Fact or fiction: The negative viewpoints of race relations will always remain in America. Some people may answer that this is true, others may vary. But from first hand experience, I think that ignorance will never go away, but, as an individual, you must learn how to deal with it and take it in stride.
   Everyone seems to think that children are so innocent; they do not know right from wrong; and they are brutally honest. That is the case in only a few situations. All throughout my younger years, I was never too popular amongst other black children. My family taught me to speak properly and dress very neatly, and I read a lot. Being proclaimed as a "gifted" child in the first grade also made many children leery of me. I was teased in elementary school, called an "Oreo," told that I thought that 1 was better than the rest of my black classmates and so on. So, I had a few (what I called true) friends, and I was happy. All of them were white. Being a child, I never really understood too much of it until I hit middle school.
   Once I hit middle school, I encountered the same problem. But this time, I had black friends, but I still felt left out. Because I didn't act up in class or mouth off to teachers (I was a quiet, shy child: who would have thought?) I was labeled the "teacher's pet" and "goodie two shoes." I still had white friends, but it seemed like I didn't really fit in with them either. The one day that I decided to act stupid with the rest of the class, I got sent to in-house detention, and I didn't like it too much. That was when I finally realized that what everyone else thought of me wasn't really important, simply because in house wasn't fun.
   Finally, I reached high school. In high school, I had friends of every color. My intelligence paid off, along with my writing skills and the type of music that I listened to. Everything that I liked to do, but that I had thought no one liked me for suddenly changed. High school was the melting pot, and I was happy to be in it. That was until my sophomore year. One of my closest friends got jumped after a flag football game, supposedly because he called someone a "nigger" out on the field. The fight quickly became an all- out locker room fight, seemingly blacks against whites. I was hurt, confused and torn. I didn't understand what I was supposed to do, if there was anything that I could do at all.
   Coming to college made me realize a lot. Being from Pittsburgh, I do not see a lot of racist things. My neighborhood is intermixed, and I am accepted. I wasn't raised to hate anyone. I was raised to accept people's differences and treat them the way that I would want to be treated. I have tried to do that here on the campus of Penn State McKeesport, but yet, it doesn't always work. I have a variety of friends on this campus, anyone who knows me will tell you this. Some of my closest and most reliable friends on this campus, are not the same race as me.
   When I came to the Penn State McKeesport campus, I was disappointed to see the Buck Union Building (BUB) as segregated as it was. I tried to sit in the larger side of the BUB for a while, but I felt odd, not because I was sitting over there, but because of the stares that I consistently got. It has changed a lot from last year, but for the majority, it is still the same. As much as I would like the stares to stop when 1 walk into the BUB with one of my white friends, they won't. Simply because in the year 2000, some people are still ignorant to the fact that I, as a black female, have the right to be here, just as much as everyone else. So just because I listen to Vertical Horizon, 3 Doors Down, Dave Matthews Band along with DMX, Eminem and Tupac, doesn't mean that that I am to be talked about. It means that I am diverse. Just because I don't use slang all of the time does not mean that I think that I am better than anyone else, it means that I am educated and that I choose not to use slang all of the time. Furthermore, just because I walk through the BUB with someone who is different that me doesn't mean that I don't know who I am or where I am going in life, it means that 1 have friends next to me that are supporting me on my path of getting there.