Spending most of my childhood in rural Kansas, I don't recollect ever talking to a black person until I was 13-years-old. Race was never a topic of discussion, or much thought, because I never encountered anyone but other white people.

Then I moved to Louisville to a nice neighborhood and went to a nice school that was in the midst of the busing turmoil. Talk about a culture shock. I went from a small copacetic school which did not allow locks on lockers to a school where 8th grade kids were talking of knife fights and selling joints in the locker room during gym class. To say I was confused, bewildered and overwhelmed is an understatement.

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