I can't even imagine the depths of betrayal he must feel.

It's appalling that they have failed for 20 years to file the required accounting statements.

If I ran the world, all conservators and other fiduciaries would be required to file those statements with the court, and regular hearings would be held with the conservatee to make sure they understood the current status and re-evaluate the conservatorship, and any ongoing failure to file required documents would be grounds to promptly reassign the conservatorship - after confirming it was even still necessary.

I feel so bad for Oher, and I hope this is one step on the road to healing for him.
posted by kristi at 3:17 PM on August 27, 2023 [27 favorites]

The Tuohys were on an episode of Below Deck, which shows you how much money they have and how much they love fame.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 4:34 PM on August 27, 2023 [14 favorites]

Well, it's on Bravo, so "fame" is a relative term.
posted by krisjohn at 4:39 PM on August 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

That LA Times review from when the movie came out is spot-on.
posted by Well I never at 4:41 PM on August 27, 2023 [8 favorites]

Question: it sounds like they didn't enforce any of the conservatorship terms restricting his ability to make medical decisions / sign contracts / etc. But would the existence of the conservatorship potentially make contracts that he's signed invalid? Just wondering how much of a potential mess this could cause for him (e.g., if he signed a sponsorship deal and the sponsor wanted to weasel out of it and demand money back).
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 4:41 PM on August 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

“He’s been estranged probably for the last 10 years,” [family attorney Steven] Farese added, according to ET, “and becoming more and more vocal and more and more threatening.

The phrase "more and more threatening" is certainly, uh, a choice there. 😬
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 4:45 PM on August 27, 2023 [66 favorites]

There was a recent AskMe thread collecting info about how Oher's conservatorship worked.
posted by LobsterMitten at 4:49 PM on August 27, 2023 [9 favorites]

Thanks, LobsterMitten!
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 4:54 PM on August 27, 2023

Blue Jello Elf, I'm not sure if it answers your question yet or not - I linked it here just because I was confused myself, and thought there had been a thread on the blue about it - but no, I was misremembering that AskMe.
posted by LobsterMitten at 4:56 PM on August 27, 2023

Blue Jello Elf, I've been following this story and my impression is the conservatorship early was about getting him to play football for Ol' Miss. But later on, it is what allowed them to sell *his* story re: the Blindside. They and their children made money off the movie, and in my reading, it sounds like he did not. As conservators, his story was their story to sell.
posted by Toddles at 5:02 PM on August 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Is it possible that he did get a similar amount to the other people involved with the film - which was relatively modest according to those associated, but believes that he should have a piece of Mrs. Tuohy's subsequent speaking fees over the decades because it's his story and something has gone wrong with the football money?
posted by Selena777 at 5:09 PM on August 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

One of my impressions from reading the LA Times story is that the family is claiming he got half of the proceeds for the movie. But they haven't provided any of the required accounting for the past 20 years. So: okay, great, you gave him half (although, is that appropriate? Did he have any say? Did he get to participate in the negotiations? But more importantly: great - show all the statements. Show all the contracts, all the statements, from every organization that ever touched this money. That's what he's entitled to. That he has to sue for something he's entitled to indicates that the conservators are not fulfilling their responsibilities.
posted by kristi at 5:14 PM on August 27, 2023 [17 favorites]

The opinion article from Elizabeth Spiers is, IMO, the best reporting on the emotional stakes clearly involved in this situation.

It's also interesting to me all the new reasons we can come up with why Oher isn't capable of acting in his best interest. He has CTE, he is being manipulated by lawyer, he is broke and/or greedy.

Anyway college football really sucks, just one more example. It's a devil's bargain for kids like Oher.
posted by muddgirl at 6:16 PM on August 27, 2023 [7 favorites]

From the court order appointing the conservators: "It further appears to the Court that it is in Oher's best interest to appoint Sean A. Tuohy and wife, Leigh Anne Tuohy as conservators of the the person and that they should have all powers of attorney to act on his behalf and further that Oher shall not be allowed to enter into any contracts or bind himself without the direct approval of his conservators. It further appears to the Court that any and all medical decisions shall be made by the conservators who will have full and complete authority to make these decisions and educational decisions in Oher's behalf."

