International observance of the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2024
The 21st of March marks the International observance of the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the international calendar. At Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) we held workshop with students in the high school. Simon, Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) international volunteer from Germany, held a presentation and discussion workshop.
The group first talked about the Olympic Summer Games in 1936 in Germany and how the National socialists used sport and the games for their propaganda. Simon also underlined the friendship of Jesse Owens and Luz Long who should be a role model for the spirit of sports. (Luz Long was sternly spoken to by Nazi Party officials after his time spent with Jesse. Jesse and Luz became friends at the Olympics and corresponded for years after that. Jesse would say of his Olympic friendship with Luz, “It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler”.
Furthermore, we talked about how right extremists abuse sports clubs, especially football clubs. The students were also informed about a club in Germany that’s called „III. Weg“, (3.Way-preference to the 3.Reich), which co-works internationally with other right extremist organizations.
In the end, the students worked in groups and presented their own views on this issue. They were asked to reflect on the existence of racism in their town and to share their own experiences. The goal of the workshops was to inform and mainly talk about the issue of racism and discrimination in sport.
