Introduction
In the movie, “McFarland USA”, Mr. White is presented as the new football coach. He is
given the chance to form a cross country team but is completely new to a predominantly
Mexican city in California. His students nickname him “White” and do not try to get along with
him for a period of the movie. Mr. White went through several cultural experiences and
environmental changes that were both knew and hard for him to comprehend. While forming and
sustaining the cross-country team, the most vital fundamentals that let the students build
authentic relationships with Mr. White through the speech and cultural barrier was his manner,
dedication, and collaboration to understand that he is attempting to comprehend their cultural
customs and principles. As Mr. White demonstrated these three attributes, the students became
relaxed and ready to assist him in comprehending and ultimately become a part their city.
Respect
The students reacted to White demonstrating respect toward their culture and its customs
which cultivated their friendships with him as the movie ended. Throughout one of their
practices, a mother pulls up and calls her sons on the team to get to the car since they have to
help at work with their father. Having respect for one’s parents, specifically your mother, is
crucial within this culture. A lot of children within this culture do not attempt and back-talk or
yell at their mothers to stop, they answer instantly without arguing. While this was going on,
White was entirely perplexed and told them to stay back and tell their mother to wait for them
until practice concluded. One of them paused and told him to “tell her that”. When this
happened, it was obvious that they knew entirely what their mother was asking, so they did as
they were asked. However, Mr. White had not been shown that before, so he was perplexed, but
still let them go since he noticed the change in the boys’ attitude that showed their mother was
serious. Later in the movie, a moment where White displayed respect toward the students was
when he was welcomed to eat at the house of one of his students. Mr. White was sitting with
them, and their mom continued to put food on his plate every time he ate more. He definitely
seemed as though he was slightly irritated by it, but he also decided that it would be rude to turn
her down. Their mom thought it would be respectful toward him to make sure he was full
afterwards. One of the students looks at Mr. White and tells him, “You can say you don’t want
any more food because if you keep going like this you are going to throw up and that is going to
be more disrespectful than saying no”. At this time the audience was shown the two concepts of
respect. White began to realize and comprehend more of their cultural norms along with the
notion of respect in this moment.
Dedication
While he was attempting to form the cross-country team, the coach demonstrated a great
amount of patience while persuading students to join. He displayed specific attention and
patience with Valles. The coach was able to get Sammy to have faith in this team along with
asking him to get his friends, brothers, and Valles to join the team. Even though a good amount
of these students rejected this offer, coach White continued to pursue them in order to earn their
trust for them to join them. Valles showed that he was the strongest person there and proved to be
the most talented. There were a lot of times that he was frustrated with the coach, but White
continued to help him. He even went on to become White’s best friend and the team captain. One
moment that many think turned Valles’ view toward Mr. White happened when he took a
moment to simply listen to Valles’ heart and thoughts. All he did was attempt to comprehend
what Valles was dealing with personally along with his family issues, and especially with his
father. Coach White mentioned that he had forgotten his daughter’s birthday which allowed for a
period for them to laugh and get closer to each other.
Collaboration
When the movie concluded, Mr. White had definitely made progress in his friendships
with these students, however, he still needed to put in a bit more effort since even mid-film he
did not fully comprehend what these students were going through daily between work and
culture. Mr. White made the choice to help these students in their work for a day after having a
conversation with their father who was not sure about letting them be on the cross-country team.
This was because it tended to keep them from the time they would usually work which, in turn,
kept them from making money for their family. Since he was an older white man who grew up
with privileges that these students did not have, Mr. White was unable to comprehend the worry
of this father until he actually spent a day working with them. He then told them that he would
provide them with a schedule so that they would be able to both work for their father as well as
run cross-country. Another instance that coach White showed commitment to his team was when
he agreed to let them help organize a quinceañera for his daughter. He was able to do
something outside his safety wall and come together with many people to organize this party,
which demonstrated that he wanted to understand their culture more.
Conclusion
Mr. White was given the opportunity to demonstrate respect, dedication, and
collaboration to the students of this city in order to form legitimate friendships even with a verbal
and cultural barrier that he had never witnessed before. The students of McFarland, USA simply
desired to feel as though they were loved and dependable. Because of this they had the ability to
