Sufferin’ Succotash
By Lynn Petrovich
Several snowy Sunday’s ago, I settled into a sticky seat in my local multiplex to watch the film, The Blind Side, a warm, fuzzy documentary about class rebellion and civil disobedience.
In one scene the main character, Leigh Anne Tuohy, played with sassy soccer mom appeal by Sandra Bullock, warns her adopted black teenage son: “If I find out you got a girl pregnant out of wedlock, I’ll cut off your penis.”
I should mention the most of the movie-goers were under age 10.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s the movie’s premise: A wealthy white family takes in a poor black teenager named Michael who’s been living on the streets because of his mother’s drug and incarceration problems. The film explores the life “lessons” of the well to do…and, well, everybody else.
Truth be told, the Tuohys and Michael have more in common than they think.
Leigh Anne, her husband, Sean, and their two children live in a big house, a McMansion, in the grass-is-greener section of Memphis. Michael lives in another part of Memphis, and coincidentally, many of the people in his neighborhood also end up in the big house.
After deciding to take Michael into her home, Leigh Anne fights against insufferable odds to gain the support of her peers who are horrified that a lily white wealthy woman from the upper echelon of Memphis could open her home to a hungry, homeless, dejected orphan from “the other side of the tracks”. Leigh Anne is forced to confront her detractors at daily luncheons where, over wine, posh salads, Pellegrino, and an adoring wait staff, they bicker about her embrace of this young boy, which they imply borders on socialism.
Husband Sean Tuohy, a former college basketball star, owns somewhere between 85 and 100 Taco Bell Restaurants. Sean doesn’t have much to do all day and the income from his restaurants allows him the freedom to give in to Leigh Anne’s impulses at every turn. After adopted son Michael finds out how Sean makes a living, he asks what happens to the leftover food from his restaurants. Sean replies they give it to local food pantries, but complains “I’d rather sell it and make money”.
One scene in particular demonstrates Michael’s ignorance of red-blooded American family values. Thanksgiving arrives the week after Michael is taken in by the Tuohy’s, who spend the day in front of the their 85 foot television screen devouring a prepared feast and watching men in uniform brutally combating each other toward mutual – but opposing – goals. After filling his plate with food, Michael moves to another part of the house, sits down, and eats. This observation jolts Leigh Anne into making an unprecedented, radical family decision: They will join Michael in their (finely decorated) “dining” room (without hi-def) at a table where they can all hold hands and say grace (and not in between tackles, sackings, penalties, and sudden death overtime).
For most of the movie, the Tuohys are at a loss to understand how people from impoverished, minority neighborhoods like Michael’s sustain their continued existence. Thankfully the movie doesn’t torture us about the details of our economic system or the fact that most of Sean’s Taco Bells are concentrated predominantly in urban areas or that the average hourly wage of workers – excuse me - “crew members” - is $7.80 (less than $16,500 per year). Of course, a Shift Manager can earn almost $8.51 and if an employee really works hard they can fulfill the American Dream by becoming Shift Leader at a whopping $9.10 per hour.
But hey, if employees at Taco Bell made a “living” wage, Sean would not be able to enjoy the life of luxury, taking in poor orphan kids. And if fast-food restaurants didn’t further cut costs by purchasing meat from industrial food factory farms/incarceration/torture complexes like Smithfield, Monsanto, and Tyson they wouldn’t be able to have $1 value meals that curtail hunger pangs of low-income wage earners (and increase sales and wealth of people like Sean).
I mean, sufferin’ succotash, what’s a person to do? You either take in one abandoned kid, or you stand up to a system that rewards the very few at the expense of multitudes of kids like Michael.
What can a guy like Sean to do? He can’t use a process called T-H-O-U-G-H-T because that might impede upon his W-E-A-L-T-H.
Several years ago one of my more liberal relatives, who’s been retired for almost a decade, had returned from one of his numerous international jaunts, either to Singapore or Australia or London or Paris or Bermuda or some cruise to Norway or some such vacation which he enjoys several times a year. While showing me his pictures, I asked where he had them printed up. “Wal-Mart” he replied. And that sparked a conversation about Wal-Mart’s policies which often leave employees destitute, relying on Medicaid for health insurance.
“Yes” he said “I agree with you, but at Wal-Mart, I can get photos printed for two cents a copy, and other stores charge two and a half cents. So what are you gonna do?”
Exactly.
Now that’s what I call The Blind Side.
Lynn Petrovich
Copyright 2010
