I had a cute little blonde girlfriend when I was attending the old Merritt College in Oakland off Grove Street. It was a predominantly black school, and a good one. One day we walked into Melvin Newton's office and said we wanted to be in his African American History class.

Melvin was the brother of Huey Newton, the founder of the Black Panther Party. They had a bad rep as a violent group in Oakland, but they actually founded over 60 community support programs there.

I had no fear of living in that town, I walked everywhere, even in tough neighborhoods. Little kids would call me honky, because they didn't know better.

My girlfriend and I wanted to be in Melvin's class, but he said no. He wanted it to be black only, so the students would feel comfortable sharing their history.

We accepted that, but the reality was, we were discriminated against.

Ha! I've actually told this story before. :-)