It pains me to say that as an African American female, I do not always feel welcomed when in the presence of Caucasians. I am well aware that not all Caucasians will be rude to me or try to hurt me, but I cannot know who will and won't.

I have many friends who are Caucasian and some of them are like family to me. However, I have had experiences where racial slurs have been directed towards me, and they upset me.

I would like to share my experience with an elderly caucasian woman in Charlottesville's Goodwill.

I went to Goodwill looking for a simple yellow shirt but somehow managed to find a laptop bag. The kind lady was standing beside me and we started to talk about college and her granddaughter. Our conversation could not have been more than ten minutes long, but somehow, we connected.

She returned to Goodwill to buy the laptop bag for me, but I had already purchased it. She still gave me ten dollars even when I did not need it. She gave it to me because she wanted to help me on my journey to continue my college education.

Now to some people, it may not seem like a big deal that a woman tried to purchase a four dollar laptop bag for them. But to me, it meant the world. It showed me that even though I may be afraid of what may happen, there are still kind people out there.

There are people who are able to forget that the color of our skin is supposed to make us different. This woman understood that I am a brown skinned young female who just wants to do the best she possibly can.

I hope that one day all people can remove the idea that one tiny detail makes one race superior to another, and just love each other. We all want to live our lives the best way we know how to. We can all live together and get along. Let us support each other and help everyone better themselves.