Pocatello Teen National Winner

The figures are simple. A faceless man and woman. The man has an arm around the woman who cradles an infant in her arms.

The man is Understanding. The woman is Tolerance. The infant is Color Blindness. The family stands in a cemetery where a bouquet of dead flowers rests upon the grave of Ignorance.

This is 15-year-old Patrick Robison’s vision of a future without racism.

The sketch is one of five first-place winners in a national contest sponsored by Castle Rock Entertainment and Microsoft Network.

Robison drew the sketch during his honors English class at Irving Junior High School last January.

His entry included an essay explaining his sketch, “From Ignorance to Color Blindness.” It won his school a Toshiba computer with Microsoft software valued at more than $3,500.

His winning sketch and essay are on the Internet. The other first-place winners were from California, Washington and Arizona.

“It was the first idea that popped into my head,” Robison said. “I liked the idea of a multi-racial family unit, a blending of cultures.”

The contest was part of a promotions campaign for “Ghosts of Mississippi,” a movie concerning the search for justice in the murder of civil rights leader Medger Evers.

The first-place winners were selected by the film’s director, Rob Reiner, Robison was told.

“I just hope that the people who see my sketch will look at it with an open mind. I don’t know if it’ll make that big of a difference in how people think, but maybe it’ll touch some people,” Robison said.