And she told us we were in the wrong city. And so we kind of eased on out and hoped that no one bothered us on the way back to the campus, because we had to walk. We kind of fear those things that we don't understand, and I know even now, as I'm in a work environment, the class has helped me to be more on an equal footing when I'm dealing with white or black in a work type situation. I'm not as concerned about them getting an upper hand, or me getting an upper hand. I basically can treat them just like I am, feel comfortable in dealing with them, and work on the issues, as opposed to working on getting involved with color.
Color basically is negated at that point.
I've been in a couple of settings where I've had to function as the only minority in those settings, work settings primarily, and I think that this experience prepared me for that. I'm getting ready to relocate to Minnesota in a few weeks, where there are still few blacks in that area. And I think that, consequently, with my experiences, it makes me have more fortitude about walking into situations that I feel like I can function effectively. By the conversations in the class, the home visit, I came to understand how insidious racism was and is. It made me more verbal about feelings that I had always had.