The paragraph directly above that authorization: "It further appears to the Court that Oher has no known physical or psychological disabilities." Per Tenn. Code Ann. § 34-1-125, "Finding of disablement and need of assistance prerequisite for appointment of fiduciary. The court must find by clear and convincing evidence that the respondent is fully or partially disabled and that the respondent is in need of assistance from the court before a fiduciary can be appointed." § 34-3-105 has exam particulars.

Oher and the Tuohys share the same lawyer in the filing, Randall Fishman; Fishman remains a lawyer for the Tuohys. In the filing, the Tuohys and Oher have "enjoyed a close and familial relationship for many years;" it's Oher's desire the Tuohys be recognized as his conservators until terminated by an Order of the Court. The document is signed Dec. 7, 2004, six months before his high school graduation. But: In his 2011 memoir, “I Beat The Odds,” Oher wrote the Tuohys were “named as my ‘legal conservators’ ” in the summer after he finished high school, describing a scene where he went to the courthouse with the couple to “celebrate.” He wrote that the Tuohy family “explained to me that it means pretty much the same thing as ‘adoptive parents,’ but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account.”

Seems they wanted control over any and all contractual proceedings -- making sure he played football for their alma mater, sure, but they also knew the husband's childhood friend, NY Times Mag contributor Michael Lewis, was writing the book. (Lewis promoted the adoption lie in his book and in interviews; here he is in 2007 questioning Oher's college grades and dean's list standing.) Another conservatorship draw: if the Tuohys had actually adopted Oher, he'd have inheritance rights.
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:27 PM on August 27, 2023 [37 favorites]

if the Tuohys had actually adopted Oher, he'd have inheritance rights.

Cold. As. Ice
posted by eustatic at 8:51 PM on August 27, 2023 [22 favorites]

"here [Michael Lewis] is in 2007 questioning Oher's college grades and dean's list standing."

What an asshole. A friend of mine was a professor at Ole Miss in the 2000s and he taught Oher in one of his classes. He said that he knew The Blind Side had to be complete bullshit because Oher got one of the highest grades in his class.
posted by haileris23 at 9:53 PM on August 27, 2023 [55 favorites]

I don't understand how it's legal for the conservator and conservatee to have the same attorney for the conservator proceeding. You would think the court would be required to appoint an attorney for the conservatee. It's such a conflict of interest!
posted by praemunire at 10:21 PM on August 27, 2023 [21 favorites]

Guardian ad litem appointment was waived, same judge, same Dec. 7, 2004 date. Documents related to this case [C0010333] are viewable at the Shelby County Probate Court site, most recent (Oher's August 2023 filings) first. Subpoena, the Tuohy family foundation "Making It Happen." 501(c)(3), tax exempt since 2010, and organization's 990 tax filings available at ProPublica. Its 2010 return, Page 7, Part IX-A, Summary of Direct Charitable Activities, Line 1: Donated to adoption agency, 9,500.00.
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:37 PM on August 27, 2023 [7 favorites]

Line 2: Provided funds for band uniforms for local high school, 1,496.00
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:38 PM on August 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

I’m not disagreeing with any suspicions or aspersions about the Tuohy family, but I have always thought Lewis is an admirable writer and not a cruel or nasty person. It might be worth reading what he has to say on this controversy— https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/08/16/michael-lewis-blind-side-lawsuit/
The “white savior” approach in the movie was stomach churning for sure.
posted by Cassford at 11:41 PM on August 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

The backlash on Oher for saying that he wasn't adopted which is so clearly incontrovertibly true shows why it's taken so long. He's had concussion therefore the implied mentally deficient, his major isn't a 'real' major or his grades, he's from a difficult ghetto background so he doesn't understand what's happening (ie: he's too poor/stupid/black) - this is a wealthy adult college graduate married for decades who has raised his own children and completed a successful career and half of the comments on the news coverage are looking for ways to tear him down.

The fact that the Tuohy took ANY money from the book and movie deals about his life is troubling - he was a minor when they met him as wealthy adults, how they did the ethical gymnastics to convince themselves they deserved a cut is awful.

And the inheritance part is glaring because the Tuohys are very wealthy. In my family and my extended family, there are families that consider adopted children as equal and those that consider them like second-class children, and the inheritance part is where it's starkest.

