The Longest Yard

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In the movie The Longest Yard, Adam Sandler is trying to get a football team together composed of inmates while he is in jail. They are to play against the guards of the prison to give the guards practice for their upcoming football season. Adam Sandler is analyzing his team and noticing that he does not have any players that are very fast and discusses his concern with Chris Rock’s character.

Chris Rock: What'd you expect? You got no brothers out there.

Adam Sandler: What are you talking about? We got Switowski.

Chris Rock: Switowski? That's one brother. That's a lonely nigga. This ain't hockey.
You want some speed, you know where to go.

A full transcript for the movie The Longest Yard can be found at: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/l/longest-yard-script-transcript-sandler.html

Adam Sandler is looking for speed on his football team in The Longest Yard. Chris Rock tells him that he has no speed because the majority of his team is white and that if he wants speed on his team, he needs to recruit some black people. This implies that black people are naturally faster and have better athletic ability than white people. This is exactly what the video Race: The Power of Illusion discusses.

Chris Rock’s character tells Adam Sandler that he needs black people on his team for it to be fast. The Longest Yard portrays Adam Sandler as the typical white quarterback of the team and his team needs some fast black men. The white men in the film that are put on the football team are either very large and used as blockers and tacklers, or made to appear very clumsy and non-athletic. The black men trying to be recruited for speed are all muscular men that hang out at the basketball court playing each other. One of the basketball players agrees to play with Adam’s team and is extremely fast running through the desert with no shows on their practice field. Chris Rock implies that the black man has slave feet; he can handle the hard ground with no shoes and does not need such a luxury that white people do. This idea that black people are better athletes and can run faster than white people is discussed in Race: The Power of Illusion. It had been believed for a long time that there were significant genetic differences between whites and blacks that allowed blacks to run faster and be more athletic. It was often argued that this was because blacks were more wild and more closely related to apes, as if they had not evolved as much as white people. There were many scientific studies done to try to prove such things and often, scientists of long ago, would come to the conclusion that blacks were very different and had different bodies than whites. It is still a common myth today that black people have an extra muscle in their legs that allows them to run faster than white people. None of these things are true, as stated and proved in Race; The Power of Illusion, but they are still used in movies today. This causes the idea that these myths are true to continue and for people to keep believing them. As Hollywood films reinforce these beliefs, the idea that race is genetic and whites and blacks are so different makes it harder and harder to ignore race as a factor in society.

After having watched Race: The Power of Illusion and then watching The Longest Yard, I realized how many references there are to the differences in black people and white people. The movie is full of racial differences, comments, and jokes. Although put in the movie for humor, they influence people to think that these differences do exist and are genetic. Although I had used to find this movie solely entertaining, I now see how such jokes and ideas can unknowingly influence a person.