Remember The Titans: Film Analysis
The movie “Remember the Titans” by Boaz Yakin is based on a true story of African American coach who gets assigned to racially integrated high school football team in Alexandria, Virginia during 1970s. The story depicts the clear benefits of merging cultures (two races in this case), group cohesiveness and effective leadership, which results in The Titans becoming the champions of the league. It also shows the hardships that the process of integration of two cultures can bring and is a good example of effectively managing diversity in an organization. Diversity in general is very beneficial to any organization as it makes the best human talent available to the organization,
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One of the major reasons for this is that diversity is not conceived as an organizational priority. The story of the Titans reminds us about the benefits that diversity can bring to an organization (creativity, innovation, added problem solving etc.). Even though managing diversity and cultural change in general is a painful process to any organization, the benefits it brings usually exceeds the efforts it requires. In order for organizational leaders and managers not to have inaccurate stereotypes and prejudice, a deep knowledge and respect of different cultures is essential. Even though diversity is still an issue today, it is less of a problem than it was before and society is more aware of the importance of treating diverse people fairly. However, the word “fairly” is sometimes misunderstood in our modern society. One of the most important points made in this movie in my opinion is coach Boone explaining coach Yoast the true meaning of treating diversity fairly when coach Yoast supports African American players with special attention: “I may be a mean cuss, but I am the same mean cuss with everybody out there on that football team 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.” By this quote, coach Boone explains that treating diverse employees (people in general) fairly doesn’t mean treating them with special attention or support, it means considering them full-time members of the community/organization and equating them to other non-diverse members at all
One of the major reasons for this is that diversity is not conceived as an organizational priority. The story of the Titans reminds us about the benefits that diversity can bring to an organization (creativity, innovation, added problem solving etc.). Even though managing diversity and cultural change in general is a painful process to any organization, the benefits it brings usually exceeds the efforts it requires. In order for organizational leaders and managers not to have inaccurate stereotypes and prejudice, a deep knowledge and respect of different cultures is essential. Even though diversity is still an issue today, it is less of a problem than it was before and society is more aware of the importance of treating diverse people fairly. However, the word “fairly” is sometimes misunderstood in our modern society. One of the most important points made in this movie in my opinion is coach Boone explaining coach Yoast the true meaning of treating diversity fairly when coach Yoast supports African American players with special attention: “I may be a mean cuss, but I am the same mean cuss with everybody out there on that football team 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.” By this quote, coach Boone explains that treating diverse employees (people in general) fairly doesn’t mean treating them with special attention or support, it means considering them full-time members of the community/organization and equating them to other non-diverse members at all