BL...African American

I'm a simple country boy. I graduated 7th in my class - and still was not in the top 10% (do the math ... yeah less than 70 people). My school had about 800 students. [you] "Scott if there were 800 people and I "do the math" 800 / 4 = 200 - but you said that you had 69 people in your class. You're a fucking liar!" (Sorry I assumed you were mad enough to swear). Well there were 800 people - see my school was K-12... all in one building. Awesome.

So my town is this dot 30 miles from the nearest city (Rochester, NY). The racial mix at my school was slightly different than my current stomping ground, Cleveland (where it is roughly 50% white and 50% black).

My roommate in college (black guy) used to make fun of me. I would say stuff like, "It's all good." He would immediately say, "don't say that infront of anyone ever again - you sound like a tool." I tried to explain that growing up with 68 other white kids didn't bring a lot of spice to the mix and I was pretty bland. Actually my class wasn't 100% white - my old joke (if a racial joke that is totally light hearted and meant with no malice is going to offend you just stop reading this paragraph and move to the next one).... My old joke was - "if a race riot broke out at my school, we'd kick his ass."

I graduated with 1 black kid. *1*. Actually he was 1/4 black. So my background in things racially sensitive may be a bit weak. I use the term black to describe people that are of a certain skin tone. I don't use the term "African American" for 2 reasons.
(1) Some people who are black are not African. My coworker is Jamaican - so he is black. Not African American. It's a misnomer.
(2) Some people who are white *are* African. Yeah - they have white people there too. If one of those people hop on a plane and get citizenship - BAM! African American.

A lot of white people aren't comfortable saying black - so you'll get this. "Ray? Oh you mean Bill's BL...African American friend?" C'mon people. I agree we need to move on - treat skin color like eye color. Where sometimes you prefer people with blue eyes - but you don't lynch people with brown eyes. But society likes labelling people. There has been an evolution. N-word ... "Colored" ... "Black" ... "African American" (People of Color may be in there too). We are constantly trying to be more politically correct. Just treat people how you would want to be treated. Do I mind if a guy calls me "white"? No. So therefore I assume things are ok with black. Maybe not - maybe I am a racist, biggoted asshole. But I don't think so.

Read more in part 2 of my series (Black People). Intriguing huh? I'll write it when I f'ing feel like it. But this was all setup and part 2 is where I unload and get hella pissed.