It is a genuine interview, yes. I object to his exclusive racial interpretation of his discomfort. I don't doubt his experience, but how many white kids from working class communities would feel at ease and fit in to the prep school experience? Is it really just about race?

I think the USA has done very well over the last 50 years with their 'Black Issues', the job is not finished but I think they are over half-way there. Now to focus on the real issue, Hispanics. How many years before the USA will be majority Spanish speakers?

Be quiet Nigel.

dirge: I think you are right that it may not *just* have been about race. That doesn't mean it isn't about race *at all*. I think the experience of a working class black youth in this position would be a product of both his race and his social class. However I need to acknowledge the fact that I'm speaking from a position of white privilege in saying that. Possibly a black youth from a wealthy family, a Carlton Banks type character, would have a different experience, but he may *still* find his race makes people treat him differently. What would be useful would be further interviews with, for example, black young people from well-off families.

@dirge
I am not in a place where I can listen to the story, but I read the excerpts below and here are my preliminary thoughts.

"And then what I took home was a high level of shame because I walked in and I saw these people and say, you know what, wait. Their families are successful. Mine isn't. Does that mean that I am less than they are?"

-With all due respect, this is very much the human experience. This is how a very ugly person may feel in the presence of prettier people. This is how a fat person can feel in the presence of skinny people. This is how I - as a scientist - sometimes feel in a social sciences / economics setting.

I'm obviously not putting my feelings about that on the same level as this person's, but feeling "different" in some sense or another, even permanently, is just a part of the human experience.

Life is full of pain, full of disappointments, full of these small injustices like not getting a cab because you are black.

My advice to any kid in his position: be the best "prep school student" you can be and take the additional suffering being a poor black kid as a fact of life. Vindicate yourself by being the best, getting somewhere in life. There are black CEOs in America, top black scientists, hell, they have a black President. These are positions for which significant support among whites are crucial.

So hard it is, very hard it is even, impossible, it is not.

So what if it is about race? Deal with it - racial issues will never go away, and racial issues/racism is the not exclusive issue of blacks (as in, they are not the only one facing racism).

Talk to a minority-white person in the majority-black Detroit public school system, and I *guarantee* (because I have talked to them!!) that the oh-so-put-upon blacks have no problem dealing out their own particular form of racial hatred towards anyone not of their particular flesh.

When I attended Michigan State, the blacks in the school intentionally segregated themselves to a separate part of the cafeteria, and if you entered "their section" and sat down, you were greeted with glares and muttered harsh words.

When the blacks started a protest and took over the school administration building at MSU during my sophomore year, and I was passing by one night and asked someone if there is anything I could do to help, I was told they didn't need my honky help.

Yes, racism is alive and well in America. And...hint hint...always will be as long as people have different skin colors. But these are the behaviors of individuals, not inherent in humanity. And most importantly, the precious blacks in the this country bear an *equal* portion of the blame for racism...and it's time the white libtards in this country put aside their white-guilt complex and open their eyes to reality.

So what....a kid faced pressure in a prep school. I'll bet his *own* attitue didn't help. I'll bet he came to the school with a pre-concieved notion that he was a victim...and thus made it so.

Ooh, GLARES AND MUTTERED WORDS, you're a real Rosa Parks. That pretty much balances out centuries of slavery, racial oppression, economic inequality, and violence.

But anyway, there's still an association in the United States between race and class. You can't separate the two. To put it another way, a poor white kid can fake his way through situations a poor black kid could not, because many Americans will simply assume that a white person comes from and deserves to be in a better socioeconomic back ground. I fit more comfortably into more social situations, because I am white, than a black person of similar background (middle class suburbia) would.

Also, " racism is alive and well in America. And...hint hint...always will be as long as people have different skin colors"

This isn't true. Racism is a cultural invention, and it's relatively recent. The ancient Romans and Greeks didn't think that skin color necessarily indicated anything significant about a person.

And, "And most importantly, the precious blacks in the this country bear an *equal* portion of the blame for racism" might be the dumbest thing, in the long and glorious catalog of dumb things, you've ever said.

(The year is 1970. krellin, an eager and liberal sophomore at MSU, is heading down to the student union to join a rally to support the students shot at Kent State. He has long brown hair, large bell bottom jeans, a denim vest, and no shirt.)

*Group of black students*: "Michigan State is some jive turkey motherfucker! Stop the hate!"

*krellin*: "My brother, what seems to be troubling you?"

*Head black student*: "Get yo white ass outta here, you part of the problem, you ain't no solution!"

*krellin*: "Pardon me, but I believe you're mistaken. President Johnson enacted some incredible reforms and wonderful strides have been made in the past decade in civil rights legislation. The government is your friend. Why are you so unhappy?"

*Second black student*: "Get yo honky ass outta here, we don't need yo honky help!"

(At this point, a blood vessel pops in krellin's forehead. His face gets redder and redder with anger as he realizes that his generation has been lied to by the government. Big government caused him to be insulted! He vows to spend the rest of his life fighting the powers that be and sticking up for states rights.)

And scene.