Agreed, the opinion piece is the best reporting so far.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 12:26 AM on August 28, 2023 [22 favorites]

I have always thought Lewis is an admirable writer and not a cruel or nasty person. It might be worth reading what he has to say on this controversy

Ok, let's look at what Lewis says:

“What I feel really sad about is I watched the whole thing up close,” Lewis said. “They showered him with resources and love. That he’s suspicious of them is breathtaking. The state of mind one has to be in to do that — I feel sad for him.”

Ew, that's pretty gross. Lewis apparently has nothing to say about the very unusual nature of the conservatorship his childhood pal created, the complete lack of legally required financial records (the Tuohys "failed to timely file a single accounting for the last 19 years"), the Tuohys' use without permission or compensation of Oher's name, image and likeness...yeah, Michael Lewis does not come across well here. At all.
posted by mediareport at 3:32 AM on August 28, 2023 [27 favorites]

In the clip linked above of Lewis’s talk at Google he basically calls Oher a dumbass, joking about how the deans list can’t mean much because Oher made it.

I don’t have any NYTimes bestsellers but at least I don’t have that on my public record.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 3:44 AM on August 28, 2023 [35 favorites]

I taught at Ole Miss when the movie came out. It was an open secret amongst the black folk and the few non-racist white folks that the whole situation was shady as hell.

Lets be clear here. These people tried to enslave him. That's what this was. They saw a big buck negro and decided that he would be a good investment (just like their ancestors did).
posted by anansi at 3:49 AM on August 28, 2023 [42 favorites]

Wow I had no idea Michael Lewis wrote this. Kinda disappointing. I like Lewis.
posted by panama joe at 3:54 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

What is a "booster" in the context of US college football? Google is giving me nothing.
posted by harriet vane at 5:30 AM on August 28, 2023

@harriet vane - boosters are usually wealthy alumni of a particular school who are willing to give large sums of money to support the athletic program. in some cases they expect VIP perks and influence in exchange. they can be demanding and delusional and sometimes care more about bragging rights and some sense of glory they think their teams' success reflects on them.
posted by gestalt saloon at 5:41 AM on August 28, 2023 [8 favorites]

harriet vane, boosters are supporters of the team who are technically not affiliated with the university. Usually they are alumni with deep pockets. They often do their own fundraising and can donate millions to a team. There are tons of rules about how they are not supposed to influence students during the recruitment process which... they may try to skirt.
posted by TwoStride at 5:42 AM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

About 10 years ago, there was a big scandal at my university when a (white) student put a poster on his door with a bunch of black men on it and a caption that read something like "we get to pick the best slaves!" Naturally, people were real upset, but upon investigation it turned out that it was an inchoate attempt at political protest: the kid had been a football fan since childhood, and had only just realized the extent to which the university made huge money off of a bunch of players who weren't paid—hence the slavery reference. Ultimately, some of the black football players put out a statement to the effect of "this needed context, but fundamentally, he did the right thing", and then there was even more of a shitshow. There was a lot of talk about racial reconciliation, yada yada, but I noted at the time that the university was willing to hold talk-it-out sessions about every aspect of the case except the profits it made off of downscale black guys' bodies. They managed to sweep it under the rug, too.

I remember The Blind Side coming out, and watched a preview, and was like "seriously, we're doing white 'Christian' family 'helps' black kid by having him play football?" but never saw the film. It doesn't surprise me in the least that the white family is super sketchy.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 6:42 AM on August 28, 2023 [18 favorites]

There are tons of rules about how they are not supposed to influence students during the recruitment process which... they may try to skirt.

Rules that are of dubious legality, especially in light of the Alston ruling. We've already seen the removal of restrictions on NIL rights and hiring agent representation as a response to the Supreme Court’s smackdown of the NCAA.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:18 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

Anyway college football really sucks

The latest episode of Untold (on Netflix) is about the Urban Meyer years coaching at the University of Florida (2005-2010) and it is sobering. To say college football culture is out of control is to say that ancient Rome may have had a fire code problem; it's so, so awful that I was simply agape with astonishment. (The show is great, to be clear, it's the story it's telling that is horrifying.)
posted by LooseFilter at 7:19 AM on August 28, 2023 [9 favorites]

To say college football culture is out of control is to say that ancient Rome may have had a fire code problem; it's so, so awful that I was simply agape with astonishment.

