Impressions of America: Tereza's friendship with Elizabeth

Tereza, the producer of this podcast, who immigrated to the US from the Czech Republic in her teens, remembers her friendship with Elizabeth, who was from Ethiopia. She says that their friendship was rich in that they were able to discuss issues of race together. "When I remember our conversations," Tereza recalls, "we used words with each other--tongue-in-cheek--that we would not use with other people. It's kind of embarrassing to think about that now," she confesses, "but that's just how we talked about race (then)."

These very conversations, says Tereza, helped both girls begin to make sense of US society and their place within it as new immigrants.

Click here to listen to Impressions of America.

Snow Was the Glue: Brian's friendship with Ben

Brian, who grew up in Jamaica, talks about a white Jewish American friend, Ben, he made during a snow storm in a predominantly white neighborhood where he did not expect people to be friendly. When asked after the recording whether he harbored any stereotypes about Jewish people prior to becoming friends with Ben, Brian replied that the message he had gotten in the past was that Jews didn't like black people and kept to themselves, not interested in relationships with people from other cultures. The kicker is that his girlfriend now has Jewish ancestry.

Although as a person of color he frequently experiences being stereotyped, he says he has learned over time to not generalize groups of people. He says, "It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from. If you have some decency, some humanity to you, then it will show."

Listen to Snow Was the Glue.