The house in which I lived for most of my college career had four rooms. Roommates graduated and left and new tenants occupied their cleared space. At one point a fellow student at UNCW, Derrick Thompson, moved into a vacant room. Yes, he's black. That summer, after more roommates graduated and moved on to make lives in other cities, Derrick asked two other friends to take up space in our ranch style abode. Enter Keven Brown and Jason Alston. Yes, they're also black.
I learned more about three guys I didn't know much about. We went out. We hung out at home. We helped each other out. We had our disagreements. We got over them. You know, all the things people do together. Sure we had our cultural differences. But the only thing I truly learned was more about three men that I still call friends.
I guess the real reason I decided to write this was to show that we are all people. We all have our idiosyncrasies. We have some differences culturally, but in the end we're all just people. There was nothing to learn about living with people of a different race, nor did I think there would have been.
As I get older and I see the younger generations melding more and not seeming to allow race to become an issue in their lives, it makes me think that maybe things will get better. We are becoming more tolerant as a society, however we're far from equality. Only serious reform is going to help this country.
Maybe nobody reads this. Maybe only tolerant people read this and give it the ole thumbs up. Maybe it pisses somebody off. Who knows. But now I've written it and my hope is that even one person sees it and that person goes on to effect change. Even if it's only on a personal level.
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