A lot of it has to do with how artifical the environment is, thanks to rules of very questionable legality that basically remove any ability for players to have any actual agency over their collegiate careers while stealing player labor. And it has gotten better - the O'Bannon and Alston rulings have forced changes, even as there is further to go.

It's also worth noting that very artificiality makes coaches like Meyer fail at the professional level, where players actually have agency and the skill differentials are much smaller.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:39 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

According to one of those NYT articles, high school football really sucks too. Oher was already recognized as a talent and was attending a private academy:

Nowhere is this more apparent than at schools like Briarcrest, which were founded amid desegregation by people who regarded themselves as nice white parents and who did not want their children to attend school with Black children. These schools were informally known as segregation academies, and when they were finally integrated, it was often via football…

This is a common arc for former segregation academies where sports are highly valued — and that’s most segregation academies. Black kids are not given football scholarships because those schools want to integrate; they’re given scholarships because the schools want to build successful football programs on the backs of Black bodies.

As with all “based on a true story” movies, the true story is dramatized and distorted and while the Tuohys come off as a nice, generous, Christian family, Oher never gets credit for the mental strength that got him to where he was before he met the Tuohys. Imagine meeting people every day who think you were taught football plays with a ketchup bottle. It’s insulting.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:45 AM on August 28, 2023 [17 favorites]

I was a big Michael Lewis fan in an earlier season of my life. Moneyball was, and remains, one of my very favorite reads. The Big Short and The Fifth Risk were also compelling. I've read most of his work. He's good at finding and reporting on compelling characters and stories.

But: He's a 62 year old white man who comes from old money. He went to private school in New Orleans, and then Princeton. In his books he has always been willing to refer to characters by their ethnicities - the "Mexican strawberry picker" in The Big Short, and many other instances. His own blind side is... considerable. And there's always a tone to his writing of, you and I are smart and cynical enough to understand what's really going on here with these schmucks. It's worked well for him. It has been seductive for me in the past, truth be told.

I look forward to reading equally compelling reporting from a more diverse range of reporters.

Also worth noting that the loss of his child in a car accident recently is a genuine tragedy, and I wish him and his family the best in living with their grief.
posted by sockshaveholes at 7:46 AM on August 28, 2023 [23 favorites]

The thing about racism is it drives you insane. The smallest kernel of doubt can infect the whole wiring in your brain. When Michael Oher saw his depiction in The Blind Side—as a helpless idiot, more or less, sled-hauled to stability by a family of white saviors—he was troubled and disgusted, and that seed of doubt about his real relationship to the Tuohys was more than enough to bring things to this point. So whether or not any lawyer will be able to prove that there's millions of dollars unaccounted for from the movie, there's no way to erase the lie at the center, or the deeper truth it reveals.

From defector's The Tuohy Family’s Side Of The Story Has A Giant Hole At The Center
posted by rebent at 8:02 AM on August 28, 2023 [21 favorites]

there's no way to erase the lie at the center, or the deeper truth it reveals.

This. It's not that the Tuohys exploited him for what to them would be relatively small amounts of money, so far as I can tell from the coverage. Or they did, but that's not the main thing. They exploited him for propaganda, in service of a worldview in which young men like Oher are "feral", a word Lewis really seems to like, and are generously civilised and taught by people like them. They could have supported him in telling his story, in his voice, but that's not what they were interested in. And the relatively small amounts of money are now being used as a propaganda defense, to make it seem like Oher is greedy and ungrateful, rather than looking for justice for having his dignity and accomplishments nonconsensually sacrificed in the service of their propaganda.
posted by Rhedyn at 8:10 AM on August 28, 2023 [22 favorites]

Full disclosure, I'm a graduate of the J-school at Columbia. I've considered Lewis an asshole since reading his diatribe about how J-school (and yes, I have an undergraduate degree as well) -- and especially Columbia's -- is an utter waste. He's Tom Wolfe without near the chops.
posted by AJaffe at 8:16 AM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

The movie is not just overpowering white savior propaganda but also has a notable moment of pro-gun propaganda when Leigh Anne threatens gang members with her concealed carry. It's also just bad in general, just like in real life the story feels suspiciously too clean cut and it gives it a distracting air of falsehood - just a garbage movie all around.

