During most of the 1980's, I lived in a small suburb of Trenton, New Jersey, known as Chambersburg. Located right on the border of downtown, this area at the time was made up of mostly middle class Italian families. I had a few local friends that I hung out with on a daily basis when I wasn't grounded or having to stay late at school. None of my friends or I were of Italian descent and kept mostly to ourselves. This wasn't because we had problems with the Italians; it was because they seemed to have a problem with anyone who wasn't also Italian. Not all of them felt this way, it was mostly a gang known as the Bulls. They ranged in age from around 13 to 21 and basically had the run of the area. They were a typical gang whereas if there were only one or two of them together, they wouldn't bat an eye and could be the nicest people you'd ever meet. However, when they were in a group, they seemed to suddenly transform into demons.
             Downtown seemed to be a different world altogether, being mostly made up of lower income black families. The difference with them being, that if you met one or two they could either be nice...or not. It seemed they didn't need to be in big groups in order to be intimidating. I don't remember there ever being an actual gang, it seemed as though it was just the blacks from downtown. The racial tensions between Chambersburg and Downtown were not as prominent as previous years, though outbursts did still happen quite frequently. Most were instigated by the Bulls who felt they needed to try and jump every black kid that walked through the neighborhood. Most black kids didn't walk through by choice, but had to in order to get to the high school that almost all of the kids from both areas went to.
             I have never considered myself to be a prejudice person. My mother raised us to treat people the way they treated us. It didn't matter if some...