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Chase Robertson
Laura Knudson
UWRT 1103
18 September 2015
Exploratory Essay
A few topics I have considered writing about is sexism and racism in the United States,
history of concussions and their effect on football players at all levels of the sport, and modern
day advances in structural engineering to not only make buildings stand longer and be able to be
built higher, but also to be able to resist natural disasters. All of these topics peak my interest in
different ways. Sexism and racism in America is by far the most controversial topic on my list of
possible topics. I not only want to research the sexism from men towards women, but also
women towards men. Females are told their whole life they are just as good as men, but where
does the equal turn into better. People are always saying how women are better, where as not to
long ago women were thought to be less than men. Do not get me wrong I believe that women
are just as good as men, but not better, equal. That is why I want to research just where the line
is. Along with sexism racism was been huge in the news in the last few years and I want to see if
this racism is the same from the civil rights, or is it new racism from a new generation. I want to
research events in the last 50 years of mass racism. I believe that while the most controversial
topic it could also be the most interesting as well. Many people believe that sexism can only go
in one direction men being sexism against women, but women can often be sexist to men. Both
sides do it sometimes without realizing it, sometime in reaction to the other side being sexist. I
want to research what the root cause of all this is. In the last couple years especially there have

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been many white versus black violence in America, I want to see if there has been constant
violence in the United States and that it is just now being publicized in the news, or is the
violence a new wave of violence made from our own generation. I feel that sexism is a bigger
issue in the United States then many people realize, and it is not a one way street by any means.
The obvious signs of sexism is that men get higher pay than women for the exact same job,
another piece of evidence in America that sexism exist is that there are some jobs that
traditionally only men have, and only in the last couple months has some of these traditions have
been broken, the NFL in the past has had women referees, but only for a preseason game. This
season not only is there a regular woman referee, but also a women coach. The Arizona
Cardinals hired a female assistant coach this offseason. These two actions by the NFL have
opened the gateway to women working in bigger and bigger roles the NFL in upcoming years of
the NFL. Girls are told ever since they are a kid that they are just as good as boys, but no one
ever tells a boy that can do anything that a girl can do. This mentality can lead some women to
be sexist. Some females think that they are better than men by the sere fact that they are women
not because of personal accomplishments. I believe that a women can be better than a man at
certain tasks not because they are female, but because that human being is more capable than
another human being.
My second topic that I am considering writing about is concussions in football all the
way from the pee-wee level to the professional level. A concussion is when the head is hit and it
causes the brain to hit the skull causing bleeding. When football was first created in the early 20th
century little was known about head injuries that came with the new hard hitting sport. In the
recent decade much has been learned about concussions. Scientist have been developing new
helmet technology to help prevent and lessen the effects of concussions on the human brain.

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Scientist and doctors have known about concussions for a long time, but only in the last few
decades have been able to learn the short and long term affects on the human brain. The short
term affects of a low grade concussion is that the person is that they are dizzy, unbalanced, and
vomiting. High grade concussions have a much higher cost. A high grade concussion and lead to
memory loss, speech and learning disabilities, and even death in more serve cases. The long term
affects of a concussion is very similar in both low and high grade concussions, long term affects
are steady decline in capability, memory, and learning ability. A concussion is also has
weakening affect on the brain. Once a person receives one concussion their likelihood of having
another concussion doubles. This trend happens every time a person receives a concussion, so if
you have two concussions your chances of getting are four time greater than before when you
had no concussions. This fact is what makes football concussions so dangerous, most people who
get a concussion do not go back the next week and do the exact same activity that caused the
concussion, but football players can receive a concussion and in as little as a week go back on
the field. Football doctors and medical staffs main goal is to get the player back on the field as
soon as possible. Do not misunderstand what I am trying to say, I am not trying to say once a
football player gets a concussion he should not be allowed to play football again, but make sure
that the player is healthy and at top condition when he returns to the game. I speak from
experience, I played football in high school. One game a teammate of mine made a tackle, got
up, but then collapse because he hit the running back with head. The medical staff said he had a
concussion. My friend didnt play the rest of the game, but that next Monday he came to practice
like nothing happened. He said that he had been clear to practice and play in that weeks game.
That following Friday he played and got another concussion. This shows that there should be
more rules to ensure player safety. One way the NFL is helping to prevent concussions is

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investing money into concussion research and helmet development to protect players heads. The
NFL is also funding programs to teach players on all levels to tackle properly. Proper tackling
techniques reduce concussions by a considerable margin. Concussions usually happen when a
players head whip lashes, hits the ground hard, or the player tackles with the head down. Proper
technique teaches you to keep ur head up and to hit the player with your shoulder to their
opposite shoulder to avoid head to head collisions. I want to further research how concussions
can be reduced in football, either by proper technique or better equipment.