Remember The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock? The movie showed how a kid who had an extremely rough upbringing got help from the family of a school friend, found success in football and ultimately ended up being adopted by the family. Turns out he was never adopted.
Michael Oher says that he was tricked by the Tuohy family into signing documents that made them his conservators. Since he was already 18 at the time the family told him, “that it means pretty much the exact same thing as ‘adoptive parents,’ but that the laws were just written in a way that took [his] age into account.”
Oher also says that papers were signed so that his story and likeness were given away for free to use in The Blind Side. He also never got a single royalty check for the hugely successful, Oscar nominated film in the 14 years since its release.
It just continues to baffle me that they essentially purchased a young Black man’s life to make football money off of, like buying a racing horse, except a person. Like, I don’t know how else to say it. And then made everyone think it was something wonderful they did to “save” an “impoverished, Black boy”, and he’s been saying it for years to no avail that they took advantage of him!
It makes perfect sense when you learn how white people have used the black body to their advantage for centuries. This story and film hasn’t sat right with me almost since it came out so I’m not surprised, but I am deeply saddened for Oher’s experience of being taken advantage of.
The article gets into this, but the movie’s also super fucking gross in how it portrays Oher and his life.
For one thing, it chose to portray him as a slow kid who got into the private high school he graduated from because the Tuohys showed the football coach how, uh, big and athletic he was. In reality, he was a smart kid who impressed the principal of the school by demonstrating academic focus despite his chaotic home life. This change is so straightforwardly racist that I don’t even feel the need to elaborate on it.
The movie also decided to make the Tuohys the ones who introduce Oher to football, even though in reality he already knew how to play and was already excelling in the high school’s team before ever meeting the Tuohys. This change is honestly fucking bizarre. It’s like the Tuohys felt like their white savior fantasy wouldn’t be complete unless it was literally complete, totalizing, with themselves directly responsible for every aspect of Oher’s success.
Anyway, Oher’s taking the Tuohys to court; here’s hoping he can finally get what’s his. He also has a book out.
