Commentary: My high school years of white privilege
by John McDermott, Chicago Tribune
Oct 26, 2018
4 minutes
One night earlier this year, I found myself sitting on a couch, drunk and stoned out of my gourd, as my friends engaged in a heated discussion about race.
Our friend was getting married the next day, and the night before involved the typical pre-wedding gallivanting, but somehow the after-party turned into a raucous debate about racial dynamics at our alma mater, Oak Park and River Forest High School, west of Chicago.
A former classmate, who's white, said his experience at OPRF gave him the faulty impression that the world was less racist than he later discovered it to be. His comment irritated two of our other friends, both of whom are black.
Racism was alive and well at OPRF when we
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