Read the excerpt from It's Our World, Too!: Young People Who Are Making a Difference.In his small Idaho school, football meant everything to Ernesto ("Neto”) Villareal, sixteen, the team’s star running back. And yet when he heard fans screaming racial insults at him and his Hispanic-American teammates, he wondered how he could keep playing for fans who felt that way. The insults also bothered Andy Percifield, a white student leader. When Neto and Andy teamed up, each using his own special power, fans began to feel heat they had never felt before.
Read the excerpt from It's Our World, Too!: Young People Who Are Making a Difference.Soon there was even worse news for Neto and Jesse. Most of the players who had voted not to play had suddenly changed their minds. Even the Hispanic players. They could barely look at Neto and Jesse as they explained that they loved football too much to give it up. In the end, only four players—Jesse, Neto, Rigo Delgudillo, and Johnny Garcia—were committed to staying off the field.The more Neto thought about it, the more determined he became. "I knew we were right," he recalls. "I didn't care what anybody else thought. And I also knew the team couldn't afford to lose me. If the school really wanted me, the fans had to stop saying those things. Only then would I play. Not until."
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Read the excerpt from It's Our World, Too!: Young People Who Are Making a Difference.When they entered the board's meeting room, Neto was terrified. They were alone with the ten white men who were the members of the Marsing school board. "I couldn't believe I was really doing this," Neto recalls. "Then I heard Baldy say, 'Neto wants to talk with you about the football team.'"So I just started. I told them I was quitting and why. I told them word-for-word what I had heard. Only one of them looked like he was really listening. When I was finished, they thanked me for coming, but they didn't say they would do anything about it. I went home thinking, Well, at least I tried. Now they can't say nobody told them."
Read the excerpt from It's Our World, Too!: Young People Who Are Making a Difference.Andy Percifield had been busy, too. There were only two days before the next game. He was determined that his school would do the right thing, no matter what the principal said. He had an idea: maybe the students themselves could write a letter against racism that could be read over the microphone in the press box to everyone at the game. It would have to be powerful enough to satisfy the protesting players and shame the racist fans.
Events that set up the conflict in the beginning of the story are called
Read the excerpt from It's Our World, Too!: Young People Who Are Making a Difference."Look," Neto said, "if we don't take a stand now, those fans will say those things forever. Even after we graduate, they'll keep putting Hispanic players down. We have a chance to stop it now.Finally there was no more to say. The question came: "Who votes not to play the next game?" Every player raised his hand.That night, Neto, Jesse, and another teammate walked into the coach's office and handed him their uniforms and pads. They explained why they were leaving and expected him to understand, but they were disappointed. "The coach said, 'Quitting will just make it worse,'" Neto remembers. "He said the fans would call us losers and quitters instead of respecting us. Nothing could convince him. After a while we just walked out." Now there was no turning back.
Read the excerpt from It's Our World, Too!: Young People Who Are Making a Difference.At halftime, as homecoming floats circled the field, Allison Gibbons, a member of the student council, entered the press box, stood before the microphone, and asked for everyone's attention. The crowd grew silent as she began to read the letter."I was watching the crowd while Allison read it," Andy said. "When she finished, there was silence, and then almost everyone stood up and cheered. All the students stood up. And the football players were all clapping. It was a wonderful feeling to know that we had people behind us."
Read the excerpt from It's Our World, Too!: Young People Who Are Making a Difference.The players sat down together on the benches in the locker room. Jesse and Neto repeated the words they had heard and said it hurt too badly for them to play in the next game."Yeah, I've heard those things, too," said one player. "Sure it's terrible, but you can't quit! If you guys leave, it will destroy our team.""Look," Neto said, "if we don't take a stand now, those fans will say those things forever. Even after we graduate, they'll keep putting Hispanic players down. We have a chance to stop it now."Finally there was no more to say. The question came: "Who votes not to play the next game?" Every player raised his hand.
Events that make a conflict more difficult are called
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