It’s always unfortunate to hear about a child without a family, especially when the child did nothing wrong to deserve it. That’s why stories such as Oliver Twist and Annie are well-known and loved because they provide optimistic hope that whenever you feel lost, you will be found.

A true family isn’t based on biological blood but rather on unconditional love. However, what if the stories of Oliver Twist and Annie were based on a lie? Hence, the case with Michael Oher, whose ‘true story’ told through the 2009 film The Blind Side is based on a lie. These are my thoughts.

Last year, Michael Oher made a public statement that the film The Blind Side portrayed a false depiction of his story, and that the Tuohy family’s adoption story was built on a lie to enrich themselves off Michael’s talent and personal circumstances.

“Retired NFL star Michael Oher, whose supposed adoption out of grinding poverty by a wealthy, white family was immortalized in the 2009 movie “The Blind Side,” petitioned a Tennessee court Monday with allegations that a central element of the story was a lie concocted by the family to enrich itself at his expense.” Senior Writer Michael A. Fletcher stated in an ESPN source.

I remember watching the movie The Blind Side at least once in the past, and when I saw the movie and learned that it was based on a person’s life, I thought it was a nice adoption story that was uplifting and encouraging.

To know now that this movie and the success of the Tuohy family is based on a lie and that Michael’s ‘adoption story’ was never a real adoption story, but rather a business scam that the Tuohy’s created to take advantage of someone and use their name and talent for profit, is shocking and disturbing.

I never had the Tuohy’s on a pedestal, but I never imagined them to be con artists, either. Michael went through a lot in his life, and he genuinely believed that his interaction with the Tuohy family was a turning point for the better. He honestly thought that these people cared about him and had his best interests at heart and believed that the Tuohys were his legitimate family.

I can’t imagine what it must have felt like for Michael when his faith and trust in the Tuohy’s were shattered forever once he found out the truth that he was never viewed as a forever family member but as a long-term paycheck.

As if using him as their cash cow wasn’t enough, the movie that was supposed to represent Michael’s story didn’t represent him accurately at all. The film portrayed Michael as an inadequate, helpless, lost soul who was miraculously rescued by the Tuohy family.

In real life, Michael was his hero who worked hard and was already on his way to success in the NFL when he met the Tuohy family. “I watched those scenes thinking, ‘No, that’s not me at all! I’ve been studying — really studying — the game since I was a kid!’ That was my main hang-up with the film.” Michael stated in Looper.

Imagine spending your entire life working hard in a society where the odds are stacked against you. You fight against the temptations of drugs and violence, and you work your way up to becoming your own success story. Then you have a movie made about you, where all your hard work and endurance is dwindled to this ‘white savior complex’, which is a stereotype that is unfortunately used too often in movies and other sources of media.

Imagine how offended and embarrassed you would feel, to have all your hard work and years of endurance as well as perseverance be portrayed as a joke and that the family who supposedly ‘adopted’ you tricked you into becoming your own joke of your own story.

This would rightfully make anyone upset, and it rightfully made Michael upset. Especially when this movie The Blind Side, did more to hurt his football career than help it. “People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie,” Michael stated on ESPN.

“They don’t really see the skills and the kind of player I am.” Now if being a cash cow and being portrayed poorly in a movie wasn’t bad enough, now we must deal with the issue of Michael not receiving any financial benefits from The Blind Side movie.

“The petition further alleges that the Tuohy’s used their power as conservators to strike a deal that paid them and their two birth children millions of dollars in royalties from an Oscar-winning film that earned more than $300 million,” Michael A.

Fletcher explained. “…while Oher got nothing for a story “that would not have existed without him.” They lied to this man, making him think he was adopted, they tricked him into being portrayed poorly in a movie, and now they can’t even give him his equal fair share of financial royalties when all their success is built off the back of this one person?

It really makes you question what the true motive was for the Tuohy family to bring Michael into their lives. I would like to believe that the Tuohy family took Michael under their wing, out of the kindness of their heart. After all, they still gave him a roof over his head, they gave him clothes to put on his back, they gave him food to eat, and they did help Michael do better in school.

You can’t take that away from them and even Michael will always be grateful to them for it. But having this Michael-Tuohy story built on a lie, wherein Michael was taken advantage of just for the Tuohy’s financial benefit almost ruins these acts of kindness.