Let’s talk about race

When I was in seventh grade, an older schoolmate said something that has stayed with me through the nearly half-century since. “I don’t have anything against Blacks,” he declared. “But I wouldn’t want my sister to marry one.”

I forget what the context was. But I do remember being startled — I am, still — by the bald honesty of the kid’s words. And thinking, without understanding exactly what it was I had heard: There’s something wrong here.

How might the world have changed, even if in a small way, had I said that out loud?