TeenConnect: Trending May 14, 2018 Issue

Black and white? Or brothers?

Name Withheld

Originally appeared online in the teen series: Trending - February 12, 2018

It was my first week in college in the United States, and I didn’t understand what was going on with my roommate. At first I’d been friendly, but he wasn’t very responsive. So I backed off—thinking he needed his space. However, I soon noticed that, while he didn’t seem to want to talk to me, outside of our room he was friendly with others.

I had never been in a situation like this before—of being around someone, having to live with someone, who was pretending I didn’t exist. The atmosphere in our room was tense, and in our limited interactions he was always unfriendly and impolite.

One day, a guy across the hall told me he knew what was going on. My roommate had a reputation for being racist. The problem wasn’t me but the color of my skin.

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