Discrimination in Social Psychology

Social Psychology is defined as the study of how social roles, attitudes, relationships, and groups influence people to do things they would not necessarily do on their own. An aspect of this seen throughout human history and to this very day would be discrimination, unfair treatment towards a person or group based on prejudice. Forms of discrimination would be racism, prejudice based on race and ethnicity; sexism, bias against a particular gender; religious discrimination, prejudice against peoples of a particular religion; and reverse discrimination, when the minority group is favored above the majority group. From the issue of slave states versus free states apart of the cause of the American Civil War, to the Seneca Falls Convention, and the Holocaust of World War II; discrimination has played a huge role in the past and present in forms that effect every living human being. The films, Glory Road and The Express, show us a time in American history when racial discrimination was still prominent in culture even though it was nearly a century past the age of slavery in this country.
Glory Road is based on the true story behind what led to Texas Western College’s 1966 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship. At first it seems like a typical, predictable sport movie. The team has some problems working together, they over come it, and eventually win the game. Of course this film has those aspects, but it also has much more and explains a lot about discrimination against blacks and Social Psychology as a whole.
Don Haskins is the new basketball coach for Texas Western College. When he sets out to recruit members for his team he disregards race completely to form the strongest team possible. In this case alone Haskins has disregarded the norms of society and of how sports are treated. Normally the black players, despite how good they may be, are left as bench warmers only. Haskins completely sets these unwritten guidelines aside and leads a team of seven black players and five white players. As expected, such a radical feat caused controversy and discrimination from the rest of society and even members of the team. The white and black members of the team do not work well together at first and play as if they weren’t a uniform team. Haskins demands the best of his players and puts them on an extremely demanding practice program. By doing this Haskins hopes to achieve two goals: make the best of his players he knows are well qualified and have them work together as whole with the common goal of the desire to play and win. Later the team starts to become very successful and is nearly winning every game. Come the final game, the white players really want to play as well, but the coach uses “pressure on the dissenters to conform” because he knows it is important that the team proves a point in having an all-black starting lineup- that black players are just as good as white players. The championship game is extraordinarily hard, but eventually the team wins the game against the all white University of Kentucky team and claims the championship.
Discrimination is seen in this film, dominantly in the form of racism, but in many other forms as well. Signs of racism are seen at the beginning of the film when Haskins is recruiting members for his team. Even his assistant finds it peculiar when Haskins recruits so many black players, and openly states so at first, as do other people. When the team is formed and the coach has such a demanding practice system, the team questions the coaches ability with the reasoning that he was a girls high school basketball coach prior. This is the one sign of sexism shown in the film. More blatant examples of the racism the team faced is with come once they start winning many games and become the team to beat. One day when they are traveling, the team stops to eat at a diner. When one of their black players goes into the bathroom, he gets badly beat up by white members of another team. When they get back to their hotel room they find that their room is completely vandalized. Blood on the walls writes out racist comments, and the rest of the room is completely dismantled. Fans of their opposing teams would throw food and garbage at them as they would walk out to the basketball court. Towards the end of the movie when the coach requests that the team has an all black lineup for the final game, even though all the members agreed this was the best plan including the white players, it could be viewed as a sign of reverse discrimination.
Similar to Glory Road in it’s examples of racial discrimination in society and sports, The Express takes place a little earlier and is about the life of football player, Ernie Davis, and his struggles as a member for the Syracuse University football team. The story begins with young Ernie Davis. He and his friend are walking along the railroad tracks when the run into a group of white boys. The group of boys threaten Ernie and his friend because they are black. While Ernie is escaping the boys he outruns them all revealing his athletic ability. This also serves as the first example of racism in the film. Later Ernie joins his high school football team where he performs excellently. When the coach of Syracuse University’s football team, Ben Schwartzwalder, is looking for a replacement of his star player, who happens to be a black player, Jim Brown, he comes across Ernie Davis. He decides to have Jim Brown persuade Ernie Davis to join the Syracuse team. At first Jim is reluctant, but goes along with it. Ernie really admires Jim and is very excited to be meeting him. Jim is up front with Ernie and tells him that it is an uphill struggle and if Ernie really wants to be successful it’s a bit of a fight. Ernie eventually decides to join the Syracuse team. When Ernie gets there, one of the first things he notices are a lack of other black students, and when he looks at the trophy wall he finds that no winner to date was African American that has won the Heisman Trophy. Within a short time period he is recognized for his speed and is given the same number Jim once had, #44. At first, the other members feel that Ernie is given that elite position just because he is a black player, which is a suspicion of reverse discrimination. Ernie almost suspects the same thing, but the coaches reassure him that it was his ability alone that granted him the position on the Varsity team. Ernie is very successful on the Syracuse team, and the team has a goal to win the championship for the first time. As the team progresses, like what happened in Glory Road, when Ernie goes out with his team to play against a southern team, the fans of the southern team pummel Ernie with food and garbage. Heckling continues as Ernie continues out on the field and doing very well. Because of the ruckus Ernie’s presence on the field seems to be causing, the coach wants to pull Ernie off of the field. Ernie knows he can do well and does not want the mentalities of the fans to stop him from playing, so he goes out on his own despite the coach’s wishes. The team is victorious, but the coach is furious with Ernie. We learn here that the coach cares little about Ernie’s endeavor, but only cares about the order of his team and how well they play. Eventually the team goes to the cotton bowl game and Ernie brings them to victory. Ernie, like Jim, becomes a living legend and is admired by many. He becomes the first African American to be awarded the Heisman Trophy and is offered a position on the Cleveland Browns. However, Ernie has a series of nosebleeds and loses consciousness at the College All-Star Game. He is diagnosed with Leukemia and dies from it at age 23 in 1963. Ernie accomplished a lot as a football player and for African Americans nation wide.
Clearly, both of the films have much in common. Both deal with racial discrimination and the struggles it presented in many aspects of society, including sports. While in both cases the teams were successful in their goals to win championships, the fact that they overcame a type of discrimination that has plagued American history for centuries makes their victory even more meaningful. Both Ernie and the members of the Western Texas University team fought long and hard through physical and mental abuse because of nothing but their skin color. They were successful in the sports they love and changed the mentalities towards black sports players everywhere. Racial discrimination at times brought both down, but in the end it motivated them to persevere.
Discrimination in all of its forms is still seen today. I believe that the biggest form it is seen in this country today is towards Muslims due to the events of 9/11. Many people are instantly biased about Muslims as soon as they see that they are Arabic. There are also many stereotypes about the Muslim religion as a whole due to this discrimination such as, they are all terrorists, and they hate all religions other than their own. Discrimination, while disgusting in many ways, is almost a part of human nature. Humans fear what they don’t know and what they are unfamiliar with. These fears are the spark behind discriminations of many sorts. I feel that these two films portray discrimination in the rawest form that the American public has been familiar with in its past. Racism has been an uphill battle for centuries in the world, let alone the U.S. While then American public as whole does not act out the same way they did at the times the films took place, people still have the same mentalities within themselves to be prejudiced and discriminate against others. Discrimination is the dark side of human nature.