John Sonmez

I can code and program as well as many of my fellow students, but I am often the only black male in the classes that we have, and coincidentally, or not, I am also the one most often over looked or whose ideas are tossed out without thought until everything else had been tried.

That’s unfortunate, but it also does not prove racism is the cause.

Truth, that's why I said it's hard to prove, unless you have lived with it and understand the subtleties... Like learning a foreign language vs growing up with it.

I’ve encountered direct racism where there was no question of it. I’ve been beaten up and called racial slurs. I don’t have to guess.

I mean, yeah, there is still that, but even that isn't as bad as the, kind where it's the double meanings, the you work here because we had to hire the token non white person, the looks like I'm gonna harm them just because I'm a black man, and we all see how the news portrays us

Unfortunately there is a active force today to promote division and racism in the news and popular media. Instead of finding common ground more and more people are being driven apart.

This is also true. I just think it would be less division, if everyone could admit its still there under the surface, then focus on how to truly get rid of it. Sweeping it under the rug and pretending it doesn't exist hasn't worked and will never work. We are all equally human.

The problem I have is that even though there is some racism, a lot of people who aren't racist at all get painted with that brush. I would rather look for the good in people and assume the best until proven otherwise rather than the other way around.