Team Of Black People And White People example essay topic

When asked whether Coach Herman Boone had a positive impact on the structure of society in Alexandria, which was all about racism and hatred between black people and white people, I say Coach Boone was the foundation of peace in Alexandria. In fact, what he left was a strong foundation to build on. In 1971, Herman Boone was appointed coach for the T.C. Williams high school football team after all schools, which were separated into schools for black people and schools for white people, were merged into one high school. (Resurgence). At the time, tensions between black people and white people were high in the city of Alexandria and a merger of schools, made for specific races into one school, caused more uproars. Football played an important role in the society of Alexandria.

If the coach made the team a winning team, the coach was a respected and honored man. Coach Boone, being a person of the black race, was despised by all whites in the city, in the school he came to, in the management of the team he worked with and even white team players of his team in the beginning. (Remember). He knew the situation well and decided that he was going to make a team through a selection process that did not have race as a criterion. Who is good for the team is who will make the team is how I describe his policy. After the football season had ended, with Coach Boone leading the team, the whole city of Alexandria was peaceful with its entire population living as one, living in harmony.

This is because Coach Boone had led a team of mixed races to victory. (Remember). Why is it that after the football season, which was played by a team that was mixed and chosen regardless of race, did the city of Alexandria come together? The only obvious answer is that Coach Boone's policy on the team's selection and making the team work as a powerful unit had a strong, positive impact on the society. That football was a major part of the people's lives there and that harmonizing a team of black people and white people, a team that won as one by putting aside the issue of race, had changed the people's way of thinking. It is clear that Herman Boone had changed everything in Alexandria.

Everyone does not share my opinion. Some say that Coach Boone did help in the change of the attitude of the people of Alexandria but his efforts were not all that significant. "Thirty years later all that progress has been reversed. What happened?" (Anyone 74). This is the basic quote from which arguers against my opinion would start off with and build on to disprove Herman Boone's significance. Nothing lasts forever.

What someone starts has to be continued by others in order for that start to be persistent. The next step is an emergent property of the first step. The second step is a carried on and an improved version of the first step. In this case, Herman Boone's policies that shaped a just and a desegregated society, was the first step. The second step is the harmony and oneness of the society. Herman Boone worked on the first step to build a stronger second step.

Now it is the job of the society to build on that second step to more improved steps. But if the society is lethargic in efforts to maintain such trust amongst themselves, how can the racism-free society carry on and survive? This real life scenario is analogous to the human body. For the human body to grow and survive, energy is used. Energy comes from the food humans eat. Energy in the body is not unlimited which is why humans eat food everyday.

The reason is that eating food replenishes the human body's supply of energy. So for a human body to grow, develop and survive, it has to replenish its energy supply. Herman Boone's influence on the football team, which set an example for society and later changed the thinking level of society, was the starting energy for a just society. For this just society to grow, the people of Alexandria's society, who form the "body" of society, must replenish themselves by clearing their minds and society as whole of racial thoughts. If society fails to replenish itself, the "body" of the just society will simply die off. What is the case today, thirty-two years later and the people of Alexandria are moving backwards. "T.C. Williams high has a football team with 6 white players and 34 black players.

The white dominated activities of the school enjoy lavish funding and lavish facilities whilst the black dominated activities of the school suffers from bad maintenance and non-renewal of resources". (Anyone 76). Who is to blame? Society is to blame. To all of those people who say the Coach Boone did nothing significant for Alexandria there is only one message for them. Blame the people of Alexandria for not carrying on Herman Boone's legacy; do not undermine the painstaking efforts of the great man.

Bibliography

Laden, Tim. "Does Anyone Remember the Titans?" Sports Illustrated October 2001: 72-82.
Remember the Titans. Dir. Boaz Yak in. Perf. Will Patton and Denzel Washington. 1999.
DVD. Walt Disney, 2001.
Coach Herman Boone". 2002 Corbin Conference.
Online. web 27 September 2003.