Friday Night Lights Essay

831 Words4 Pages
Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and A Dream, H.G. Bissinger’s book depicting life for various members of a town in Texas allows insight into the vicissitudes the people of Odessa experience. “Odessa is the setting for this book, but it could be anyplace in this vast land where, on a Friday night, a set of spindly stadium lights rises to the heavens to so powerfully, and so briefly, ignite the darkness” (Bissinger 16) Bissinger’s focus on specific players and the head coach offers the reader an interesting vantage point into the lives of the recently racially integrated school system and community and how racism still plays a vital role in the neighborhoods and schools. The main story Bissinger follows is that of the 1988 Odessa Permian…show more content…
The two teams locker rooms were only separated by a wall in which there was a hole small enough to fit a banana. I used a banana as an image for how big the hole was, because the opponent physically put bananas through the hole. North Plainfield’s team has a lot of black players on the team and did not appreciate the gesture. The student responsible for the bananas stated that it was simply a tradition to limit what the opponents could hear through the hole, but North Plainfield disagreed. The issue reached Summit High School Superintendent, Nathan Parker, who was taken back by the whole situation. “‘Racism is unacceptable. We do not tolerate it in our schools, on our fields, or in our community. While the nature of this act was misunderstood, the fact that others felt targeted is taken very seriously’” (Matthews). Whether or not there was a misunderstanding or a blatant example of racism continuing to be a factor in high school football, it says something about our society that racism continues to be an issue in sports. What difference does it make if you are white, black, hispanic, or asian? The only factor that should play into judgements of athletes is their playing abilities, not their

More about Friday Night Lights Essay

Open Document