My wife and I are white. We adopted our wonderful African American children at birth. We strive daily to help our son grow up to be a confident, proud and loving black man and our daughter to be a confident, proud and loving black woman. I hope our experiences will help others who are doing the same.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Football and Soccer

East Lansing, MI
Population by Race
White81%
African American7%
Native American0%
Asian8%
Hawaiian0%
Other/Mixed4%
Recently at an East Lansing High School football game I observed my son's 7th grade football team walking through the stands, making their rounds so to speak.  This particular contingent of about a third of the team which included my son was all young men of color, predominately African American and Mexican American.  Wearing their Blue and White Trojan home jersey's over their squared shoulders as they pounded the aluminum planks of the Stadium was an impressive and rather loud sight.  It was if they were off to Stomp the Yard.  As they passed by me my son glanced up briefly with eyes that said don't call out my name.  I watched their forward progress and couldn't help but notice when they passed a row of 7th Grade soccer players all relatively lanky, white  and blonde in their East Lansing warm up jackets.


Jacob played soccer until fifth grade and then switched to football.  His football team has a majority of young men of color, including Indian American and Vietnamese American.  He is one of two young men of color on his baseball team.  Even East Lansing's youth basketball teams are a majority white.  I'm not sure what to make of this, though I like seeing Jacob surrounded my young men of color.  It is not that I don't like to see him surrounded by his baseball team, rather that is more of the norm in his life.  It is just that I also like to see him in situations where is skin color is in the majority.
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2 comments:

  1. Michelle S.September 8, 2011 at 7:50 AM

    I actually noticed that at the football game too. I wonder why that is? Last year Zach had....at least 4 kids (thinking back a year and a half is hard for me) of color on his baseball team. This year, at least 2. While Zach fits the tall lanky category (which is part of the reason he doesn't play football, 5'2" 78 pounds, yes 7-8)many of his (white friends)do. I wonder if that will change?

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  2. Erich DitschmanSeptember 9, 2011 at 12:09 PM

    Michelle -

    I wanted to thank you. Thanks to the new statistics on blogger I can see that I get a lot (well I don't get much overall but what I do get. . .) comes from your blog. Thanks, Erich

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