That word — ‘guys’— might earn smiles and nods of understanding in that world, but it brought the ultimate insult in my neighborhood.” (Paragraph 5) “Painful as some of these experiences were, I was grateful to have them in middle school and high school, so that when the time came to head for college, I already had some fluency navigating between different cultures” (Paragraph 19) “I watched as too many others from my hometown and other predominantly black cities struggled in a university setting where suddenly they really were a minority.” (Paragraph 20) “With one boy in particular, my mother had to sit me down and explain: ‘Son, perhaps there’s another reason why his parents keep making excuses for why we can’t get together.’”