Gawker
Were we the only ones to read Michael Lewis' "The Ballad of Big Mike" in this week's Magazine and feel a little creepy? A little weirded out by the shocking paternalism of the entire thing? The piece centers around Michael Oher, a poor, black Memphian rescued by a rich white family so that he could play football for Ole Miss. (The story actually contains the section head, "A Rich White Family Takes an Interest.")
Let's be clear: The story is touching, as "young man overcomes adversity" stories often are. The rich white family seems genuine in its desire to help this young man (and see him play football at their alma mater, but let's not be uncharitable). It points up some of the uncomfortable facts about race and poverty in this country.
Still - and we're not suggesting a steady diet of Adrian Nicole LeBlanc here; we understand that major publications sometimes need to do good by stealth - the celebration of this family and what they've done for "a first-team freshman All-American," seems to exactly encapsulate what's wrong with our attempts to address inequality in America. Would this have made the cover otherwise? Would Michael Lewis have written about it?
On the other hand, we can't wait until he goes pro and we read the touching story of the hard-working agent who generously lets Oher retain 85% of his salary. That's going to be good stuff.
The Ballad of Big Mike [NYT]
Comments
Geez, I don't know... creeped out. This kid never had a family, a home, even a bed. I think it's a pretty remarkable story myself.
I can imagine New Yorkers finding helping others creepy.
What I found most interesting was how one can replace his failing high school grades via the Mormons (online courses through BYU) to make the minimum GPA required for an athletic scholarship. The funniest line of the article was when the born-again father, Sean Tuohy was quoted as saying, "The Mormons may be going to hell,"... "But they really are nice people." Classic. Just classic.
I bet the daughter got and gave a heaping helping.
cynyc, I agree. One of my favorite things I've read all year.
To see a Strahan vs. Oher matchup...
Who is currently being picked as a contemporary of Oher's lining up as DE or LB in college or currently yound in the pros, that have already announced they want a piece of him?
Whip up the hype early, sure to generate sparks...
Who talks about race anymore? That's so over.
This was the best part of the article:
"There was one final piece of unfinished business in Michael Oher's Briarcrest career. The senior yearbook picture was due, and Michael didn't have one. It was a Briarcrest tradition for every senior to have his baby picture in the senior program. Her lack of a baby picture for Michael drove Leigh Anne to distraction.... One spring night Leigh Anne had an idea. She flipped on her computer and went online and found, as she puts it, "the cutest picture of a little black baby I could find." She downloaded the stranger's photo and sent it in to Briarcrest."
She could have also used a picture of Kate Moss and saved teh tiem she spent searching. Iiii liked when Mr. Simpson called 'Big Mike' "docile" (because "shy" won't do) and when the reporter compared the kid to a cow. For a second there I thought I was reading "The Green Mile"-and loving it!
A rich white family helping a poor black kid in the hopes of riding his ass to victories on the football field-this is news? This is altruism?
I apologise for my 6th percentile spelling, there.
cynyc and Twizz: I thought it was a compelling piece too....until I remembered that these kind, generous people hate homosexuals ("perverts," as they put it) and liberals.
The creepiest part is that so many people still read the Magazine. Ewwwww.
Really, Lefty? I must have missed the part of the article that detailed the Memphis family's anti-homosexual agenda.
did anyone at any point refer to oher as "well-spoken"?
lefty, yikes, where did i miss that part of the article?
pg. 114:
"The Briarcrest president gave a long speech filled with many words of warning to the graduating class. He explained that when they left Briarcrest and went out in the world, they would encounter 'all kinds of groups that claim some kind of privilege based on their lifestyles or perversions.' (There was no need to say 'gay"; they knew all about sodomy.)"
pg. 112:
"She [tutor Sue Mitchell] also advertised herself as a liberal. When Sean heard that, he hooted at her, "We had a black son before we had a Democrat friend!"
Only in the Bible Belt, kids. Only in the Bible Belt.
Plenty of New Yorkers DO help other people, and we don't think its creepy. What's creepy (besides the finding a picture of any black baby - wtf?!) is this last line: "And his new parents, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, were so pleased with the results of their experiment that they began to figure out how best to go back into the inner city and do it all over again." Parents and experiment in one sentence, *that's* creepy.
God it would be so much easier to do this without a pitbull terrier and a Belgian Shep trying to HELP me respond...with my laptop.
Listen, I came from Cali...no discernible background.
It's one thing to want a kid to care for him.
It's fully and fucking goddamn well another to see them as a paycheck (Foster kid speaking here.)
Black girl speaking here.
RETCH.
Hope this serves them well; being black don't mean I don't understand the Hindu/Indian concept of karma.
I understand it PERFECTLY.
*huff huff huff*
Jackasses.
MIchael Lewis just hasn't been the same since the whole meeting-smelly-French-people thing. I used to love him, but hyeah, just not the same.
The article mentions his low IQ, albeit raised a bit later on. He also had one-on-one tutoring to get him through high school, not to mention the BYU A's earned for a few hours' work on the internet. And this kid is in college? Just so he can play football? Now what? Do we expect him to truly do college-level academics? How about a follow-up article from the NYT in a year?
Listen, I can appreciate where some of you are coming from, and how this could seem a bit creepy concerning the tired "white family saves black kid for money" angle. This is a typical response from us "northeastern liberals" who enjoy poking fun at Bible-Belters and those who are different.
Before you dismiss the Touhy family as ignorant bigots, before you destroy their name by claiming they are only interested in a pay check, read the book. I thought it was very touching and I especially found the mother's compassion to be exactly what it should be: Motherly. And maybe they aren't particularly savvy when it comes to dealing with race issues, and maybe the father made a few jokes that were a bit offsides, but that doesn't mean that they are bad people. These are good people. We could only hope our country had more people like them in it.
I hope that Michael Oher has a great career, and I wish the best for him and the Touhy family. I think those of you who think otherwise need to rethink some of your preconceptions.
i'm a little late to the fray, having arrived at this article after a search for michael lewis. he's got a great interview at www.econtalk.org about his book 'moneyball'that explains his interest in michael oher and the tuohy family. his book 'the blind side' grew out of research for 'moneyball'.
i'll echo wintahballz: read the book first, in fact read both books, to get a much better insight on our society's priorities vis-a-vis education and entertainment, and only then question the tuohy family's motivation, and your own.
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