Karen: I received notice of your reply on my e-mail. Thanks for responding. Unfortunately, sometimes the written word can fail to convey shades of meaning. I think it is patently obvious that I am white, that is one reason why I go by Chris Bob when blogging-sort of a short-hand. Has anyone ever met a black person or Latino with Bob as a middle name? Being white in a white supremist society, I feel it is my duty to take a few more risks as an activist, given the luxury of my white privilege. However, I am from West Virginia, and in my travels I have experienced a series of micro-aggression by higher status whites-shoeless, toothless incest prone hillbilly slights. These experiences help me to understand what people of color must endure, of course multiplied by ten. I grew up in an inter-racial school system, and currently work at Job Corps, and a nonprofit where about half of the staff is black. It is over all a good experience with very little miscommunication.
As for my son, he is one of the few merit finalists to go through the inner city schools of Stonewall Jackson middle and Capital High School. You are correct to presuppose that he is less likely to run into those terrible problems that beset our youth of color, but I would submit to you in the some total of things, my son and I grew up with no more class privilege than Barak-who was thoroughly vetted by the power elite and given the stamp of approval, because he made it crystal clear that he would not rock the boat.

Karen,
Everybody thinks you were responding to each one of us. It might be a good idea to name the indvidual you ment to address or reply to.

Thanks,