Race in Society

I would like to talk about the discussion we had the other day about race and racism in our schools and country. I feel that the discussion we had the other day was quite enlightening for me. However, feel that I have a unique take on in from playing sports, both at the high school level and in college that I would like to share with you.

At the high school level I played on a couple different sports teams but there was very little diversity in regards to race. I had a completely different experience with all the players one the teams in high school than I did in college where we had a very diverse group of players. In high school very surprising the n word was thrown around a lot, not to my liking, but most of the time it was really used in reciting lyrics to songs that the players listened to in the locker room before and after games. They would recite the words with no regard for anyone’s feelings whatsoever. I think because they saw that the people using the n word in the music they were listening to led them to believe it was okay for them to say it. On the contrary in college none of the Caucasian players on the team were singing the same songs I heard them singing in high school. On the other hand the African American players were singing the same songs and reciting the lyrics. I am not sure exactly why the extreme change in behavior because in high school there were a couple of African American kids on the team and maybe because they so close with the other players it was not that big of a deal to them for some reason or another. In college it seamed since not everyone was so close to each other the word was not thrown around as much.

My feelings on this are that is not the actual word that offends people it is the meaning behind the word. On the high school teams it seemed as though the few African American kids, because they were so close to the Caucasian kids, knew that when they said the n word they did not have that derogatory meaning behind it, I am assuming, and therefore it was okay for them to say. However, it was a different story in college because everyone was not familiar to one another and hence the n word was not accepted to be used by a Caucasian player, assuming, because the African American players did not really know the intentions of the meaning behind them saying it.