Parker Schmitt

  Robinson had to make the tough choice of being the trailblazer for all other non-white players.

 “Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.”

 Racism is Everywhere  What is racism?  Why did I pick my topic?

 Racism is a problem of the past  Still very evident today  Positive racial stereotypes are a good thing  Negative stereotypes come with them  Stereotypes are just bad in general  Racism will always exist

 Black and Latino men are three times more likely than white men to be stopped by the police and have their cars searched – even though white men are four times more likely to have weapons or drugs.  Matthew R. Durose, Erica L. Schmitt and Patrick A. Langan, Contacts Between Police and the Public: Findings from the 2002 National Survey. U.S. Department of Justice, (Bureau of Justice Statistics), April  White men with a criminal record are more likely to be called back for a job interview than black men with no record, even when their education and experience are the same.  Pager, Devah “The Mark of a Criminal Record.” American Journal of Sociology. Volume 108: 5, March:

Students of color are far less likely to be put in honors courses even after taking test scores and grades into account. Gordon, Rebecca Education and Race. Oakland: Applied Research Center: 48-9; Fischer, Claude S. et al., Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press: 163; Steinhorn, Leonard and Barabara Diggs-Brown, By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race. NY: Dutton: 95-6.

 Most racism in Europe is evident in soccer matches  Christopher Samba story  Fans are too passionate when it comes to soccer in Europe

 Fans shouldn’t have to bring race into sports  European clubs are attempting to get rid of racism by being fined and even by banning offending fans from coming back to the stadium

 Very Xenophobic, which means that they are frightened of others,  Because of this and declining birth rates they are about to fall off a demographic cliff.  Their birth rates are below replacement level.

 This combined with their bias against immigration of people of other races will lead to a rapidly aging population and which will cause great economic decline in the worlds third largest economy.  This shows us that you do not want to discriminate against anyone as your life/economy may depend on it.

 Introduce: To the White Sea  Other research about racism thrown in here  Racism causes us to view people from different races or ethnic groups as others without fully human characteristic traits and potential.  This leads to lack of identification with this people, and hence makes it easier to not have compassion with them, and makes it easier to discriminate against them and even kill them like Muldrow did in To the White Sea.

 I embedded myself in my topic by being in a group called Common Thread.  In this group we discuss the themes and principles of race and religion that are shared on the highest levels among different religions and cultural groups.  I did it because I wanted to look at the world from a different perspective, not just from an intellectual level, but also to see how other people feel about key issues that define us as human beings.

 Being in this group helped me to understand not only how complex different understandings and world views can be even in people of our age group.  Participating in this group also gave me multigenerational vantage on what it may have been like for my great grandparents coming to a Protestant America as members of an Irish Catholic Minority.  This helped connect the understanding of working with my peers with my family lineage predominantly through discussions with my grandmother.

 Any questions so far?

 Who was the first African American baseball player, and what number did he wear?  True or False, racism is only a problem of the past?  What world economic power is about to suffer dramatic economic decline because of its isolationist and racist views?

 This project made me realize that racism makes everyone a loser  We lose the richness and tradition that different backgrounds can contribute. A pyramid with a broader base is a stronger foundation for society.  Racism also introduces fear and barriers that limit our freedom of expression. When we must filter every thought and statement that we make through the lens of every possible interpretation we lose spontaneity and genuine interaction.