I want to clarify a sentence that I should have proofread...yeah, I should take my own advice...
What I was trying to say in one of those sentences, that if you are black, Chinese, Asian Indian or whatever, your friends often have similar lives in white America. Those people often become your friends because they are faced with the same racist attitudes.
When I said 'your friends' I did not mean Ray's friends but those who grow up as a disparate race in this country.