I just recently watched the movie the Blindside and it got me thinking about race and opportunity. Michael Ohre’s story is one that is wonderful and hopeful. It shows that no matter where you come from, you can have a great life. But is that really true? Yes, Michael rose above living in the projects and refrained from being involved in gangs and violence but were those the only reasons that he went to college and had a NFL career? If Michael hadn’t been accepted into a rich, white family who had extreme influence in the community and schools, would he have made it? I am not sure if any young man living in the projects could have had the same outcome. Even if he lived a good life and was not involved in drugs or gangs, was dedicated to his education, and was a good athlete, would a university even have looked at him? Most likely this person would not have received the support from his school to encourage his learning and he may not have even had a dedicated coach. His school would probably have less funding and therefore would only be focused on standardized testing. I don’t know if this boy would have had the same opportunities as the boy from the projects who was taken in by a white, rich family.

As we read in “Hitting Them Hardest When They’re Small” by Kozol, children who don’t receive a good education early and who attend schools with little money, have poorer outcomes. The real-life Michael Oher had a GPA of 0.6 when he first applied to Briarcrest Christian School. In his early childhood, he repeated both first and second grade and attended eleven different schools during his first nine years as a student. But after attending Briarcrest his GPA rose to a 2.52. They rich, white family that adopted him also paid for a tutor to work with him for 20 hours a week. No wonder Michael’s GPA improved. He was finally receiving an adequate education and was getting the help he needed to learn what he missed in previous years. Could he have done this if he were still living in the projects? In “Children of the City Invincible: Camden, New Jersey” and “Life on the Mississippi: East St. Louis, Illinois”, both by Kozol, we see the effects on two cities’ children because of little funding for education. These students do not receive the same education as other predominately white schools. How can we expect them to succeed as greatly?

Michael Oher’s story is a great one and the family who took him in and helped him obviously very generous and caring. But this story just shows how going to a school with large amounts of funding and how having large amounts of wealth can get you anywhere.