I had Black friends, White friends, Asian friends, Hispanic friends and mixed-race friends. But I didn’t think of them as “Black,” “White,” “Hispanic” and “mixed race.” I thought of them as Rodney, Stephen, Javier and Jordan. Where my White friends had the wind of White supremacy at their backs, I faced a headwind. I huddled with the Black kids in one corner of the room, and watched as the White kids, Hispanic kids and Asian kids awkwardly shuffled to their respective corners. Why were Black students in one of the most progressive, non-racist environments on Earth claiming to experience racism all the time?

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Persons: Coleman Hughes, podcaster, CNN — I’ve, White, Rodney, Stephen, Javier, Jordan, Coleman Hughes Evan Mann, Martin Luther King Jr, ’, pimply White, Emmett Till, I’d Organizations: The New York Times, Street Journal, National, City Journal, CNN, Free Press, Forbes, Penguin Publishing, Newark Academy, Color Conference, Selma, Columbia University, Columbia, White, Ivy League Locations: Montclair , New Jersey, Montclair, Houston