[Ryan Dognaux]

I've lived in 3 regions now while being involved with FIRST - Indianapolis / Purdue, Philadelphia and St. Louis now. I can honestly say I've never witnessed anything that I would consider to be blatant racism in FIRST. I'm not naive to say it doesn't happen - there are literally racists everywhere unfortunately. But I'd like to think the overwhelming majority of FIRSTers are just really awesome people that have a common thread of geeking out over sweet robots. I don't care about your race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. I think we can all bond over our love of STEM and really cool robots.

I also realize that being an uber white middle-class person gives me a different perspective than others and I think the previously mentioned thread serves a purpose to give people a chance to just say whatever they want to say. I think we could all learn a little bit by just listening to what people have experienced - both inside and outside of FIRST.