had taught us about all that kind of stuff and from their personal experiences, and they lead by example. They brought friends home,
you know, our friends home and fostered all kinds of our friends. We adopted my brother's, one of my brother's
best friends from high school, Mexican. And him and his sister when they were 20 years old. Adopted them into our family outright, right, and now we've got two more siblings.
That's just the way that we live our life. So a lot of it is just the way that you model. So, you know letting your kids, or your siblings, or whoever it is be around people who don't look like them, showing them movies, like this, right and
having hard these conversations, because this is a hard movie to see. It's really, it's very emotional for so many reasons, but these are things that need to be said because otherwise, you know,
how else are they going to see it, right, and we see that we're having an issue with, you know, getting awareness and equity and all these kinds of things in our schools now. So we need to do the part that we can do. That's what I feel about it.
Rena: Thank you, Professor Snowden. We've got some great comments,
that you will, this has been exceptional. What an excellent presentation. So thank you very much for putting this together for us.
Lauren: Thank you so much, and I just want to thank you.
Rena
Petrello, Professor Petrello for being my moderator, and everyone who is here
thank you so much for putting the time in and for going on this little journey with me. I hope you were able to
see the movie if you haven't. If you're inspired to watch it please do. I would love to hear from any of you at any point. Feel free to email me. And I just want to thank you, thank you for your patience and your grace, and I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week.