I too grew up in a practically mono-cultural suburb, not counting the significant subset of Catholic kids, many of whom went to the local parish grammar school. There was a slight smattering of Jewish kids, and like one Japanese-American and one Chinese-American.

The first time I met black kids my age was at a YMCA day camp in the summers. Otherwise it would have been not until college!

My gradeschools were so lily white growing up that anyone of another race was more an individual oddity than representative of a whole group. I do remember being very confused and angry when one friend's father made him stop playing with the neighborhood kids in the afternoons because one of us was black.

So back to the more basic - WTF is wrong with people?

No, but they're not bigoted against black people! They're statistically bigoted against statistical black people.

Except the well-adjusted ones, because they're all, like, leprechauns, every one. All the white people want their lucky charms or something. How can we but envy them and their unprecedented good fortune?

In the words of Victor Meldrew, "I'm sorry, what language are you talking in now? It appears to be Bollocks!"

The problem with leaving the travel arrangements to my parents is that the don't consult me. You want to take what will be 90 minutes to go see the family when it is 2 hours until we leave for the wedding & I haven't showered yet because no one told me of this plan? Knock yourself out. I'll see them at the wedding.

Ahhhh parents.

Whatevs, parents!

I grew up as the only minority pretty much. I didn't meet another non-family Japanese person until high school.

When Kat's K. met me, she joked at Kat that she wasn't the only Asian in northern Ohio, but as far as we could tell then we both were! Too bad we didn't meet then!

Anyway, my parents never talked to me about racial issues, other than being startled when I hit dating age and starting bringing home basically a boy of every race.

Otherwise it would have been not until college!

I think it's interesting that people are surprised to meet white and Asian and Indian and Jewish Jamaicans, whereas my jaw just drops at that possibility.

I mean, even when I was one of three black kids at my school in London, I figured they were getting their negro fix elsewhere, because...well, because.

My parents definitely did talk to me about racial issues. They were all up in our grills about diversity and equality and racism from the moment we could read, as our collection of books could attest. If there was a picture book on the slave trade or the civil rights movement in the US, we had it. If there was a picture book of international "fairy tales" in English, we probably had it, considering we were living in Jamaica--my father's UN hookup made things easier.

In the words of Victor Meldrew, "I'm sorry, what language are you talking in now? It appears to be Bollocks!"

I am so using this.

One of the first times I really disagreed with my mom over something fundamental was interracial dating in 7th grade. I asked her what she'd do if I went out with a black boy, and she gaped for a moment before replying, "Well, your father and I would be very disappointed and your grandfather would die of a heart attack." Yeah. Asian-American was fine, apparently, as I later dated a "Chao". Of course, I went on to date women so I showed her. Or something.

I wonder if she still feels that way. I wonder if my dad ever felt that way.

Still? I never got anything like that "talk." That is some serious overt racist bullshit right there.

In the words of Victor Meldrew, "I'm sorry, what language are you talking in now? It appears to be Bollocks!"

In this vein, my new favorite phrase (from Eddie Izzard talking about Hannibal's success being due to the difficulty of communicating in latin): "Quod the fuck?"

There were only 3 black people in my public high school (that I can remember). We didn't have a lot of diversity in our community, but I would have been shocked if my parents had ever expressed that interracial or gay relationships were not normal. Thinking back my brother did have a black girlfriend for a time. I remember comments in my family that she was completely crazy, but that comment was made about more than one of his girlfriends, so not unique to her.

One of the first Jamaicans I met when I moved to Florida is Chinese, so although I was surprised at the time, he explained that he was hardly alone in his heritage. I didn't know right away, it wasn't until I heard him talking to his dad on the phone that the full accent appeared and I asked.

My parents never, never ever ever, said any similar to me. Oh hell no.

I grew up in LA during the 80s, when there was a lot of gang violence and hence there were discussions about how to avoid being a victim. Even so, those focused on clothing and behaviors, not skin color. But I do think there is some inherent racism in those kinds of talks, which isn't to say I think my parents were big ol' racists, more that even at the time it was clear that the language can impose categorizations that are problematic even when you are trying to avoid using race to categorize people.