To Dance The Charleston To Slipknot...

Is equal to having segregated proms at a time of such integration that we have elected a man of two races to our highest seat in the country But yet, it happens.

Let me tell you something about my personal prom night. My date was an asshole who went to dance with an old flame as soon as the music began. I was pissed, but tried to have a good time, being as I had spent hundreds of dollars on the one night, and I'm not one to toss around money. So I was determined to make my prom night semi-enjoyable, thus I searched out other friends.

One was my best friend, a girl of mixed race. Wouldn't be allowed at the prom, had we lived about 5oo miles south. The other was my ex-boyfriend and still close friend, a black kid. Also would not have been admitted. For selfish reasons, I'm glad that most of the country has the education to hold integrated proms.

Which makes me think- I never thought of my life as integrated. I mean, I hang out with kids of different races all the time- we're best friends. But to think that that is a political statement is crazy. I've never though of having "Integrated Poker Nights"; "Multiracial Sleepovers"; "Cross-Cultured Lunches". That's just how it is. To think that I would bring my friend Dave home to hang out and have my father, instead of greeting him and asking if he'd like to see our cat's new trick, tell me coldly that I was unable to have him over would be ludicrous. To think, for that matter, that anyone in this century would do that is crazy.

Alas, it is true. Not even just blacks and whites, but I'm sure other races. Like, I don't know for a fact, but if some Sunni girl invited a Shi'i girl over to watch movies, I wouldn't doubt that some radical parent would put up a fuss. Or maybe, a Jewish boy and a Nazi's son, circa 1938. There'd be some serious issues on the parental front there. All I'm saying is that bigotry is lame.

Like, I don't get it. I never did. We're all people- we all hurt and love and laugh. What should it matter if we're Indian or Russian or Creek or Jamaican? It's the goddam 21st century. You can travel the world in under two days, why has it taken us tens of thousands of years to accept its people as equal? Sure, I may eat spaghetti for dinner and you may be partial to falafel, but that's where it stops. Cultural barriers are man-made, as are prejudices. The only thing keeping us from loving one another as equals is ourselves.

And I'm not even saying anything crazy. I'm not saying to go adopt a baby from a third-world country or to erase your stereotypes of cultures or go move into a part of town where everyone speaks a different language than you. All I want you to do is to think of those people in that country, or that different part of your country or town as equal to you. You may have a Beemer, they may have a bike. Who gives a damn? You both have still felt pain, rejection, the feel of a gorgeous summer day. You both have a heart and lungs and brain, and you both want the same thing in life- happiness. No matter how you go about it, people have basic similarities, and it's silly to think that just because you were raised in a nuclear family in the suburbs and they were raised in the projects, you can't relate. Yes, you can. If you never talk of anything more than your feelings, you'll stil have a lifetime of meaningful conversation.

So don't give me that shit that blacks and whites don't have enough in common to have a prom together. Me and Dave did- we both had been ditched by our dates and wanted to dance with a good friend. And these kids in the south, they've gone to school together for years, they all whine about the same hard teacher and laugh about the same senior prank. They're friends. Why keep friends from each other? That's like keeping the sun from a flower. And everyone deserves to blossom on prom night.