MSNBC Uses Michael Oher Allegations To Bemoan White People
Former NFL player Michael Oher, of Blind Side fame, alleges that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy tricked him into signing a conservatorship under the pretense it was an adoption.
Oher alleges he just learned this year that the Tuohys obtained control of his financial future.
The Tuohy family has since denied Oher’s claims that he never received any royalties from The Blind Side, suggesting the allegations are a shakedown attempt.
The allegations are complicated. They are tragic. Such allegations could derail any further relationship between Oher and the Tuohy family. Financial disputes can do that to loved ones. And, by all accounts, the Tuohys loved Oher and vice versa.
Yet, the corporate press has already taken a side in the dispute. According to the media, Michael Oher is the victim. And the Tuohys are the beneficiaries of Hollywood's fascination with the “white savior trope.”
Michael Oher is black. The Tuohys are white. And thus, Oher is right and the Tuohys are wrong, in the minds of the press.
"The Blind Side isn't the only film that gets things wrong. All white savior movies do," read an MSNBC op-ed.
The article admits "It's unclear at this point if the 37-year-old Oher’s case against the Tuohys has merit." Nonetheless, the author says the film is forever tainted with racial biases.
"While Oher’s lawsuit is an indictment of sorts against the Tuohys, it is just as much an indictment of movie audiences that over and over again lap up stories about white people saving some downtrodden Black person or some downtrodden group of Black people," reads the column.
The piece continues, "The Blind Side, where a relatively small white woman, played by Sandra Bullock (who won an Oscar for her role) ), develops a relationship with a large Black teenager who had experienced homelessness is a twisted version of Beauty and the Beast” It excites a white imagination that longs for contact with the Black other and simultaneously fears that contact. Similar to what Joseph Conrad did in his 19th-century novel The Heart of Darkness, the Black per son is considered dangerous or irreparably damaged until a white person sees their humanity."
The article also includes this gem:
Of course, the white savior flick can also double as the “magical Negro” flick where the Black character — such as the one Michael Clarke Duncan played in “The Green Mile” or the one Whoopi Goldberg played in “Ghost” — is there to help white characters become the best versions of themselves. As Nnedi Okorafor writes in her short story “Magical Negro,” the Black character isn’t a real person, just a rhetorical device that's there to help save the hero from themselves.
And our personal favorite:
The white public craves feel-good stories that portray them as heroes more than accurate stories that portray Black people as complete and complex human beings.
What's unclear is what any of the claims in the op-ed, most of which are supported by cherry-picked examples, has to do with the allegations at hand. Or even in the film.
The Blind Side film is inspired by Michael Lewis’ 2006 book of the same name. From all accounts, both stories accurately depict Oher’s life with the Tuohys.
See, neither the film nor the book state the Tuohy family ever adopted Michael Oher. The stories, instead, tell how a seventeen-year-old boy, with the body of a large man, lived in the foster care system due to his mother's drug addiction and ended up in the home of the Tuohys who helped him get noticed by college scouts.
As of now, none of that has been disputed. And it likely won't be. The synopsis has been corroborated for nearly two decades.
The dynamics between Oher and the Tuohys are cinematic, exhibiting a true tale of desperation, tragedy, and hope. That, not because of the subjects skin colors, is why the film generated both critical and commercial success.
"As a sociologist in a field that helped invent this racist and paternalistic treatment of Black people as fundamentally damaged, I teach against those familiar narratives. Those narratives are dishonest, condescending and emotionally manipulative, but, put them on the big screen, and you’re almost guaranteed to make a whole lot of money," the story concludes.
It's unclear what MSNBC would like done about the film.
Does it prefer a studio remake of the title on a streaming service with the Tuohys recast as black?
Does the author hope directors see the article and think twice before cinematizing another feel-good story involving white people?
Or did MSNBC just print the article to capitalize on the news cycle and further stoke unjust racial grievances?
We vote Option 3.