And yet it had accolades thrown at it from all over Hollywood. It's always worth taking note of how often the supposedly liberal world of the movie industry goes nuts for movies that give a spit-shine polish to harmful right wing myths.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:25 AM on August 28, 2023 [18 favorites]

The backlash on Oher for saying that he wasn't adopted which is so clearly incontrovertibly true shows why it's taken so long

And also the fact that no one is calling out the family for not adopting him despite acting like they did this whole time is racist as fuck. The fact that they deliberately crippled his future by having him go to a second-tier school that was their alma mater so that they could get more status, which he did because he believed they were his family....the betrayal is absolutely breathtaking.
posted by corb at 9:16 AM on August 28, 2023 [30 favorites]

As yet another example of how deeply broken and corrupt college sports are, in 40 states the top paid state employee is a coach. At the highest levels, college football is a system for wealthy white men to take advantage of black labor to further enrich themselves.
posted by thecjm at 9:34 AM on August 28, 2023 [13 favorites]

(I just spent an embarrassingly long time looking for the best thing I've read on this subject, only to find that it's the fourth link in the post (Elizabeth Spiers' 'I Have a Pretty Good Idea'), and repeatedly praised in the comments.)

People I know in Memphis thought the whole situation, as well as the Tuohys themselves, were shady as shit even at the time.

Rich fast-food franchisees pull some strings to get a talented football player into their segregation academy, then pull some more strings to get him to NCAA eligibility. Oher decides to play for Ole Miss, which promptly gives his high school coach a job.
posted by box at 10:10 AM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]

This week's "Hang Up And Listen" podcast episode covers this news in its second segment (about 29:45 in), featuring as a guest the New York Times’ Kurt Streeter.

It's a really good listen, and links out to a number of good pieces on the events.

(They also mention Michael Lewis's involvement, which I hadn't known about before. Also like Lewis's writing, and this disappointed me. I will now go read his response piece, linked above, to see if it mollifies me or makes me hate him.)
posted by wenestvedt at 10:34 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

Maybe I'm misremembering the book. What I seem to remember was that one of the book's points was that Oher wasn't stupid, but rather once he was able to not worry about where his next meal or place to sleep was, he was able to learn much more quickly than anyone expected. The lawsuit and Lewis's recent comments are making me think I misread the thing, but I'm not about to go back and reread it to be sure.

The more interesting part of the book to me was the talk about how football strategy evolved over the decades, thanks in part to Lawrence Taylor’s influence and the subsequent realization that the left tackle position was much more important than previously thought. I didn't see the movie and I presume most of that stuff was left out of it.
posted by Ampersand692 at 10:51 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

It's also worth noting that very artificiality makes coaches like Meyer fail at the professional level, where players actually have agency and the skill differentials are much smaller.

Yep, and I think it's because they're actually not very good coaches. Because college football isn't about the money (for the players themselves), they're mostly motivated in those championship teams by anger and violence and a desire to destroy and conquer. In the NFL, it's an actual job for players, so telling them to go out and destroy the other team is asking them to actually assault professional colleagues and endanger their own professional future. The way UF won in those Meyer years, it was ugly and the worst of the sport, and it all should be burned down. (One of the former players on those teams actually says in the doc "I don't want my children to ever know that version of me existed.") Pay the players and let them share in the billions of dollars in revenue their labor generates, or get rid of it all and make the NFL pay for their own farm teams.

At the highest levels, college football is a system for wealthy white men to take advantage of black labor to further enrich themselves.

This. Oher's story, while unique in its specifics, is synecdoche for the whole mess.
posted by LooseFilter at 10:54 AM on August 28, 2023 [8 favorites]

Ampersand692: “The more interesting part of the book to me was the talk about how football strategy evolved over the decades, thanks in part to Lawrence Taylor’s influence and the subsequent realization that the left tackle position was much more important than previously thought. I didn't see the movie and I presume most of that stuff was left out of it.”

If memory serves me correctly, Sandra Bullock delivers a 60 second summary of it before the opening titles.
posted by ob1quixote at 11:12 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

In light of recent events, the LA Times is re-publishing Steve Almond's (previously) original 2006 review of The Blind Side book.

