Hey!!! I don't know if this thing is on.

America's has been dubbed the Great Melting Pot, but I don't know if this thing is on sometimes. For example, when I decided to move south, I had family and friends all tell me that, "The south is racist. It's too many Kux Klux Klan members living there. They use to own your great grandparents."

The list goes on and on, so I'm going to spare you the BS.

First of all there are racist people everywhere. Just like in a pot of stew, time and heat are the key factors to meld all the flavors together. Even with those two strong influences, you are still going to end up with very distinct flavors, and whole pieces that don't want to give up all of their properties.

The only difference between the north and the south, when it comes to race relations, is one is more straightforward than the other, but they are both BS.

For example, where I'm from, people segregate themselves. They live in neighborhoods that are designated as "white only", "black only", or "Latin only" with these invisible borders. People talk about their dislike for the different races of people openly, "I don't want to live around, work, or go to school with those people because..."

Down south, it's more behind the scenes, until someone wants to date or marry outside of their race.

I have a friend, who does not want to be named, that is marrying a "white man", and she is a "black woman". They have known each other since high school, hang out with mutual friends, and even go to church together. However, they have experienced some tension from friends, family and the public. One incident happened, while on her job, at a well known radio station here in Raleigh. She told me that when she showed her manager a picture of her and her boyfriend, he said, "Oh, so you're a cracker snatcher, huh?"

WTF!!!!?

Then another thing that happened to seal the deal was when she was introduced to another co-worker. The co-worker was a "white woman" that just so happen to have graduated from the same college as my friend, so she was asked if she had ever seen her around. The co-worker replied, "No, I don't believe I have." So, the manager asked, "Well, how can you be so sure?". The woman's response was, "Because, we didn't have many of them running around our school, so I think I would have remembered if I'd met her."

WOW!!!

It really is sad that things in America are so hot and heated, but the good thing is that the fire we endure in this "Great Melting Pot" will burn off all the bad as it keeps the good. And, what a beautiful stew we will be :-)