When you're the only white person in the room
By John Blake, CNN
updated 5:14 PM EDT, Thu September 11, 2014
Amanda Shaffer's entire world shifted when she became a white minority in a black high school.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- Flip open Amanda Shaffer's high school yearbook, and you'll notice something that stands out even more than her classmates' earnest smiles and big hairdos.
Only a handful of white faces appear among the portraits of African-American students -- flecks of white on a canvas of black and brown. One of those faces belongs to Shaffer, who was bused to a black high school in Cleveland, Ohio, after refusing to follow her friends to a white, private academy.
For three years, Shaffer was the only white person in the room. She had to learn how to fit in, how to not say the wrong thing. She had to deal with the peculiar sensation of being the only white girl in the bleachers as jittery white basketball teams entered a raucous gym filled with black people.
"It shifted my point of view," Shaffer says. "It's like when you go to the optometrist, and they slap those new lenses on you -- you see the world differently."
At least some do. A co-owner of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks recently offered another perspective on race when he complained in an email that the presence of too many black fans at Hawks' games scared away Southern whites who are "not comfortable being in an arena or a bar where they are the minority."
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/11/us/white-minority/index.html?hpt=hp_t4
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Global warming used to be in the forefront, then it was Ukraine, Shifted over to Russia and now a stark divide between the open border, Ferguson, Ray Rice and finally this.
It's been a while since they have tried to be so blatant with it. They want us to fight each other like Caesar did back in the day. Have the strong vs. strong and the govt comes in afterwards and sweeps up.
By John Blake, CNN
updated 5:14 PM EDT, Thu September 11, 2014
Amanda Shaffer's entire world shifted when she became a white minority in a black high school.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- What happens when whites live in in a black world?
- White student at black school: Your vision shifts
- Some still can't define what being black means
- Why you should never say "I don't see color"
(CNN) -- Flip open Amanda Shaffer's high school yearbook, and you'll notice something that stands out even more than her classmates' earnest smiles and big hairdos.
Only a handful of white faces appear among the portraits of African-American students -- flecks of white on a canvas of black and brown. One of those faces belongs to Shaffer, who was bused to a black high school in Cleveland, Ohio, after refusing to follow her friends to a white, private academy.
For three years, Shaffer was the only white person in the room. She had to learn how to fit in, how to not say the wrong thing. She had to deal with the peculiar sensation of being the only white girl in the bleachers as jittery white basketball teams entered a raucous gym filled with black people.
"It shifted my point of view," Shaffer says. "It's like when you go to the optometrist, and they slap those new lenses on you -- you see the world differently."
At least some do. A co-owner of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks recently offered another perspective on race when he complained in an email that the presence of too many black fans at Hawks' games scared away Southern whites who are "not comfortable being in an arena or a bar where they are the minority."
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/11/us/white-minority/index.html?hpt=hp_t4
----------------------------
Global warming used to be in the forefront, then it was Ukraine, Shifted over to Russia and now a stark divide between the open border, Ferguson, Ray Rice and finally this.
It's been a while since they have tried to be so blatant with it. They want us to fight each other like Caesar did back in the day. Have the strong vs. strong and the govt comes in afterwards and sweeps up.
