We don't get too many of your kind here

Everyone who has gone to high school has no doubt read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. What you may not know is that this fabulous book's author is an extremely reclusive woman in her mid-eighties living in Alabama. Once a year, a contest is held statewide, and one lucky Alabama high school student has the chance to meet with Ms. Lee in a one-on-one setting.

Yesterday on the way back up to NCSA from the cultural black hole that is Pinehurst, I was listening to NPR when a piece concerning the Alabama "To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Contest" was aired. The meat of this report was an interview with last year's winner, a seventeen year old girl who had the unmistakable accent of an entire life living in the deep South. Her winning essay was about an experience she had as a Sophomore whilst playing the role of Scout in a two-school production of To Kill a Mockingbird. The production, which was a joint effort between the winner's (nearly) all-white high school and another (entirely) all-black high school, was so successful that even the hermit-like Harper Lee came out in public--surrounded by security guards--to watch the performance.

The interview on NPR was centered around the essay contest winner, Regan, and her co-star Roman, who portrayed Tom Robinson in the production. During this interview, a very interesting statement was made, almost in unison, by both Regan and Roman. Regan, who attends a white high school and Roman, who attends a (much poorer) black high school both stated that until their production of To Kill a Mockingbird, neither had spoken to, much less seen a person of each other's race.

This, needless to say, completely blew me away. The idea that a white seventeen year old had never seen or spoken to a black person until her junior year in high school is staggering. The existence of two high schools, both attended by single-race student bodies and mere miles apart, is something that simply should not occur today.

I drove in the car, aghast, for a few more minutes, until I came to a somewhat heartbreaking realization. Even I, a middle-class white eighteen year old from a multi-religious, multi-cultural household, remember a time when I had never come in contact with an African American. In fact, I distinctly recall not having a single black student in any of my classes until sixth grade! Of course, now-a-days, I am completely tolerant to people of all races, religions, etc., but I think that this is a lucky thing. No wonder there is so much race related hate in this world. There is still a huge divide between all races, but especially between the black and white communities in this country. And, now that I think about it, in my hometown of Pinehurst, I can't remember a single time where I have seen an African American on the streets of the Village of Pinehurst. Not one. Only in downtown Southern Pines, a much poorer town next door to Pinehurst, does one run into a multi-racial group.

I sincerely hope that by the time I have children, it will be an odd thing for a young child not to have interaction with children of different racial backgrounds. Now though, finding out that there are still high schools of completely singular-race student bodies, I am not too optimistic.