No ‘I’ in Team

Szymon Mocarski
Nov 4 · 2 min read

In the media, young men are typically portrayed as ego driven, hormonal monsters who just turn to aggression to be number one, and the episode of “All American” entitled “i” proves just that. “All American” provides the audience with a harmful portrayal of white, male athletes’ mindsets towards African American teammates and their ego driven problem solving skills

After a tough loss, the Beverly High football team enters the locker room. Jordan Baker, a black white mixed race quarterback and captain of the football team, is arguing with Asher Adams, a white football player, about the most recent loss. When Spencer James walks in, Asher instantly blames the loss on him by saying, “We didn’t lose that game. He did.” Asher further continues, “Homeboy here can’t hold onto the damn ball.” Asher has had a deep hatred for Spencer ever since he joined Beverly and has shown it with continual racist remarks. The usage of the word “Homeboy” here was to provoke Spencer because of his hood roots. Because of Asher’s toxicity towards Spencer, viewers may get the impression that all white athletes mistreat their African American teammates.

Later on, in an effort to get closer to Spencer, Jordan comes to Spencer’s cookout back at his old house in Crenshaw. During the cookout, Spencer’s Crenshaw teammates are talking about who the best rapper of all time is, when Jordan butts in and shares his input. With the Crenshaw crew in shock, an argument erupts and the two teams are headed to the football field to decide the victor. Instead of just discussing the topic, the young men feel the need to add some sort of aggression to the mix, which is football. The teams battle it head to head and play tackle football… without pads. “All American” reinforces the norm that young men resort to violence when problem solving.

Although setup in a very relatable high school setting with sports and homecoming scene, the combination of overly filled with testosterone male athletes and racist white teammates may swerve the audience’s opinions on high school athletes and young men, white or black, in America.

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