'I'm either too black or not black enough': One teenager's experience
I hate to talk about this.  I&#x27;m a minority in the country in which I&#x27;m living.  I&#x27;ve experienced racism -- more explicit than anything described in this article.  And yet, I do not believe that the country in which I live is racist.  I do not believe that the community in which I live is racist.  There are a few racist people.  Some are friends of friends of mine.  Some are even my friends.  Somehow.  I&#x27;m not sure how that works, to be honest.<p>But I&#x27;ll say something which I shouldn&#x27;t say.  It&#x27;s too personal to say it in public, but if you&#x27;ve never been a minority, then you&#x27;ll never know.  So to spare you from having to move to another place where you are a minority, I&#x27;ll tell you.<p>The biggest racists is you.  Every time you compare yourself to others and wonder if you fit in, you are dividing yourself from the others.  Every time you celebrate <i>your</i> culture as if it is different from <i>their</i> culture, you are dividing yourself from others.  Every time you say &quot;they&quot; instead of &quot;we&quot; you are separating yourself from others.<p>You can say it is their fault, but it&#x27;s not.  Nobody can control another person.  Even if they <i>are</i> racist, it doesn&#x27;t mean <i>you</i> have to be.  How does it sound to say, &quot;We are racist&quot;?  Pretty weird when it&#x27;s <i>them</i> throwing the slurs, or denying you business, or just treating you like crap for no particular reason.  It&#x27;s still your choice.  In or out?<p>It&#x27;s hard. If you become &quot;them&quot;, don&#x27;t you throw away &quot;you&quot;?  If you hate them because they are racist, because they treat you badly, are you part of the problem?  If you accept it, aren&#x27;t you part of the problem?  Why can&#x27;t you be &quot;you&quot; without having to give in to &quot;them&quot;?  What&#x27;s wrong with being different?  What&#x27;s wrong with being the same?<p>Those are hard questions.  I haven&#x27;t been a minority long enough to be able to answer those questions.  Probably my life will not be long enough to answer those questions.  That&#x27;s part of the problem.  The only thing I know is that you won&#x27;t find peace waiting for others to give you answers.  It&#x27;s something that you have to work out for yourself.  Maybe that&#x27;s not fair, but it&#x27;s the way it is.