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John’s so bright and he desperately wants to escape the ghetto deaths of his childhood friends in Harlem from OD’ing or guns. I just wish I could have made John feel better, let him know I care.

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I was depressed. Sleeping was the only escape. If you are sleeping, you don’t feel pain or sadness. It’s like you’re not there. It was the closest thing to death for me.

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Mike thought the blacks came off really hostile toward us, but Leon – who’s older than the rest of us – said it went better than any black-white meeting he’d been to on campus. I guess now I know a little about how the lone black kids in my classes feel.

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Perhaps the most popular argument against Black Graduation is that white students could never have a “White Graduation.” Some find this comparison inappropriate, contending that many blacks are first-generation college students, which makes their accomplishment more meaningful to them and their loved ones.