ABSTRACT

A group of African American boys sits in a circle surrounded by their white classmates. Akhil, a high-achieving student and star soccer player, describes being followed through the mall by a security guard. The other boys in the circle nod in recognition. They echo similar stories of clerks watching them in department stores and white women clutching their purses when they pass them on the street. They begin to share the routine dismissals of their integrity and intelligence woven through the fabric of their daily lives. They know they can expect to encounter racism. They have been schooled at home in how to handle it. Trish, however, sitting quietly on the outside of the circle with her white classmates, listening intently, is stunned. She had no idea. She thought racism went out in the sixties with the Civil Rights Movement. Later, the African American boys move to the outside circle, and the white girls move into the center. Now it’s Trish’s turn to talk about her experience. She’s about to find out she’s not the only one who didn’t know.