While it's fair to say that Almond, who would later write Against Football, comes with an agenda, he also makes a lot of very good points. The whole thing's worth reading, but here's your pullquote:

The Tuohys eventually persuade Oher to attend their alma mater, Ole Miss, where football players have to “go through the tedious charade of pretending to be ordinary college students” to get their shot at the NFL. Lewis doesn’t dwell on the cynicism of this arrangement, either. He is too determined to paint Oher as a heroic figure. “The world that had once taken no notice of Michael Oher was now so invested in him that it couldn’t afford to see him fail,” he insists. The problem is, that Lewis never bothers to ask why.

posted by box at 1:18 PM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]

Ew, that's pretty gross. Lewis apparently has nothing to say about the very unusual nature of the conservatorship his childhood pal created, the complete lack of legally required financial records (the Tuohys "failed to timely file a single accounting for the last 19 years"), the Tuohys' use without permission or compensation of Oher's name, image and likeness...yeah, Michael Lewis does not come across well here. At all.

I mean, the alternative is to say, "In the course of writing an entire book about these people, I completely failed to investigate whether this kid had actually been adopted or what the financial situation was or whether it was really in his best interest to attend the Tuohy's alma mater" or "I knew it was shady but I wanted to write a heartwarming bestseller so I deliberately left those parts out" and I'm guessing he's not eager to say either one of those things right now.
posted by creepygirl at 1:40 PM on August 28, 2023 [18 favorites]

Yeah, the Spiers piece was good. I followed her when I was on Twitter, definitely one of the writers I miss getting updates from. The old LA Times review is worth a read too.

I have two adopted siblings. They were a few months old when they joined the family and we grew up together. I get not all adoptions are like that, but the idea that someone would treat adopted children as if they were not "real" children or pretend to adopt feels like such a betrayal to me.


Never read The Blind Side but I think Michael Lewis is a phenomenal writer, I love his books. But as noted he he's a rich white guy, the sort who got invited to work on Wall Street because he had friends on Wall Street. And the bulk of his books are written by hanging around with rich guys and editing their life into a compelling narrative, with rich guys as a hero. Heck, The Big Short made a Deutsche Bank speculator into a visionary crusader.

Even knowing this about Lewis, gratuitously tacking on a bit about "showering" Oher with love lowers my opinion of him. And what's the crap about Lewis saying they deposited Oher's share in a trust fund "for his son?" If it's Oher's share it should not be up to them.
posted by mark k at 1:58 PM on August 28, 2023 [7 favorites]

On her YT channel, legal analyst Emily D. Baker reads the public conservatorship documents and the petition to terminate (1 hr 20 min). She's got a lot of questions. (Disclaimer: I've never watched her before, so I'm otherwise unfamiliar with her work; I just wanted to know what the available documents say.)

I've seen a lot of comments around the web implying that Oher is ungrateful and is taking these steps because he must have spent all of his NFL earnings, and that the Touhys had no reason to keep Oher's money since they're already wealthy. Like there's no other reason he might have wanted out of a nearly 20-year conservatorship, or that rich people are naturally disinterested in money. It's all just so infuriating.

mark k, that's an interesting point about a trust supposedly being in Oher's son's name rather than his own. Another interesting note: the Touhy's attorney for the conservatorship, "Aunt Debbie" Branan, went to Ole Miss Law School.
posted by obloquy at 3:21 PM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]

But as noted he he's a rich white guy, the sort who got invited to work on Wall Street because he had friends on Wall Street.

He also has a friend named… Sean Tuohy. They went to high school together. Regardless of the strength of his writing in general there’s just no way to consider him an impartial source on the Tuohys.
posted by atoxyl at 4:04 PM on August 28, 2023 [11 favorites]

I was raised Catholic, so I was told a lot of propaganda about adoption. But even now that I've heard more reality from adoptees, I'm still gobsmacked that people would adopt a child without at least *intending* to treat them the same as their biological children.

This whole Oher thing helps clear that up. Children as commodities, a prop in whatever narrative you're trying to construct. I hope Oher gets what he wants from them.
posted by harriet vane at 4:46 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]