The Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome clip above is apropos of this Dallas Morning News story detailing the cage matches that were staged at South Oak Cliff High School over a period of a couple of years for students to "resolve their differences."
The school district site doesn't detail the school's racial makeup, and sorry, I'm not familiar enough with Dallas to know, but a wikipedia entry about the school mentions that "Between 1965 and 1970 the student body changed from nearly 100 percent white to almost 100 percent African-American."
The Dallas Morning News story has a sidebar that includes the relevant pages from the report that revealed how the "cage" and fights were set up by school personnel. The principal at the time, who is alleged to have at one point condoned/encouraged the fighting, at another point is alleged to have worked to stop the fighting, saying "I don't want any of that shit... I've killed with my bare hands."
While wrestling/ultimate fighting edges into very physical theater, extreme games like "The Running Man" and "Death Race" are seeming less fantastic by the minute. Especially with so many young men of color with few productive prospects.
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