Tell everybody! The worst sort of limitation is telling ourselves that there are only "approved" ways for black people to talk, eat, read, have hobbies, and the like. No matter what you may look like to other black people, you're still BLACK (in all caps) to most white people. We'd better start thinking past those things we tell ourselves aren't for us.

We often put a terrible social pressure on the kid who seems to be different, as if we're making them "choose" what to be. Kids need to "choose" to be whatever their highest aspirations are, and even those aren't good enough, sometimes. We need teachers, other relatives, community leaders, and the like, to bring out capacities that people don't know they have.

And Bryant Gumbel's hair isn't "conked." Haven't you seen him with his 'fro?'