I was reluctant to contribute to this thread because I haven't been particularly thrilled with some of the opinions, or rather, the way the opinions have been portrayed here. But, I do feel I have something to add to a situation where everyone appears to only be focusing on the negative. I live in Mississippi. I am white. My husband is black. My husband happens to be in a career where he interacts a great deal with society all over the state and he is incredibly well respected. I believe if it weren't for this, we would receive a lot more flack about our relationship than we do now. As it is, we often find people, especially older adults, staring us down, saying things that we "aren't supposed" to hear, are blatantly hostile towards us...I mean nearly every time we go out. Of course, this only happens with the people he doesn't know. We've never felt a single bit of disdain from people who know him. This is due, in part, to him working at a large university where the population is very ethnically diverse. Anyway, I say this to illustrate my inside experience of racism in an area of the country that is possibly the most racist.

Anyway, I have also had the opportunity to teach here in the public schools, k-3rd grade (I quit about 2 years ago). Anyway, the public schools are about 60% African American, 30% white, and the other 10% is really diverse because of the University. These kids don't care AT ALL about anyone's race. I realize they are young, but I have never, ever seen or heard the slightest negatively racist thing between these little people. When I was in school, black people and white people, while always friendly, were always very clearly separated...don't know why, but its how it was. But with these kids, you will be hard pressed to ever find a group that is just white kids or just black kids. They have kid arguments and fusses, but it is never anything other than stupid kid stuff. Anyway, I have found great hope in these kids. They do not care at all what race their friend is. The play and share and just love each other the way kids do.

I guess that's all I wanted to add. So as bad as it may seem to everyone all the time, these kids are going to grow up and hopefully they will remain so open and good to each other. Its slow coming, but I do believe that things are changing.