The Blind Side

I just finished Michael Lewis’ The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. It kind of leaves the reader feeling helpless because most readers don’t have the time, money, or compassion that the Tuohy family of Memphis has. A white Evangelical Christian family made up of: former Ole Miss basketball star Sean Tuohy; wife Leigh Anne Tuohy, parents of a son and daughter. For some reason they decided to bring Michael Oher, presently Ole Miss’ and the nation’s best D-I left tackle, into their family. However, when Sean found Michael, he had never learned Math, never heard of a right angle, or the American Civil War. Michael is obviously black – because you don’t hear stories like this with white kids involved, but hear the story too often with black kids involved.

The story goes – Michael never knew his father; later found out he was in/out of jail and eventually shot/killed; mother was drug addict that borne around 10 kids from all different fathers that were all absent; Michael ran away from foster homes many times until they gave up looking for him; and although his mother didn’t care for him, Michael always missed her and loved her; lived much of life in Hurt Village, one of the worst sections of Memphis where most people didn’t work and were involved with using and/or selling drugs. However, Michael did his best to stay away from that and possibly the only thing that kept him away was Michael Jordan. He saw Jordan once and then wanted to be him – like many black kids grow up dreaming of being the next Jordan. Sports are the only reason Sean Tuohy realized Michael existed. He saw this 6’6 350lbs black guy that was emulating guard-like moves on the basketball court. He decided to find out who this kid was to find out the backstory written above. Michael’s dream was to be a pro basketball player, but his body-type screamed NFL. Sean needed to get him on the football field.

Although Michael hadn’t played football before, he quickly became a star, doing things on the field nobody every saw before, eventually attracting the top college football schools in the nation. As stated before, he presently plays left tackle at Ole Miss, is a sophomore, and will one day play on Sunday. That is not why I’m writing this – and it isn’t the reason author Michael Lewis wrote the book. The reason he wrote it is because if the above wasn’t true, that he wasn’t an NFL prospect, nobody would care about Michael Oher, and he would still be just another statistic, chilling in Hurt Village Memphis.

I don’t like summarizing or reviewing books. If I didn’t get anything out of it, or didn’t like it, I wouldn’t be writing this. I’d rather just talk about a gained perspective. The reason Michael Oher never heard of a right angle or the Civil War was because he never went to school. He didn’t go to school because nobody told him to. The author explained Michael’s ignorance well, and it is something us white kids take for granted. We grew up learning through osmosis, effortlessly absorbing things – which later becomes knowledge. Even by showing up for school everyday and not listening, we were bound to brush by a right angle or civil war. Michael didn’t have school or anybody at home to provide osmosis - - that is why you hear many poor people talking, well, different(ly). Mix this lack of learning with nobody at home to love him. Nobody was home because he had no official home. Once Michael officially became a part of the Tuohy family, Lee Anne bought him something. He responded, “This is my bed? I’ve never had a bed”. With my BA in History on the wall, who cares about the civil war, even if you are black, if you’ve never had a bed in your life.

…To be continued…