Sidney Poitier was a Bahamian-American actor and a key figure in the American film industry during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Born on Feb. 20, 1927 in Miami, Florida, he spent his formative years in The Bahamas before returning to the United States as a teenager, where he was eventually accepted into a theater in the mid-1940s. Black artists were not widely acknowledged in the arts at the time.
Poitier set the stage for the racial politics of film to further develop and for Black stereotypes and tropes to be quashed. In 1964, he made history as the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in “Lilies of the Field” (1963). Upon his death in 2022, the National Civil Rights Museum praised him for his performances as “characters that transported ‘race films’ and ‘Blaxploitation’ genres beyond integration to classic stories of empowerment across generations.”
Poitier’s 98th birth anniversary fell on Thursday, Feb. 20; it is an occasion to reflect on one of his films that was considered groundbreaking at the time. “To Sir, with Love” was released in 1967. Directed by James Clavell, it is an adaptation of E.R. Braithwaite’s 1959 autobiographical novel. Braithwaite, who grew up in a comfortable Guyanese household and earned a master’s degree from Cambridge University, was due to go into engineering after serving in World War II. However, he could not earn any engineering posts; he had cited racial discrimination as a reason. Consequently, he turned his hand to teaching, and was placed in charge of a classroom in “one of the worst schools in the East End of London.”
In the film, also set in London, Braithwaite’s character is renamed Mark Thackeray. Much like Braithwaite, Thackeray has migrated to the United Kingdom from the United States; he is originally from Guyana (then the colony of British Guiana) and is looking for a job in engineering. Notably, a majority of the delinquent students he ends up teaching are white, save for some minorities. Poitier, as Thackeray, brings to life Braithwaite’s attempts to teach the students, which initially seem futile.
A turning point in the film occurs when a group of girls burn a woman’s sanitary pad. Thackeray encounters the scene and angrily rebukes the students for their actions; he then resolves to treat his students like adults (expecting the same behavior from them) in order to prepare them for the real world. He sets forth some new rules, insisting that everybody (himself included) is entitled to speak without interruption, and that he must be addressed at all times as “Sir, or Mr. Thackeray.” When one student asks what topics they will discuss in class, Thackeray answers, “About life. Survival. Love. Death. Sex. Marriage. Rebellion. Anything you want.”
Throughout the movie, Thackeray’s connection with the class is explored. He takes them to museums and teaches them how to cook. When a female student apparently expresses attraction towards him, he remains professional throughout. Another student, Denham, does not take to Thackeray easily and challenges him to a boxing match; Thackeray fights back and brings the student to his knees. Eventually, Denham gains respect for his teacher.
However, one of the film adaptation’s most noteworthy scenes occurs when Seales, a mixed-race student, loses his white mother (his father is Black). While the students organize for a donation to be made to her funeral, they initially refuse to deliver the donation to Seales’ house, for fear of being judged for visiting a Black person’s home, much to Thackeray’s dismay. This comes after Thackeray had ordered another student to apologize to the school’s gym teacher over a misdeed on the gym teacher’s part, which led to some students turning against him. However, after Thackeray regains the respect of his students (particularly following the boxing match with Denham), he arrives at the funeral to see the entire class present. Thackeray is pleasantly surprised; he ultimately rejects the engineering job offer he had received halfway through the film and decides to continue teaching.
Poitier’s performance as Thackeray expertly encapsulates the teacher’s sentiments. He has a commanding presence and takes no nonsense from any student; yet, is soft and sympathetic when he has to be, most notably in the film’s closing scene when Thackeray decides to stick to teaching. The film also addresses the issue of race and racism at points, not least when the students’ reluctance to attend Seales’ mother’s funeral — given the stigma against white people associating with Black people — becomes evident.
Parallels can be drawn between Braithwaite and Poitier (both as Thackeray and in real life). Both had difficulty finding work, for which the racist politics of the time have been cited. Braithwaite struggled to find employment in engineering, whilst Poitier is quoted as saying that Black characters in film had “almost no frame of reference … except as stereotypical, one-dimensional characters.” But the film was criticized by Braithwaite himself for “downplaying” elements of his novel, not least Braithwaite’s interracial relationship with a white teacher. The relationship was disapproved of, including the other teacher’s parents, due to the attitudes of the time. Indeed, the notion of Thackeray courting that teacher was only touched upon briefly in the film.
Movies such as “Freedom Writers” (which was also based on an autobiographical book) have been criticized for perpetuating the white savior complex. The trope is applied when white institutions and individuals are focused on supposedly improving the lives of people of minorities without a clear focus on whether they need intervention or not; in doing so, minority characters are stereotyped, oversimplified and are depicted in popular culture in one-dimensional. Some might argue that “To Sir, with Love”’s film adaptation challenges the white savior stereotype: instead of having a white teacher pull students of minorities out of difficulty, it features a Black teacher assisting mostly white students.
Yes, Poitier’s character is depicted as a Black man facing institutional and sometimes casual racism, and speaks about his experiences with poverty — but he is multi-dimensional. He takes time to adjust to his teaching job, but his introspective nature becomes his best asset. Although he loses his temper at first, he reflects on the situation in his classroom before determining how he must approach his students. He aims to understand them whilst also getting them to understand the ways of the world. He neither talks down to them nor treats them as helpless beings; rather, he approaches them on an adult level and encourages them to find their potential, as he did when he fought back against Denham, before helping him up, complimenting his boxing skills and allowing him to teach the younger students how to fight. Thackeray’s teaching methods help to make the film as refreshing as it is.
That is not to say, though, that the film is perfect. Much of the language would be considered outdated and offensive, including some of the words used to refer to women. Some outdated vocabulary is used by Thackeray himself, as he lectures the girls on how women should present themselves. It must be taken into account that the film was set in the 1950s and made in the 1960s; thus, the views held by the characters of “To Sir, with Love” – and even the views of E.R. Braithwaite himself – might not align with those of people in the present day.
For all of its faults, however, “To Sir, with Love” is a film that many might consider ahead of its time for its handling of race, particularly for its rejection of the white savior complex. It does reflect views that would be considered problematic in the present day, but it also demonstrates that impactful actions can change people’s mindsets, as Thackeray’s teaching methods did. As we continue to try to bring about change, we can look to films of the past such as “To Sir, with Love,” to reflect on what societal issues have to be addressed, and consider how best we can combat these issues.
Kalana Amarasekara can be reached at [email protected].
