It's what's inside that really matters.

• Author: Harris, Bobby
• Position: Voices - Brief Article

BUFFALO, NEW YORK -- I graduated in the spring from Kensington High School, a mostly black school in the heart of the inner city.

Race was a big issue at my school. There were sometimes fights between blacks and whites. Many blacks at the school acquainted themselves only with members of their own race and frowned on interracial friendships.

So it caused some controversy when, at the end of my freshman year at Kensington, I took to a certain white classmate and we became friends--a friendship that continues today.

We have many things in common, and have many of the same views on issues. We pretty much did everything together in high school. We'd go to the movies, go camping, to the mall, to Starbucks. Some people said that we were attached at the hip.

My friendship with a white student wasn't all that set me apart. While DMX, Jay-Z, and other rap artists were very popular at Kensington, I preferred listening to rock/alternative music like Foreigner, Aerosmith, and Alanis Morisette, and to country singers like Trisha Yearwood, the Dixie Chicks, and SheDaisy. When it came to politics, I was not shy about advocating on behalf of the...