The Boxer Dealing With Racism

One day, 20-year-old Sanjay Pereira and his boxing team walked into a bar in a small town in the UK. When he went up to the bar alone to get a drink a white man approached him threatening to beat him up. At the time though Mr. Pereira was very short and tiny…he was at the peak of his boxing career and knew he could easily take this guy on. Especially since behind him were some of the biggest, strongest and scariest people you had ever seen. The white guy continued to threaten him using words like “bastard,” “dirty black person” and “I’ll knock you out.” He had 3 choices he could choose from:

  1. Talk to the guy calmly and wait 10 more seconds for his friends to show up
  2. Back out and Leave the restaurant
  3. Punch the guy

Instead, he chose a 4rth option and said “a black? where?! Does Dad know?” In reference to a ————— comedy sketch.

The guy started laughing and the situation calmed down.

The lesson he learned from this was there is always a way out. He went on to talk about how he is a firm believer in violence ONLY in the form of self-defense. Even if the other guy is completely wrong, it is always a better idea to back down and apologize. The best form of self-defense according to Mr. Perrera is using your moth and legs—Your mouth to apologize and your legs to run away.


Takeaways:

  • Violence is never the answer and should always be the last option
  • It was always on my bucket list to get into a fight because I don’t see myself as a very aggressive outspoken person. I feel I should stand up for myself a little more because I can definitely be a pushover. This talk has changed my perception completely. Instead of my lack of aggressiveness being an insecurity, I now feel proud of it. I think this is an important lesson for other students (next year FIB’s) to learn as well because the media portrays fighting to be a good thing and associates it with bravery instead of stupidity. Movies always show the fight but never show what happens after the fight. I never thought about that and never realized how bloody things can get after.

One thought on “The Boxer Dealing With Racism”

  1. so where does this leave your thinking? Do you agree? Is there a feature story in this? or op-ed?

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